The Mother-Daughter Knot Returns to Memoirville—And That’s a Good Thing

Lerner’s ‘The Bridge Ladies’ fills the conventional-critical-mom-you-rebelled-against-but-now-see-with-fresh-eyes slot. And Leve’s ‘An Abbreviated Life’ shows a daughter grappling with a woman who wrote award-winning poetry and feminist documentaries, but who gave her only child formative years filled largely with neglect, insecurity, embarrassment and terror.