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Summary: Shameless Exploitation of Celebrity Connections
Review: It's no coincidence that many of this book's reviews point out that the author (who evidently needed some help to write it) is the wife of former Monty Python member John Cleese. While the book isn't bad, it's superficial, and might not have been published had the author not filled it with vaguely relevant anecdotes about her B-list pals and their reminiscences about their mommys. It's difficult to understand why an author of such a book would find it necessary to provide the full names of each of these folks, except to entice readers who can't get enough of any scrap of information about, say, Lauren Hutton, or who are fascinated to discover that actors have less-than-perfect relationships like everyone else. In any event, there are many books that offer much more insight and practical advice on how to resolve some of the problems that often arise out of the mother-child relationship.
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Summary: interesting anecdotes
Review: The author, psychoanalyst wife of actor John Cleese, has access to many celebrities, and I found that the book was entertaining for this reason more than it was enlightening as far as improving my relationship with my mother. The stories ran a wide gamut, and it was comforting to know that so many other people (including celebrities John Cleese, Lauren Hutton, Stephen Sondheim, Mike Nichols, Terry Jones, etc.) have troubled relations with their moms as well, but I didn't particularly find my mother in here. I guess she is uniquely troubled :-)It is an interesting and quick read whether you are interested in your relationship with your mother, your mother-in-law or your children, but you should not expect this book to solve your problems. It may get a conversation going though, and that is a good start.
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Summary: Moms Can Be A Pleasure
Review: This book is a delight. Alice Faye Cleese has provided us with so many examples of relationships that you are certain to find your own near enough parallel. This book is amazingly instructive and entertaining. I would recommend it to even those who have or have had wonderfully compatible parent-child experiences to better understand how this happened to be the case. Cleese's commentaries are both wise and witty.
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Summary: when mother's milk turns to brine
Review: This is often a heartbreaking book about maternal abuse and rejection, but it is also about surving tears and trauma. When a child is born it must have milk and protection in order to live.Soon it craves the intangible---perfect love.To a newborn and a toddler,perfect love is immediate response to needs and wants. Later, perfect love is more complicated. Since we are human, there is no perfect love. As a result, the relationship between mother and child is doomed to some disappointment from the start. In interviews with a variety of people in all arenas of life,this book covers the wild flucuations between mothers whose imperfect love is well meaning and those mothers who are truly barbaric. Alison is one of the subjects who suffers beatings,beratings and broken bones at the hands of her hateful mother.At her mother's death, Alison is still trying to extract love.Pathic as it is, Alison survives and finally feels liberated by the notion that:"We need to understand that loving our mother is an option,not a requirement.Grasping the truth is an important step in relieving the guilt we suffer if we do not love our mother." We can see how a man like Colin Powell's mothering affected him. His mother expected effort and decency. She did not pressure but she did expect positive behavior and attitude. The on going discussion of whether "nuture or nature" is more important is perhaps an underlying theme in these pages.The answer is clearly a combination of both.The answer is also that sensitive and professional analysis and therapy help. "How to Manage Your Mother" deals with confronting all sorts of issues about you maternal relationship. It also helps you confront her death. In a chapter that deals with other people in our lives that stand in for absent mothers, relatives or household help, a woman at her mother'r funeral asks a long time family helper why her mother never loved her. The resonse surprized her. He said,"I do'nt know, but it almost broke my heart when you were a child." The woman was relieved in a sad sort of way because she knew her mother had not loved her as child, but everyone else had told her the opposite.Forgiveness is key.If our mothers were unable to love and accept us with our imperfections,"we have to accept her as she is with her imperfections. If we cannot, we are prepeating the pattern. If we can, we are breaking the pattern and moving to a healthier relationship with our mother." At the end of the book are ten steps for improving you relationsgip with your mother. They are well worth heeding, because it cautions us to remeber that managing your mother is about managing ourselves.
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Summary: Learning to live with mother...
Review: Well, everyone has a mother... Some mothers are good, some bad, some indifferent, but their impact on our lives is with out equal. I was lucky, my mother was one of the better ones... Even so, I still had problems with in my own life, that related to my relationship with her and her perseption of me. This book was a great help, I even gave my mum a copy to read! It's honest and caring approach struck just the right note. The book is based on a seires of interviews that the author did with various people in all walks of life and interspersed with helpful anicdotes and good sense suggestions. I highly reccomend it.
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Summary: Get ready for a kaleidoscopic read!
Review: While on one level this book, written by globetrotting psychotherapist Alyce Faye Cleese truly is a valuable book for contemplating your own relationship with Mom and for dealing with any unresoved issues with her, it is far more than a how-to.... Written in highly readable narrative, the multiple-faceted How to Manage Your Mother provides intriguing glimpses into the maternal scrapbooks of the world's powerful and famous. Peruse the acknowlegement page. Once you've lowered your eyebrows, start matching celebrity to mother... Some mothers are openly honored while the identity of others has been changed to disguise the cloven-hoofed. The role of the mother-behind-the-person makes a most fascinating study.
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