Notes on a Mother’s Books

September 9, 2019
In a TDF article entitled “Notes on My Mother’s Theater Going,” Andy wrote that books were his mother’s refuge, the place where she could dream of other lives.

In Notes on My Mother’s Decline, Andy Bragen chronicles the many things his mother loved: the theatre, her many dear, long-term friends, her cigarettes, Scrabble, good southern cooking and, of course, her son. She also loved books. As he describes in the play, Andy’s family was a family of words. To his mother, language was everything. Andy’s childhood home was full of bookshelves, from his mother’s bedroom to the foyer.

In a TDF article entitled “Notes on My Mother’s Theater Going,” Andy wrote that books were his mother’s refuge, the place where she could dream of other lives.

Books are a special kind of gift, because their pages are timeless; they live on longer than any of us and co-mingle with the reader’s imagination. And so it is no wonder that Andy remembers his mother’s love for them.

What did this woman, so well-read and curious, read? We asked Andy for a list of his mother’s favorite books, and this is what he told us:

“She read so much; really did have a house full of books.

She loved ‘trashy mysteries,’ so that could include a whole bunch of stuff, ranging from Martha Grimes to Dorothy Sayers, to Sue Grafton and much, much more.

She read a lot of everything.

Orhan Pamuk she loved.

Recently, that book Olive Kitteridge spoke to her, much more than it did to me, or to [my wife].

A.S. Byatt.

Southern lit (she loved it all of her life, though I don’t know if she was rereading it later).

Faulkner, for sure. McCullers. Welty. O’Connor.

Larry McMurtry. (She had his books – I discovered them on her shelves as a kid.)

Naguib Mahfouz.

Greek myths. Mary Renault, perhaps?

Eats, Shoots & Leaves, that grammar book.

I’m forgetting a lot, for sure, and not doing her justice. She was an omnivore.”

Parents give many things to their children–sometimes a love for what the parent themself loved. For Andy, it was words. What did you inherit from your family?

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Author

Anisa Threlkeld