For the first third of Susan Rieger’s Like Mother, Like Mother, I thought, this book is fun and entertaining, which feels like a weird thing to think about a novel that is about generational trauma. But then the story took a shift in tone that felt inauthentic to me, and I ended up feeling cynical towards this novel.

As the title suggests, Like Mother, Like Mother is about motherhood and the relationship between mothers and their children, and while I had hoped I might relate to this novel even just a little bit, it pushes the idea of women being mothers too strongly. The central character of the story is Lila Pereira. Lila grew up in an abusive household. When she was two years old, her father told her and her older siblings that their mother, Zelda, had been committed to an asylum. When Lila was eight years old, her father told them that their mother was dead. After her mother was gone, Lila’s father turned his fists on Lila because she was the only one willing to talk back to him. She left the family home at eighteen to go to college to become a journalist. She was lucky enough to marry a man from a rich family who was willing to raise any children that they had so she could focus on her career, and who understood that she did not know how to be a mother.

The first third of the novel is Lila’s story, and the dialogue in this part of the novel is snappy and witty. I like Lila’s character because she is determined and motivated and doesn’t take shit from anyone, but she also cares about the people in her life (who deserve it) without being schmaltzy about it. However, it feels to me like the other characters in the novel probably would not have been so easy on Lila if she did not have kids and if all she had was her career.

After Lila dies (this is not a spoiler; the first paragraph of the novel literally says she dies), the rest of the novel is focused on her youngest child, Grace, who is the only one that is not easy on Lila. Grace is disappointed with Lila because she does not act like a mother when she puts more effort into her job as an executive editor at an important Washington newspaper rather than into her own children. But what Grace does not seem to appreciate is that she did not have the same shitty childhood that her mother did, and even though Lila is not much of a parent, she is still supportive of Grace. Grace becomes obsessed with the idea that Lila’s mother Zelda is still alive and ends up, rather maliciously in my opinion, writing a fictional story about her family’s life and how Zelda ran away from her children.

The rest of Like Mother, Like Mother reads like this weird combination of pretentiousness and earnestness, especially the conversations between Grace and her best friend, Ruth. Grace and Ruth do not feel like real twenty-year-olds to me. Maybe this is what rich East Coasters are really like, I don’t know, but it kind of put me off the rest of the story. Grace and Ruth, who is pretty much adopted into Grace’s family, have it so easy and the life choices they make had me shaking my head as I lamented not being born into generational wealth.

While the characters are singing “Kumbaya” with each other, not as much grace is extended towards Zelda. The other characters are focused on the idea that if Zelda is still alive, then how could she abandon her children? Instead of questioning why she would abandon her children. I do not subscribe to the whole cult of motherhood, so I can understand why being a mother is not for everyone. I believe that society needs to have more sympathy for women who have been made to feel like they must have children, and who find themselves taking on a burden they are ill-prepared for or do not want.