Mother, Stranger
Atavist, 2012
Author Cris Beam left her mother’s home at age 14, driven out by a suburban household of hidden chaos and mental illness. Her mother, a descendant of William Faulkner, told neighbors and family that her daughter had died. The two never saw each other again. Nearly twenty-five years later, after building her own family and happy home life, a lawyer called to say her mother was dead. In this story about the fragility of memory and the complexity of family, Beam decides to look back at her own dark history, and for the secret to her mother’s madness.
Read More ↓
"I was drawn into this compelling book fast and deep. It's full of Beam's usual vitality, and yet almost unbelievably sad. In her first book, in one unsettling paragraph, Cris Beam contemplates how being abandoned by her mother shaped her relationship with the transgirl she fostered. I've never known the rest of the backstory, and now that I do, it's a stake to the heart."
- Andrew Solomon, author of THE NOONDAY DEMON, winner of the National book Award, and FAR FROM THE TREE
"As I read Cris Beam's Mother, Stranger in one sitting, riveted in place, unable to take my eyes off her words. What shines through this wrenching and clear-eyed examination of a child caught inside her mother's madness is the writer's courage, her wisdom, her unshakable compassion."
-Alison Smith, author of NAME ALL THE ANIMALS