“‘When my great-grandparents die, one right after the other, I’m little and can’t figure it out. Where did people go? ‘How can they just disappear?’ I asked my mother. ‘They don’t,’ she said. ‘They’re in you. Every generation that precedes you. Sometimes in ways you don’t even know. It could be anything, darling. A turn of phrase. Not liking nutmeg. People don’t disappear. Look how you hold your pinky.’ I looked down. ‘It’s just like Poppy!’ ‘Exactly.’” —from Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me by Patricia Volk Once upon a time in Manhattan, a daughter is born to an “outrageously” beautiful mother. When she is 10 years old, the daughter, Patricia Volk, discovers a book so compelling she feigns a sore throat to stay home from school and finish reading it. But really, there is no rush. She will come back to it, time and again, to understand that it is possible to be someone other than the ideal of Audrey, her beloved, complex and beautiful mother. The
Book reviews by the author of "Mimi Power and the I-don't-know-what", "Magnifico" and more.