A Mother's Tale

<div> <p>In 1984 Phillip Lopate sat down with his mother Frances to listen to her life story. A strong resilient indomitable woman who lived through the major events of the twentieth century she was orphaned in childhood ran away and married young and then reinvented herself as a mother war factory worker candy store owner community organizer clerk actress and singer. But paired with exciting anecdotes are the criticisms of the husband who couldn't satisfy her the details of numerous affairs and sexual encounters and though she succeeded at many of her roles accounts of how she always felt mistreated taken advantage of. After the interviews at a loss for what to do with the tapes Lopate put them away. But thirty years later after his mother had passed away Lopate found himself drawn back to the recordings of this conversation. Thus begins a three-way conversation between a mother his younger self and the person he is today.</p> <p>Trying to break open the family myths rationalizations and self-deceptions <i>A Mother's Tale</i> is about family members who love each other but who can't seem to overcome their mutual mistrust. Though Phillip is sympathizing to a point he cannot join her in her operatic displays of self-pity and how she blames his father for everything that went wrong. His detached ironic character has been formed partly in response to her melodramatic one. The climax is an argument in which he tries to persuade her-using logic of all things-that he really does love her but is only partially successful of course.</p> <p><i>A Mother's Tale</i> is about something primal and universal: the relationship between a mother and her child the parent disappointed with the payback the child now fully grown judgmental. The humor is in the details.</p> </div>