A witty and irresistible story of a mother and daughter regarding each
other through the looking glass of time, grief, and forgiveness.
In two beautifully counterpoised narratives, two women--mother and
daughter--try to make sense of their own lives by revisiting what they
know about each other. The History of Great Things tells the entwined
stories of Lois, a daughter of the Depression Midwest who came to New
York to transform herself into an opera star, and her daughter,
Elizabeth, an aspiring writer who came of age in the 1970s and '80s in
the forbidding shadow of her often-absent, always larger-than-life
mother. In a tour de force of storytelling and human empathy, Elizabeth
chronicles the events of her mother's life, and in turn Lois recounts
her daughter's story--pulling back the curtain on lifelong secrets,
challenging and interrupting each other, defending their own behavior,
brandishing or swallowing their pride, and, ultimately, coming to
understand each other in a way that feels both extraordinary and
universal.
The History of Great Things is a novel about a mother and daughter who
are intimately connected and not connected enough; it will make readers
laugh and cry and wonder how we become the adults we always knew we
should--even if we're not always adults our parents understand.
