The Mother Gene
Three generations of Virginia women meet looming life challenges by looking to the past and reminiscing about their formative years in northern Virginia, via flashbacks that span the time between 1938 and 2010. Two of the three, matriarch Lillian and her daughter Miriam, are rural midwife/doctors. The third, Women’s Studies Ph.D. candidate Olivia, rejoins them when a minor injury puts Lillian in Miriam’s care. All three are at crucial turning points in their lives: Lillian is facing a decision about whether she can continue to live on her own; Miriam has reluctantly retired from practice; and Olivia and her partner Amy are attempting pregnancy through artificial insemination.
The plot jumps frequently from the “present” of 2010 into the memories of all three characters. Sorting out which point the story is in, from which point of view, is a task that some readers will enjoy but others might find tedious. The historical background is an important one to remind readers of—all three characters must deal with the lasting harm caused by the American eugenics movement of the Depression era. Most of the conflict in the novel is internal and character-driven rather than plot-driven, and the various family secrets obviously telegraphed. However, the warm interactions of the three women, the thoughtful depictions of how each has lovingly built her own “found family” in unconventional ways, and the descriptions of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley landscape so clearly beloved by the author, make this worth reading.
