Mothers and Daughters (by Erica James)

(Amazon UK link)

I have liked almost everything that Erica James has written. I first discovered one of her novels about twenty-five years ago, although it doesn’t seem that long ago. I have gradually acquired them all, and have re-read several. Every time she publishes a new novel I put the paperback on my wishlist. I was given ‘Mothers and Daughters’ for Christmas last year but with so many other good books on my ‘to-read’ shelves, it’s taken me this long to start reading it.

However it didn’t take long to finish! It’s not a short book - over 430 pages - but I found it almost impossible to put down, once I had started. Erica James’ novels are usually character-based, with family dynamics and issues being the main theme, and this is no exception. But whereas in some of her earlier books the characters were sometimes a tad caricatured, I felt that, in this book, they were well-rounded and believable. 

Naomi is the lynchpin of the novel; she’s in her sixties, widowed a couple of years earlier, and living in a house she loves, near the beach in West Sussex. We meet her when she’s just relishing a romantic encounter with her neighbour, Ellis, and wondering whether she should let her daughters know about the new man in her life. 

However we actually meet her two daughters before we meet Naomi. They’re very different from each other: Martha is well-organised, tidy, and loves to plan everything. There’s perhaps a little too much explanation about her, but she’s entirely realistic; she can get very uptight, but underneath she’s quite sensitive. She’s married to Tom, who’s an extremely likeable man. And, as is clear from the start, they’ve decided the time is right to start a family. But, ten months after their first attempt, nothing has happened. And Martha is getting depressed and irritable. 

Her younger sister Willow has an entirely different personality: she’s forgetful, untidy, and prefers spontaneity to planning. She’s also generous, kind and forgiving. She’s a good listener, and always tries to see everyone’s point of view. She’s been going out with Rick, who is rather different from her previous boyfriends, and she’s clearly close to her mother and her sister. 

There’s no complex plot in this book, which mostly takes place over the course of about a year. Instead it follows family relationships, uncovering some long-held secrets along the way. Naomi’s marriage wasn’t as happy as she had always implied, and Willow has some very unpleasant memories, both from her childhood and her student days. They don’t come out until quite late in the book by which time it’s become clear that, along with her gentle, diplomatic personality, she’s also very insecure and believes she’s at fault when anything goes wrong.

It’s nice to see a lively, active woman in her sixties as such a significant person in this novel. Martha feels she’s getting old, but Naomi is full of life, all the more so with her new love interest. I thought the author handled very well the reactions of both daughters when the news is out that Naomi has met someone, and their different ways of coming to terms with it.

But that’s not the only issue that arises. There are some quite significant contemporary issues that come up in this book, some of them related to the past, and some to the present. The author gently touches on the idea that one generation keeping shameful secrets may not protect the next generation at all, but cause them to want to keep their own secrets and shame hidden. And there are one or two quite unpleasant scenes; thankfully not with gratuitous detail, and in the context of what is otherwise a very positive, moving novel. 

I would recommend this highly to anyone who enjoys women’s fiction of the family drama style, with a bit of depth - unless you have recently lost anyone (human or pet) in difficult circumstances, as parts of this could perhaps trigger painful memories.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews