Missing Mom

by: Joyce Carol Oates

Published by: Ecco/HarperCollins

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

(also available in CD

When Joyce Carol Oates' latest novel, Missing Mom, arrived at my door in March 2006, I eagerly anticipated a great read. The inside cover was haunting. "Last time you see someone and you don't know it will be the last time. And all that you know now, if only you'd known then. But you didn't know, and now it's too late. And you tell yourself How could I have known, I could not have known. You tell yourself. This is the story of my missing my mother. One day, in a unique way to you, it will be your story too."

After that, I shelved the book. Losing my mom is my greatest fear, and I know the phone call will come and then I will truly be alone on this planet. But I got tired of dusting the cover and of moving it to take a book beneath it in the ever-growing pile. Now I wished I hadn't waited so long to read this magnificent novel.

Without getting maudlin, creepy, sentimental, or emotional, Oates gives the literary world Nikki and her grief. Nikki is thirty-one, free-spirited, and a features reporter. When her mother is brutally murdered, Nikki and her sister Clare have to deal with the family, the reporters, the police, the house, the cat, work, and the well-meaning neighbors and friends who wonder how this could have happened in their town, in their neighborhood, where nothing ever happens in their upstate New York town.

As we journey down grief's highway with Nikki, there are as many twists and turns as a pig's tail. Nikki moves back into 43 Deer Creek Acres--the home she grew up in and the scene of her mother's death. Nikki does her best to come to terms with her mom's death and learn about the woman who was not only Mom, but Gwen "Feather" Eaton.

The result of Oates' grief is sensuous, beautiful, captivating, lyrical, and a plain ol' page turner. Carolina Oates would be proud of Missing Mom. It's one of the best books I've read this year.

Armchair Interviews says: You will be glad you picked up this book and read it.