Product Description

For Claire Roth, an established psycho-therapist with an adoring husband and children, her new patient - Jody Goodman - a witty and attractive young filmmaker - is a welcome diversion from her predictable life. Jody, successful, yet uncertain, is disarmed by Claire's interest and approval. Gradually, the lines between friendship and family, between love and compulsion, begin to lose their focus - especially when one of them starts to believe fanatically that some things simply cannot be coincidences, and that what they share, in fact, is the deepest bond of all. "In a Country of Mothers" is a transfixing psychological thriller; in it A. M. forces us to confront our own judgements about sanity, danger and desire.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109572 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"* 'Very few writers push the envelope with such style and confidence' Mark Haddon * 'Irresistibly pulls the reader into a vortex of damaged faith. Fiercely witty, frenetically paced, and seriously engaged with significant issues' Maddison Smartt Bell * 'Homes couldn't be more deliciously named: she kicks over the doll's house and gives suburbanity a good shake' Guardian * 'The imagination that shapes A.M Homes's fiction is exhilaratingly perverse' New York Times Book Review"

About the Author
AM Homes is the author of several novels -, The End of Alice, Music for Torching, and Jack - and two collections of short stories, The Safety of Objects and the recent highly acclaimed Things You Should Know all published by Granta. She is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and teaches in the writing programme at Columbia University. She lives in New York City. Her latest novel, This Book Will Save Your Life is published by Granta this month.

Customer Reviews

Average compared with other books by AM Homes
I felt a bit disappointed after reading 'This book will save our life'. 'In a country of mothers' is a worthwhile read, but overall it is not as gripping as previous books I have read by this author. An average read.

I would however definitely recommend 'This book will save your life' by the same author as a throroughly enjoyable read.

An ailment compounded by wealth and privilege
Jody is a bright, articulate, talented young film-maker and as the novel opens she is working for a film producer helping a much revered but rather repulsive director on his latest opus. She wants to be a director herself and has signed up for film school at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She was adopted and her relationship with her adoptee mother is very needy. She is, in common with many middle class Americans, in therapy - with a new therapist, Claire. Claire is married with two children and is obsessed by the daughter she put up for adoption when she was a teenager. The book centres on Jody and Claire's relationship which gradually becomes more and more combative, not to say sinister.

This novel made me wonder what it is that American women really want from their lives. The two women in the novel have versions of what might be termed `everything', but there are so many aspects of their lives that they seem compelled to reinforce with negativity - Claire has two beautiful children, but the eldest isn't achieving at school and Claire blames herself; Jody is accepted into film school but it means a dreaded journey (she is afraid of flying - get a Greyhound bus for god's sake!). Insecurities abound for these women yet they have money, houses, great social lives, people who love them (Claire's husband is a paragon, considerate, sexy, loving, great with the kids - perfection - come on Claire, wake up!).

When Claire begins to imagine that she is Jody's real mother and evidence to the contrary is ignored, we begin to feel distinctly uneasy about her future.

Homes has created a mixture made up of a relationship novel and a psychological thriller with this highly original book. The writing is witty, insightful and makes for an increasingly intriguing read, though sometimes my patience was exhausted by the almost perverse pessimism of the two main protagonists' thinking. On reflection, however, it felt accurate about the continued waning of the American Dream and as if the difficulties encountered were symptoms of an ailment compounded by wealth and privilege.