- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Delta (May 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0385315228
- ISBN-13: 978-0385315227
- Product Dimensions: 12.7 x 1.3 x 19 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,132,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Revisiting the profoundly important subject of mother loss, Letters From Motherless Daughters is a compilation of real letters written by women in response to the ground-breaking New York Times bestseller Motherless Daughters.When Motherless Daughters was first published in 1994, author Hope Edelman--through research, interviews, and personal experience--helped women across the country deal with the pain of losing a mother. Finally they felt free to discuss and try to understand their unique form of grief, and perhaps most importantly, they felt that they were not alone in their loss.The overwhelming number of letters she received in response to Motherless Daughters prompted Hope Edelman to publish Letters From Motherless Daughters. Reaffirming her precious link with motherless women across the country, Hope presents these moving, honest, and often hopeful letters, along with her own insight, and offers readers a chance to further learn from this loss. Chapters are divided by the number of years since mother loss, and each addresses the significant issues of that stage. Hope also includes information on starting or joining a support group, and offers suggested reading for motherless women. The words of these brave women illustrate the profound pain, the astounding strength, and the undying perseverance to live on, but never outlive the need for one's mother.of police barricades, the razor-sharp line between life and death, the unforgiving chasm
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Not long ago, I was speaking to an audience of about eighty motherless daughters when a woman in the back of the room (we'll call her Allison) raised her hand. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Not long ago, I was speaking to an audience of about eighty motherless daughters when a woman in the back of the room (we'll call her Allison) raised her hand. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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23 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Empathetic, not sympathetic
13 July 1998
Format:Hardcover
I am 19 years old and lost my mother to a brain tumor on March 27, 1997. Hope's "Motherless Daughters" was the third bereavement-help book I had read, and by far surpassed my expectations. Without this book, I would have never known that all the feelings I have been consumed by since her death--guilt, anger, sadness and an incredible sense of loss (not only of her, but of my family altogether)--were normal. This past year has been incredibly difficult since my father remarried in June, one year and three months after Mom died. Hope's book addressed this and other issues that my family, friends, and even those I feel closest to do not dare to confront. This is a book you will want close to you during those endless nights of sadness, tears and hopelessness. It is a book that justified the burning anger I feel every time I think of all the moments in my life my mother and I would have shared if she had not died so young. "Motherless Daughters& quot; is a comforting presence--written by one who knows what it's like just as well as anybody. Thank you, Hope. If you had not written the book, I know I would have later in life!
I love you, Mom. Kathy Louise Laird O'Brien November 19, 1952 - March 27, 1997
22 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Required reading for motherless daughters but flawed.
12 May 1999
Format:Paperback
This is definitely required reading for motherless daughters, but it is somewhat flawed. Edelman concentrates too much on the memoirs of teenage and young adult motherless daughters. She doesn't ignore the younger motherless child, but it is obvious that these daughers neither responded to her questionnaire or to her request for interviews. I read it and its sequel last evening. Our mother died in 1954, our father died in 1962, and I'd always thought my sisters and I were unique. We take for granted that if one of us is out of touch for more than five minutes, she's assumed "dead in a ditch somewhere." Two of us were conviced we would die at age 47, the age our mother was when she died. Only one of us is married; none of us had children, despite securing promises from one another all through our girlhood that we'd raise each other's children. We were convinced that if we became mothers, one of us or all of us wouldn't live to raise our children and we couldn't bear to impose on any child the same sort of childhood we'd had. Thanks to Hope Edelman, now I realize we're hardly unique, just garden variety motherless daughters who were orphaned between the ages of 7 and 13. In one of the "types" she details, I was flabbergasted by how accurately my own life was portrayed on the page. It'd be more interesting if there were more samples from older women who were orphaned before the age of 13. Certainly the sequel "Letters,..." is mostly from women who lost mothers in their 20s, probably because those were the people who wrote to Edelman after "Motherless Daughters..." first came out. No one's life is perfect. Daughters with very alive mothers can be worse off and often are. Having a mother doesn't guarantee an easier life story; you just believe it would be easier. That's self-pity. Edelman is caught up in post-modern psychologizing and therapy-speak which revels needlessly in self-pity. The real value of "Motherless Daughers..." is letting adults who were motherless children discover that they've been coping all these years in fairly predictable ways.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Good book.
25 Jan 2004
Format:Paperback
Several years ago, Hope Edelman wrote a book that was supposed to help women deal with the loss of a mother. She did this so that other women would not have to go through the ordeal she did. Specifically, the ordeal of not having an adequate reference for dealing with such a tragedy.
Her efforts resulted in the widely popular Motherless Daughters.
With the publication of the book came a flood of letters from women who wanted to share their own experiences with Edelman.
In response, Edelman has compiled many of these letters into the compact Letters from Motherless Daughters. The purpose of this book is to show the many ways in which women have come to deal with their tragic losses.
After reading letter upon letter, I too realized something that she claimed she was at first unaware of: one never gets over the loss of an important person. All one can do is either choose to mourn and dwell on the past, or choose to grow from the loss and continue on with life.
Many of the letters are poignant, while others are heart-wrenching. Yet others display a true sense of courage, while some reflect the confusion and agony that has invaded the daughter's life.
Reading such letters is beneficial to a certain degree--they open one's eyes to the bitter reality of dealing with death, and they allow one to see that others have also experiences similar feelings.
Although these letters do serve a crucial purpose, they are only letters. Nothing can truly dissipate the trauma of enduring the loss of a mother--it is something that no one can ever be fully prepaired for.
Letters from Motherless Daughters is a book whose value has to be discovered by the person reading it.
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