Thursday, July 08, 2004

Travels with my mother

I'm referring, not to a horrible nightmare of mine, but a book by Peter Calder. It's (so far, anyway) a funny/sad memoir describing a trip to the UK undertaken by the fifty-something author and his eighty-something mother.

When I read it, I find so much I can relate to:
"I found it hard to be around an often cantankerous and controlling old woman [who] grew up regarding herself less as a New Zealander than as an Englishwoman marooned in an alien land." She also talks at the top of her voice in public (and she's not even Cantonese!) and makes unconsciously racist remarks (also in public, and at the top of her voice).

I'm only about a fifth of the way through, but I bet that in the process of escorting his grumpy mum around the UK Calder re-discovers her lovable side. Just for taking on this task though, he's a better person than I.

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