All My Mother's Lovers By: Ilana Masad Review
- morelikelibrarybooked
- Apr 7, 2020
- 5 min read
Rating: 8/10
This one is kind of different from what I normally read. Sometimes you have to take a break from thrillers and horror before they start to run together. This was certainly refreshing to get into after the Handmaid's Tale. Even though it was different, I really enjoyed it. There was enough interest and feeling to keep your attention. Masad's writing style was very accessible, it made reading the story an absolute breeze (and let me tell you, the to-the-point writing was remarkable after going toe-to-toe with Margaret Atwood).
All My Mother's Lovers is about a woman (Maggie) trying to keep her family together and pick up the pieces after her mother's (Iris) death. The relationship between Iris and Maggie had always been strained, especially after Maggie had come out as a lesbian. Really, the two were so similar in mindset that they inadvertently clashed (can't have two alphas). After her mom dies suddenly in a car crash, Maggie has to come back to her childhood home. Her little brother (Ariel) is angry and her father (Peter) is so immersed in his grief that he can't behave as the parent they need him to be. Maggie struggles to be the adult that she has to be in such a devastating situation. To make matters worse, Maggie finds a stash of five letters whilst going over her mother's will. The letters are all addressed to five different men that Maggie has never heard of. She takes it on herself to personally deliver the letters, hoping to understand who her mother really was (even though she's not sure if she really wants to know). It doesn't take long before she understands that these letters are for men that Iris had been sleeping with at different times of her life. Learning so many secrets about her mother sends Maggie through a wide array of emotions. As she meets and discusses her mother with each man, Maggie finds herself getting angrier with her mother. More than that, she's hurt. She doesn't understand why they weren't enough or why they didn't receive their own letters from Iris. In the end, it really begs the question "Do you ever really, totally know your parents?"
The story really sees Maggie go through a tremendous amount of growth and development. I believe that by the end of it, she truly begins to see her mom as a person, not just a mother. Which, is something we're all probably guilty of. Sometimes it's easy to forget that your parents do exist outside of you. Learning something so unsettling about your mother would be hard for anyone. Given the past struggles between Iris and Maggie, it's even worse. Maggie really learns to get over herself and understand that this happened for a reason and maybe she shouldn't judge her mother so harshly. Even her girlfriend (Lucia) says as much. Discovering her mother's acceptance of her also comes as a shock to Maggie. She had been under the impression for years that her mother hated that she was a lesbian. While that may have been slightly true at first, her mother had been going through her own journey of accepting her daughter for years. This story has great queer representation. Maggie may not be a poster child for lesbianism, she has her flaws. But overall the representation of the LGBTQIA+ is great and not in a pushy, exaggerated way.
Throughout the story, when you meet the men that Iris had been intimate with. You meet them through Maggie's eyes, but also through Iris's eyes. We get to read about the last time they were together in Iris's perspective. I personally love a POV switch that gives some exposition. It really gives the reader the opportunity to understand Iris in a personal way. It gives background on who the different men were and what Iris had seen in them. On that note though, I do have to say that I wish we had gotten more about why Iris did what she did. You do learn why from another character (I won't say who because I don't want to spoil it) but since we have the opportunity to get the story from Iris's perspective I would have liked to have known the emotion and thought process that went into it. Sometimes you just want the information right from the horse's mouth!
I also found it interesting that all of Iris's lovers had a sort of feminine quality to them. Mostly the later men were the ones with the feminine qualities; although, her husband Peter has a kind of feminine emotional intelligence. Its a fascinating foil to her domineering, abusive first husband. Perhaps she realized that she wasn't into such a masculine energy and she needed something totally different to balance her out. Of course, that is just me speculating.
Now in terms of reading the story, I did find the author's writing style very matter-of-fact which makes the story read very easily. My chief complaint, if you can call it that, was that the story felt like it really dragged somewhere in the middle. I read this book in three sittings, and somewhere in the middle I was struggling. It just got a bit dull for a minute. It picked back up for sure, but it was a bit of a drag along the way. The part about Maggie partying with Nelly also felt kind of unnecessary. It could've been taken out and the story wouldn't have suffered. I know it was meant to display Maggie's commitment issues and her struggle to not give into the urge to cheat, but it still felt unnecessary. We already knew that Maggie had been unfaithful in the past and that she was trying to change. This just didn't feel like it added anything to the story for me.
Overall, this was a great debut novel! Masad did a great job exploring the main character's struggle with her grief and allowing herself to know her mother. The story was riveting and really kept my attention. I really wanted to know who these men were and why Iris chose to do what she did. You also learn some pretty surprising things along the way, maybe her mother wasn't as close-minded as Maggie had thought. The way the story is written really allows you to feel for both mother and daughter as they went though their individual journeys. The revelation at the end really adds to the reader's understanding of Iris's situation. The characters were likable, but more than that they felt real. They weren't exaggerated or overstated in a way that made them feel fake. They all had something that gave them the visage of normality which is always refreshing. Sometimes all the perfection in fantasy or romance novels gets to be a bit too much. Something like this book is just a breath of fresh air. I look forward to reading more from Masad! All My Mother's Lovers comes out on May 26, 2020, reserve a copy! I think it's an important piece of literature with a strong message!
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