The week of Word on the Street, our daily newspaper carried a review of author Jane Christmas and her book, Incontinent on the Continent:My Mother, Her Walker, and Our Grand Tour of Italy. The book was just out from Greystone Books and was a book I just had to read, or perhaps an author I must meet. I’ve done both, met the author and read the book.

The book is as much travelogue of Italy as it is about the author trying to mend her relationship with her mother. When the author broaches the idea of the two of them—mother and daughter— going to Italy, the first reaction from her mother is, “Now, what are you going to do about that hair?”   A typical reaction. The author writes, “if she could fix my hair, she could fix my life”— a life, the author is convinced, that has never met with her mother’s approval.

In spite of the attitude, the author bravely makes plans for a six-week trip, a decision she asks herself over and over if it was the wise thing to do, given her mother’s extensive health challenges.

I’m not going to tell you more except to say that mother-daughter relationships are not always easy ones. We’re too much alike or we’re too different. I have daughters and a mother, so much of what Christmas wrestles with is common. She’s not the first to write about the mother-daughter relationship and she probably won’t be the last, but her take on it is what sets her book apart. Any mother or daughter could read this and laugh and cry with her. I invite you to read the book for yourself.

To learn more about this author, click here.