The Book of Mother (2021) by Violaine Huisman

French author VIolaine Huisman

Book Review

The Book of Mother (2021)

by Violaine Huisman

   The Book of Mother calls itself a novel on the cover, but even if you know nothing at all about the author, French writer Violaine Huisman, after reading The Book of Mother you will be left contemplating the difference between auto-fiction and the novel.  I guess it is not technically auto-fiction in that half the book actually tells the story of mother herself, Maman, and her own mother, in that the personal history involves the circumstances behind her (Maman's) own birth,. 

   In the end, The Book of Mother is a closely observed depiction of the consequences of a life afflicted by mental illness, with Maman following the familiar pattern of a high-achieving mentally ill woman who manages to marry and have children in a somewhat normal fashion only to break down over time from a combination of dependency, bad choices and unresolved emotional trauma.   It's hardly a narrative specific to France, but Maman does self destruct with the kind of elan you only see in the French.