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Synopsis
"Lynn Davidman has written a courageous and important book about the impact of losing one's mother at an early age. Courageous because this is painful material—no one who reads it can help but recall their own mother's passing, even if not at an early age—and important because it seems there are few, if any, other books like it."—Virginia Olesen, University of California, San Francisco
"This is an interesting, important, well-written book on a profoundly moving subject."—Barbara Katz Rothman, author of Genetic Maps and Human Imaginations
"This is an important contribution to our understanding of the social construction of personal loss. It's an absorbing read and a vivid, often poignant, description of the response to mother loss. Motherloss is a real find for anyone interested in the importance of mothering."— Arlene Kaplan Daniels, Northwestern University
"Sociology should focus on the most important human experiences, and Lynn Davidman gives us a sensitive account of the experience of losing one's mother. She shows that a sociology focused on meaning and identity best enables us to understand the personally unique experience of this loss for any individual without losing the shared cultural and social context in which such loss is also given form."—Nancy Chodorow, author of The Power of Feelings
Bay Guardian
Writing with elegance and a blessedly jargon-free style, Davidman explores the very specific ways the death of their mother affected a group of interviewees, then takes those individual stories to make some serious observations on the ways in which cultural notions of the meaning of mother have a powerful impact on the way we experience our own lives. . . . Motherloss is much more than a collection of sad stories, although I suspect that you will be deeply moved by these accounts. . . . Motherloss is a powerful call to action.