Reading Jane

After thecalculated suicide of Susannah Kennedy's domineering and narcissistic mother,Susannah Kennedy grapples with the ties between mothers and daughters and thechoices parents make in this gripping memoir that shows what freedom looks likewhen we choose to examine the uncomfortable past.Jane is tothe world a charismatic personality-opinionated, an inner-city teacher andpublic activist, a lover of Italy, proud and successful-who thrives on acarefully crafted life narrative. Susannah is her beautiful only daughter, herintended prote ge .All throughSusannah's childhood, Jane settles once per day to chronicle her life. In thoseyears of magnetic twosomeness, "Mommy, can I read your diaries?" is a frequentquestion. Jane starts off saying "Some day" and then she changes to "When youare the age I was when I wrote them," then, later, it becomes "Maybe," then"No, probably never." The diariesrecede. Susannah grows up. But then Jane at 75, healthy and fit, choosessuicide, insisting it would be better for everyone this way. That controlling assessmentis wrong from the moment Susannah hears the news and has to identify thebody. As someonewho has always sensed the stricter, darker truth, and fought to resist thecontrol imposed on her by her mother's seductive tale, she actively resistsreading the 45 years of diaries her mother left behind. When she finally daresto "read" Jane, it's like unlatching Pandora's Box. For a year,Susannah reads, twisting and turning to the truths she uncovers, comparing whatshe remembers against the strange pull of her mother's public tale. Thisprocess is accompanied by physical symptoms, each memory encased in her body.And then she uncovers yet another secret, one that redefines her motherforever. At lastSusannah is able to separate, heal and embrace her own story.