by Ann Riordan, Cork City Libraries
To celebrate Mother's Day next Sunday 31st March, I set out to write a post honouring notable mothers in literature. Easy, I thought, but it was not.
I looked through my bookshelves, my library ebook app history, my Kindle, and I found very few titles that featured mothers. I thought back to the books I loved when I was young, and apart from Little Women and The Railway Children, I recalled very few notable mother characters. In fact, the lack of a mother is very often a plot device in children's fiction - Harry Potter is an orphan, as is Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, and Pip, Oliver Twist, Heidi, James of the Giant Peach fame, Danny (Champion of the World) and Sophie from The BFG.
In adult fiction it was even harder. Mothers, if they feature at all, are the often cause of the protagonists woes, either by interfering or abandoning. And as for portrayals of stepmothers? Well that's a whole other blog post.
So, I present this list of eleven notable mothers in literature in honour of unsung reading mothers everywhere. The mothers who introduce their children to reading with a bedtime story, the mothers who enrich childhoods with trips to libraries, the mothers who pass on a love for the precious world of stories. The literature may not reflect you, but we will keep doing it anyway.
1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Margaret March, 'Marmee', guides, copes, and above all loves the March sisters as only a mother can. She is the probably the strongest mother character in this list.
2. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit. Although never named beyond 'Mother' (before you say it, Father is just 'Father' too), she is a writer as well as mother.
3. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Even though we know John's mother, Tabitha Wheelwright, is deceased from the very first page, her character strongly influences the story throughout.
4. Fionnuala O'Carroll Kelly from Ross O'Carroll Kelly novels by Paul Howard. Strong, formidable, no nonsense, an unashamed proponent of self-care. Is Ross so badly behaved because of her, or in spite of her?
5. Daughter by Jane Shemilt. An interesting psychological thriller that explores the dynamic of a mother-daughter relationship.
6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Mrs Bennet isn't the frivolous character she appears at first glance.
7. Night Waking by Sarah Moss. Anna Bennett is a writer and mother of young children, setting up home on a remote Scottish island. An accurate portrait of motherhood in the early years.
8. Room by Emma Donoghue. Joy Newsome's survival and mothering instincts in the most dreadful circumstance still take my breath away.
9. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. Sophie Portnoy is the archetypal overbearing mother.
10. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. The character of Eva Khatchadourian, more than any other, divides opinion on nature versus nurture.
11. His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. Marisa Coulter, is arguably the most power-driven and cruel mother in literature.
Remember to check the library catalogue at www.corkcitylibraries.ie to reserve titles from this list.
