Painting a Family
Mothers and daughters: Times change, dynamics shift, and challenges flourish. Love is supposed to conquer all. But can it ever erase the missteps of the past?
From generation to generation, confrontation between mothers and daughters is not uncommon; sparks fly, rifts occur, yet somehow love holds together until-or unless-things conspire to erupt beyond healing. In Painting a Family, Jane endures a strict Catholic upbringing in the 1960s and 1970s, when good girls do as they are told and do not stray from the nest, except to marry the right man and have babies. But, longing to be an artist, Jane dares to follow her dream -until she meets handsome, stalwart Tim O’Connell. They marry and go on to have four daughters. But when her girls are nearly grown, Jane is faced with a challenge for which she is utterly unprepared.
With twists and turns along the way, the mother and daughters shield themselves with secrets, test their loyalties to one another, and try to survive as a family. Until the ties that bind threaten to break, once and for all.
Paperback, $22.00
Available at Amazon.com
Review
…Slack creates an invigorating, absorbing story that is hard to put down and easy to love. Under her hand, not just Jane but her daughters and loves come to life in a realistic manner that is not always predictable and thus feels akin to much of life’s events and impacts. – D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review.
The Sacrificial Daughter – A Novel
When a mother’s love becomes a daughter’s burden . . . is there really a way out?
Single at thirty-five, schoolteacher Mary Ellen Kelleher is from an Irish-Catholic family whose aging mother expects her daughter to continue to live with and take care of her. Agnes comments to her friends that Mary Ellen needs to find a man . . . but is that what Agnes really wants? And what about Mary Ellen? She loves her mother, but has she grown complacent and thus agreeable to her mother’s frequent, veiled demands?
When her good friends suggest she accompany them on a fabulous trip to China, Mary Ellen is ripe to rebel. She says yes and pays the deposit, not yet knowing that Agnes has offered Mary Ellen’s services to drive her and three cronies to Cape Cod-and to chauffeuring them around for a week. When Mary Ellen says no to her mother, Agnes is angry . . . which fuels Mary Ellen’s desire to break out on her own. The fact that she meets two very different, very attractive men while away certainly helps. But does the good girl, who has sacrificed an independent lifestyle for her mother’s wishes, really have the courage to shake up her-and her mother’s-world?
Paperback, $22.00