The best nine novels about motherhood

Being a mother has been a recurring theme throughout the literature. In that sublime act that contains nothing less than the survival of humanity, not a few writers have been inspired; each one, from a different perspective. Being a mother is a privilege and a sacrifice; a supreme responsibility, a pleasure and, why not say it, sometimes also a punishment, as we will see throughout this list. I bring you here some of the novels in which, in my opinion, the role of the mother has been better represented at different times and in very varied situations.

'Mom' by Glòria Vives

Sometimes the graphic novel gives me great satisfaction - others, not so much - but you have to recognize this one that Glòria Vives signs his ability to identify. Natural sequel of 40 weeks Chronicle of a pregnancy, In this novel, the author has a spontaneous sense of humor not only the first years of raising her daughters, but also the radical change that involves the existence of a baby in your day to day. Although the general feeling when reading it is positive, there is no doubt that Those moments when you can neither answer the phone or stay with friends because of the needs of your little one are also on the agenda of a mother ... and we don't always deal well with it.

'We have to talk about Kevin', by Lionel Shriver

Surrounded by controversy - there is an excellent film based on it and starring Tilda Swinton -, this novel delves into the vitiated relationship between a mother and her firstborn, which shows signs of evil from her earliest childhood. The debate that, I think, tries to open Shriver in this thriller as hard as necessary, is that of to what extent that cruelty that is rooted in your child is innate or did she have something to do for not knowing how to love him as he deserved. Structured in letters that the mother writes to her husband, the novel is progressing based on flashbacks that start at the beginning of the romance between father and mother and end with a tragic event that changes the life of its protagonists.

'Anna Karenina', by León Tolstoy

This literature classic addresses motherhood from a dramatic point of view: Anna Karenina, the protagonist, married and with a son, falls in love with Count Vronski. Both become lovers and she ends up getting pregnant with it. Although the pregnancy process is obvious to the reader, there is a critical moment, right in childbirth, when Anna gets puerperal fevers and is about to die. This painful moment in which she, who has wanted but cannot breastfeed her daughter, together with the physical separation of her eldest son, who had with her husband, when she decides to run away with her lover, shows an aching Anna Karenina in her mother's role Beyond this plot line, I recommend you read this masterpiece if you have not already done so.

'The mother', by Máximo Gorki

From Tsarist Russia to Bolshevik Russia: Máximo Gorki was one of the greatest exponents of intellectuals attached to the revolution. In Mother The historical context makes a lot of sense, because Pelagia - which is the name of the protagonist - attends the political evolution of her son: first, as a mere spectator and reluctant to the potential dangers that lurk in this and that she herself has lived in the first person -he was a woman abused by her husband-; then, as a kind witness and, finally, as an activist who is involved until the end in the cause defended by Pavel, the blood of his blood, and as a total mother - chooses all Pavel's companions as his own children. Motherhood as a defense against the son, although certainly stained by political issues, is the issue that Gorki addresses in this book written at the top of his literary production.

'The club of the good star', by Amy Tan

Four Chinese women emigrated to San Francisco meet regularly to play Mahjong and enjoy typical dishes of their cuisine, while they are resigned as their daughters, full-fledged American citizens born in the US. UU., Have adapted perfectly to life in the country that welcomed their mothers. That generational mother-daughter gap sharpened by the change of country and customs is perfectly portrayed by Amy Tan in a kindly story, in which a representative of the new generation will have to enter by force in the environment of her already deceased mother to replace her and live a kind of emotional and surprising inner journey.

'The house of Bernarda Alba', by Federico García Lorca

True: Bernarda Alba's house It is not a novel, but few writers have managed to give such a mother a personality as Lorca. Yes in Wasteland it presents us with the mother who cannot be because of biological impossibility and who suffers from it, in this work he draws perfectly the castrating and dominant mother, able to lock their daughters to prevent them from relating to men. That strong character, aggressive, almost patriarch, brand, and how, the fate of his daughters.

'A tree grows in Brooklyn' by Betty Smith

The mother as the breadwinner of an entire family: that is one of the main ideas of this endearing novel, It revolves around the life of a family of immigrants from low social strata in Brooklyn in the 1920s and with the American dream as a backdrop. Francie Nolan, the protagonist, grows surrounded by a father too attached to drinking and a strong and brave mother. This character, that of the mother, is probably one of the best drawn in a story that, as nothing less than Paul Auster says, has been unjustly forgotten. With a taste of great American novel and, contrary to what is expected, far removed from the ññería to which a literary material like this could be chosen, A tree grows in Brooklyn illustrates that mother courage as few.

'Beloved', by Toni Morrison

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison created in Beloved a very hard story that moves between true and magical realism, in a world in which slaves still existed. Its protagonist, Sethe, flees from that world with his little Denver, but they catch them and then something happens that triggers the tragedy and that will completely transform his life. The dominant and ultimately cathartic mother-daughter relationship is only one of the components of this masterful novel that many rated as the best American literary fiction in decades.

'Paula', by Isabel Allende

One of the greatest fears of a mother, seeing her son get sick and dying, is the central issue of this novel, which is actually autobiographical. In her, Allende recounts, at the foot of the hospital bed where her daughter Paula is dying, all the experiences that have made her the woman she is. Paula became seriously ill because of the porphyria she suffered and went into a state of coma from which she never left. He died exactly one year later, at the hospital in Madrid where he was admitted. That absolute dedication of the mother to her sick daughter brings us what is probably one of the most heartbreaking visions of motherhood literally speaking.

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