No, My Mother’s Not a Problem
Publisher
:
Albin Michel
Parution date
:
2002
EAN
:
9782226133854
Description
“We can overcome this together”. This is the key phrase uttered like a mantra by Dr. David Holstein, psychoanalyst, upon taking Aaron-Peter, forty, as his patient. The son of a Jewish mother and Catholic father, Aaron-Peter’s life has not by any means been a simple one. His story would not be all that unusual, however, were it not for his recent foray into his mother’s diary. Learning secrets she has up to now kept safely concealed from him, he reads about the different periods of her life: as a young woman of twenty, in love with her husband; as a perfect and attentive young mother; then, ultimately, of her tragic confrontation with the indefensible: beaten and kept under surveillance by her husband, an assertive and respectable lawyer from affluent Versailles, she is blackmailed as a means of preventing her from filing for divorce. Trapped in a cold and contentious marriage, she is slowly worn down until she reaches a point of almost complete disillusionment. Will she succeed at liberating herself from a man who has more ambition than feeling? Moreover, is he truly the cause of her suffering? Or does a deeper sorrow lie at the root of her troubles? And what of their only son, caught up in this tempest?
Told from both the mother and son’s perspectives, the novel is ultimately about a young man’s clever and humorous way of confronting his anguished childhood. Somehow, despite his family’s dysfunction, he manages to lead his life, though not particularly well, until a hilarious and surprising outcome changes everything.
Author
Stéphanie Janicot : Stéphanie Janicot is the author of Soledad (2000), Une traviata (2001) and Non, ma mère n’est pas un problème (2002).
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