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Mothers and Sons (Hardcover)

by Colm Toibin (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (Jan 2 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0771085311
ISBN-13: 978-0771085314
Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.7 x 2.8 cm
Shipping Weight: 499 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #123,701 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#47 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Irish

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Nine stories from the author of The Master, The Blackwater Lightship and three other novels explore what happens when mothers and sons confront one another as adults. The sons include a middle-aged petty criminal, a young alienated pub musician and a regular guy whose drug-fueled mourning takes him into new sexual territory. The mothers include a widow who married above her class, a woman whose son's depression hangs over her and her husband's lives and a woman whose son is a priest being charged with abuse. In "The Name of the Game," the widowed Nancy Sheridan finds herself saddled with three children and a debt-ridden supermarket. In "Famous Blue Raincoat," former–folk-rock sensation-turned-smalltime-photographer Lisa is distressed by her son Luke's interest in her band, but refuses to tread on his curiousity, which forces her to reconfront the band's painful end. Longing, frustrated expectations and an offhandedly gorgeous Ireland run steadily throughout—except in the concluding, near-novella-length "A Long Winter," set in a Spanish village, and featuring Miguel, his younger brother, Jordi, and their mother, whose drinking may not be the only secret Miguel discovers during preparations for Jordi's departure for his military service. Wistful, touching and complex, these stories form a panoramic portrait of loss. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From AudioFile

Whether short stories are usually your "cuppa" or not, this outstanding collection will be deeply satisfying if you love literary fiction. Gerard Doyle does the best and apparently hardest thing for a narrator: He makes himself invisible so that the stories come alive for the listener, seemingly without an intermediary between the ear and the author. A mother whose son, a priest, is about to be tried for sexual abuse is disappointed and angry, but not for the reasons you'd guess. A young man is bewildered to realize that his mother is a hopeless drunk. How could he not have known? And yet, you believe he didn't. Doyle brings them alive with gravity and respect, exciting wonder at the emotional complexity of ordinary lives. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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	43% buy the item featured on this page: Mothers and Sons 4.0 out of 5 stars (2) CDN$ 18.89
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Customer Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars "He thought about the confidence of those roads, their strength and their solidity", April 23 2007

By	Michael Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

In Mothers and Sons, Irish writer Colm Toibin continues his trademark gift for presenting nuance and intimacy in this collection of nine haunting and exquisitely written short stories. Melancholy and thought-provoking, and filled with the complexities of life, Toibin introduces us to sons and mothers who are constantly grappling to understand each other and where an emotional canvas of familiaral expectation is as rich and as unexpected as life itself.

In the first story, "The Use of Reason," alcoholism lurks just below the surface as an art thief living in Dublin realizes that he may not be able to rely on the discretion of his mother as he once first thought. Having just stolen a valuable Rembrandt, he's anxious to unload the work to a pair of Dutch criminals, but unfortunately, his mother just doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut boasting in the local pub her beloved son's escapades.

In "The Name of the Game" we see a mother forced to provide for her son when after the death of her husband she inherits his supermarket, along with all of his debts. All of a sudden, faced with certain poverty, she learns to be tough and competitive and on the advice of her suppliers, she takes a risk and enlarges the store into a chip and burger shop, perhaps relying more on her own tenacity, than on the family's dwindling resources. In the process of remaking the business, she discovers that her son has a good head for numbers and comes to her aid, helping out with the accounting and preparing the way for her retirement.

Other stories cover similar themes: There's a mother's disbelief, disappointment and her decisive fear of facing the truth when she hears that her son has been arrested over accusations of sexual abuse; then there's a mother who is battling her son's depression whilst also coping with her husband, bedridden after a stroke; and a son who was abandoned as a child and then suddenly hears his mother singing in a pub; and yet another son, who after his mother's funeral, goes out partying with his mates and awakens to all things sexual one night on a beach.

Each story is infused with the myriad attributes of human emotions: the heartbreak that exists over the loss of a parent, a love that is betrayed, and the inevitable disappointments that come when you realize that your son or your mother, or even your sibling is perhaps not the person who you thought they were. While the smaller stories provide small vignettes of anticipation along with despair and even acceptance, the longer stories have a luminosity all their own and are infused with a steadily mounting tension.

The final story "A Long Winter," and set in Spain is all about yearning and defeat, and centers on a son's concern for his alcoholic mother when the needless cruelty of his father eventually leads to her disappearance into the harsh bleak Spanish winter. As the boy spends his days desperately searching for her, he battles with his hidden desires and his attraction for a good-looking police officer and then for an uneducated houseboy whom his father employs to help around the house.

Throughout these stories Toibin courageously reiterates the truth unflinchingly about love and families and the ties that inevitably bind us together. Indeed the author seems to embrace what he sees as the melancholy and sadder aspects of life. Written in Toibin's now familiar exquisite style, this collection contains many small gems, and are fine examples of the art of short story writing. In the end Mothers and Sons is often heart wrenching, but always thought-provoking as these tales evoke the bittersweet angst of ordinary people, the "mothers and sons" that exist in us all. Mike Leonard April 07.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Call your Mother, April 11 2007

By	Kelly Rossiter (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Colm Toibin is a great favourite of mine. His novel The Master was one of those exquisite books that you read slowly so it won't be over. This book of short stories Mothers and Sons is also a work of great depth and beauty. The relationship between mothers and their sons is a complicated and profound one and each story reveals something of the inherent struggle for balance, for love, and for power. This a nuanced book and there is much to think about. In a really strong collection of stories A Long Winter stands out as a particularly wonderful piece. A young man waits for winter to be over to recover the body of his mother who leaves her family to return to the house of her brother, haunted by how it might all have been different.

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