A witty, tender memoir of a son’s journey home to care for his irascible mother—a tale of secrets, silences, and enduring love.
When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself—an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook—in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living?
When hell freezes over. He can’t bring himself to force her from the home both treasure—the place where his father’s voice lingers, the scene of shared jokes, skirmishes, and, behind the dusty antiques, a rarely acknowledged conflict: Betty, who speaks her mind but cannot quite reveal her heart, has never really accepted the fact that her son is gay.
As these two unforgettable characters try to bring their different worlds together, Hodgman reveals the challenges of Betty’s life and his own struggle for self-respect, moving readers from their small town—crumbling but still colorful—to the star-studded corridors of Vanity Fair. Evocative of The End of Your Life Book Club and The Tender Bar, Hodgman’s debut is both an indelible portrait of a family and an exquisitely told tale of a prodigal son’s return.
When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself—an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook—in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living?
When hell freezes over. He can’t bring himself to force her from the home both treasure—the place where his father’s voice lingers, the scene of shared jokes, skirmishes, and, behind the dusty antiques, a rarely acknowledged conflict: Betty, who speaks her mind but cannot quite reveal her heart, has never really accepted the fact that her son is gay.
As these two unforgettable characters try to bring their different worlds together, Hodgman reveals the challenges of Betty’s life and his own struggle for self-respect, moving readers from their small town—crumbling but still colorful—to the star-studded corridors of Vanity Fair. Evocative of The End of Your Life Book Club and The Tender Bar, Hodgman’s debut is both an indelible portrait of a family and an exquisitely told tale of a prodigal son’s return.
278 pages (March 2015)
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George Hodgman discusses the reversal of parental/child roles (PBS NewsHour):
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Title Read-alikes: Mama's Boy: a story from our Americas by Dustin Lance Black; Dangerous When Wet: a memoir of booze, sex, and my mother by Jamie Brickhouse; Like Crazy: life with my mother and her invisible friends by Dan Mathews; All Gone by Alex Witchel; Moving Miss Peggy: a story of dementia, courage, and consolation by Robert Benson; This Is How You Say Goodbye: a daughter's memoir by Victoria Loustalot; Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast; Another Country: navigating the emotional terrain of our elders by Mary Pipher; Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf; Learning to Sit in the Silence: a journal of caretaking by Elaine Marcus Starkman; Happens Every Day: an all-too-true story by Isabel Gillies; I'll Be Seeing You: a memoir by Elizabeth Berg; and Blue Nights by Joan Didion.
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