Hope and hopelessness
Of all the forms of unrequited love, that of a mother for her child must be the most painful, especially when the child is a girl.
Loved and Missed
susie boyt
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Of all the forms of unrequited love, that of a mother for her child must be the most painful, especially when the child is a girl. Ruth, the narrator, spends much of the novel pining for her cold and absent daughter, Eleanor. Eleanor also has a baby daughter, Lily, whom she is incapable of caring for, or about. The father is soon out of the picture, echoing Ruth’s own situation as a single mother, for Eleanor’s father also swiftly removed himself. Ruth’s only emotional support comes from a trio of female friends.
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