While reading The Other Mother, I felt like an outsider peering in to the frontlines in the battle of THE MOMMY WARS. The players: Eight months pregnant Amanda, a successful children’s book editor and dedicated New Yorker who picks up and moves to suburban New Jersey with her lawyer husband; her new neighbor, Thea Caldwell, a full-time mother of three who still lives in her childhood home and who welcomes Amanda with brownies. When the newcomers take extended shelter in the Caldwells’ basement following a damaging storm and, later, when Amanda hires Thea as nanny to her newborn, resentment, bitterness, and misunderstandings follwo. The plot devise of these women’s feud is less compelling than their own inner demons, revealed through alternating narration.
In the end, though this book came highly recommended and is received strong reviews, I would not recommend it to many – I believe it was because I simply did not enjoy any of the characters. It was not that I couldn’t relate to them (I can’t relate to Michelangelo, but I still enjoyed his story), I just did care for them.
So…. pick a different book up and happy reading!
