"Call Your Daughter Home" And Don't Mess with Mama

If you are fortunate enough to have a daughter or daughters, you know that they are forever with you. Even though they may be in some far-flung continent, excelling in their chosen professions, helping to achieve a peaceful planet, or dedicating their lives to raising their children, they live in your brain and inhabit the recesses of your soul. That holds true even when tensions, known or unknown, have seemingly fractured the relationship. But in the end, we call our daughter(s) home.

Deb Spera's novel, Call Your Daughter Home, was recommended by a trusted friend and before I began reading, I had no idea of what I was getting into -- a fierce, disturbing, compelling, unforgettable, graphic account of motherhood. ("Your mama knew you 'fore you knew yourself. Mothers don't leave")

The signs of the coming Great Depression were manifesting themselves in 1924, in Branchville, South Carolina, where three women would demonstrate "the ferocity of motherhood." Gertrude, poor, white, and struggling; Retta, strong, black, and wise: Annie, educated, Yankee, and independent. All three mothers struggling with different, nonetheless similar, circumstances dictated by a male-dominated society. ("When a woman marries and takes her husband's name she is forever bound by his actions and not her own.")

As would be expected, the lives of the three mothers intersect in interesting ways which the author describes with impressive sensory detail. Most authors are accomplished at supplying visual and even auditory particulars, but Deb Spira uses all the senses. We learn not only what a piece of leather looks like and the sound it makes, but we also know what it feels like and how it smells, and it is that detail which makes some of the scenes unforgettable.

And. although I am not competent to judge, I suspect that the voice and the language are right on. Consider some examples:

"It's easier to kill a man than a gator, but it takes the same kind of wait."

"Old man, you've got nothing to say that I want to hear."

"Zero is zero, no way around that - still that's a real good thing for a little child of ten to learn."

"Polite make-believe is weary business, and there is no one better at it than Southerners."

"If one blinks, the others blind."

As I hope is clear, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and was not surprised to learn that Netflix has purchased the rights and is considering a series based on it.