Novels that depict difficult parent / child relationship

TrixieLox · Jan 11, 2012

Hey, can you clever peeps recommend any good novels that depict an MC's difficult relationship with a parent in a great way?

I'm trying to improve the way I depict my MC's (woman) relationship with her estranged mother. She's searching for her so we don't see them interacting in the now, it's more about flashbacks and how she talks about her to people, so any novels that go along those lines would be useful.

Thanks!

adm · Jan 11, 2012

The Divine Secrets of the ya ya sisterhood

this book may be good from a research end - i never read it, but as a kid I remember it was popular in the '70s

http://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Self-Daughters-Identity/dp/0385320159

Darkarma · Jan 11, 2012

One of the biggest, the parent trying to ask the child to literally change who they are personality wise. "Well have you ever tried not to be nerd?" Or some such. Or being too mothering in the way the control ever element of their family.

While this may be an odd example, I Am Not a Serial Killer. The mother tries to come to terms with the fact that her son is a sociopath. While they aren't totally estranged, it has the good dynamic of neither one understanding the other.

scarletpeaches · Jan 11, 2012

Janet Fitch's White Oleander.

IceCreamEmpress · Jan 11, 2012

The Adults, by Alison Espach. Enchantment, by Daphne Merkin. Coffee Will Make You Black, by April Sinclair. Push by Sapphire (which was made into the movie Precious).

CheG · Jan 11, 2012

The most horrifying and riveting one I've read is The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing. It's amazing.

GFanthome · Jan 11, 2012

It depends on what you mean by difficult relationship. There's always "A Child Called It", which is about a boy who is terribly abused.

In my most recent novel, I had to find a way to effectively show my MC's feelings and reactions to never having known her father. I can only hope that I've managed to do it well.

_______________
One Broken Wing

blacbird · Jan 11, 2012

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.

caw

cmi0616 · Jan 11, 2012

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, one of my favorite novels. It's a conflict between father and son, as opposed to the mother-daughter thing you're after, but it's still an amazing book. Definitely recommend it.

missesdash · Jan 11, 2012

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burrows and We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

The latter was just turned into a film.

Todd Young · Jan 11, 2012

Pick-Up Sticks by Sarah Ellis.

Sea Witch · Jan 11, 2012

NF: Jeanette Walls, The Glass Castle

F: Gail Godwin, Father Melancholy's Daughter
A Mother and Two Daughters

Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides

Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

and NF for Family Dynamics: Maggie Scarf, Intimate Worlds: How Families Thrive and Why They Fail.

Flicka · Jan 13, 2012

Hannah's Daughters by Swedish writer Marianne Fredriksson depicts thre generations of women and the difficulties of mother-daughter relationships is more or less the theme.

LadyA · Jan 13, 2012

missesdash said:
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

The latter was just turned into a film.

Ah, you got there before me

Literateparakeet · Jan 14, 2012

One of my all-time favorite books The Chosen by Chaim Potok is about two fathers and their teenage sons. One relationship is warm and loving, the other is quite unusual.

song_of_calliope · Jan 14, 2012

The Liar's Club by Mary Kerr is absolutely beautiful. Kerr is a poet and her writing reflects her love of language.

Running with Scissors is very different but excellent in its own way. It's absolutely hilarious and very weird, too.

Gary Clarke · Jan 16, 2012

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill. I can't recommend it highly enough.

IceCreamEmpress · Jan 16, 2012

Some of the books that have been recommended are memoirs, not novels. I think that there's a bit of difference in technique there, even though reading about parent/child conflict in memoir is obviously helpful for novelists!

GFanthome · Jan 16, 2012

song_of_calliope said:
The Liar's Club by Mary Kerr is absolutely beautiful. Kerr is a poet and her writing reflects her love of language.

Running with Scissors is very different but excellent in its own way. It's absolutely hilarious and very weird, too.

Mary Karr is one of my favorite writers.

Cristin_B · Jan 16, 2012

THE HELP. One of the subplots is the tension between one of the MCs and her mother. I thought Kathryn Stockett did an amazing job depicting the tension in their relationship.

AmethystEva · Jan 16, 2012

scarletpeaches said:
Janet Fitch's White Oleander.

First one I thought of.

Novels that depict difficult parent / child relationship

TrixieLox

Benefactor Member

adm

Darkarma

Master-Mage

scarletpeaches

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

CheG

GFanthome

At the computer, opening a vein

blacbird

cmi0616

missesdash

You can't sit with us!

Todd Young

Sea Witch

Stirring the word cauldron

Flicka

Dull Old Person

LadyA

Always lurking, never posting...

Literateparakeet

Nerdy Budgie

song_of_calliope

Gary Clarke

Knackered

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

GFanthome

At the computer, opening a vein

Cristin_B

AmethystEva