Title: The Sins of the Mother
Author: Ellen Tipping
Publisher: XlibrisAU
ISBN: 9781543405491
Pages: 110
Genre: Memoir
Reviewed by: Lisa Brown-Gilbert
Pacific Book Review
Ellen Tipping’s newest addition to her literary arsenal, Sins of the Mother captivates with the pragmatic story of a mother’s struggle to manage the complexities of her life while also experiencing the realization of her own mortality. Eventually, we all experience the stark realization that our life’s journey is heading someplace discomforting as we age and begin to become aware of our own mortality. In the case of central character Fiona, the discernment of her declining mortality becomes a compounded issue, as she struggles to rectify the broken and all-important relationship with her son, Luke.
We first meet Fiona while she is at her father’s funeral, having previously lost her mother, she finds solace in the comfort of the gathering of family albeit, for a disheartening reason. However, things take on a mysterious air with the appearance at the funeral of a man who does not interact with other family members, and leaves the funeral abruptly. As this arouses questions and suspicions, particularly with her son, it eventually causes a tremendous strain and emotional rift to develop between mother and son; Luke seemed to hold feelings of contempt towards his mother, the reasons for which were not immediately apparent to Fiona and others.
Meanwhile, Fiona, approaching the lower end of middle age and recently retired, struggles with the changes accompanying her new lifestyle with unfamiliar emotions arising while she grapples with moments where she uncomfortably tries to fit comfortably, into her new life. Moreover, she acknowledges her own inevitable sojourn into declining mortality, realized through her eyewitness experiences with the aging and declining health with those around her. The story builds and flows with her moments of insightful reflections as she looks back at her past, often contemplating her broken relationship with her son, seeking an answer to what “sin” she committed to turn her son against her.
For the most part, Sins of the Mother made for an affecting and enjoyable read. Fraught with realism, the story builds with Fiona’s touching moments of insightful reflection of her past, and possible future interspersed with moments of existential pondering about aging and death. I found Fiona, to be a well-posed and overall sympathetic character, enmeshed in a competently told relatable, story. Author Ellen Tipping’s narrative building talents are finely displayed throughout the book; she presents a comprehensible work that touches the reader. This is definitely one to add to the personal library collection.
