Kimberly McCreight's Reviews > Like Mother, Like Daughter

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER is the most personal book I have ever written.

As a mother myself, I wanted to write a novel not only about the thorny relationship all mothers and daughters contend with as they come of age, but also about how challenging this relationship can be when combined with a mother’s own difficult past.

Because all mothers are complex, layered people. Assuming otherwise puts enormous pressure on them to be something no one can ever be: perfect. Motherhood, by its very nature, is such a complex, challenging, intimately personal experience. Because every woman is different and so is every child. And yet, as a culture, we seem intent on reducing it to easily digestible soundbites or appealing aphorisms, on making it one-size-fits-all. And so when the reality of motherhood doesn’t match the storybook version, women end up feeling like they are the problem.

Though our experiences and histories diverge sharply in the details, Kat and I share an awful lot in common. This was a story I have always needed to tell. My greatest hope is that women who struggle with motherhood or daughterhood—as a day-to-day reality or as an identity—find as much comfort in reading Like Mother, Like Daughter as I did in writing it.

All best wishes, Kimberly