Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
What happens when a forty-something, feminist sociologist who studies gender and sexuality learns that her mother--a charming, passive-aggressive, and needy woman who hasn't had a lover in decades--has started seeing men who want to be bound, whipped, and sexually dominated? What happens when that same mother, shortly after diving into her newly discovered sexuality, develops a cancer that forces her to accept radical changes to her body, and then another that forces her, and everyone around her, to confront her mortality? In Bound, Elizabeth Anne Wood addresses these questions as she chronicles the last eight months of her mother's life--a period she comes to see, over the course of months, as a maternity leave in reverse: she is carrying her mother as she dies. Throughout their journey, Wood uses her notebook as a shield to keep unruly emotions at bay, often taking comfort in her role as advocate and forgetting to "be the daughter," as one doctor reminds her to do. Meanwhile, her mother's penchant for denial and her childlike tendency toward magical thinking lead to moments of humor even as Wood battles the red tape of hospital bureaucracies, the frustration of planning in the midst of an unpredictable illness, and the unintentional inhumanity of a health care system that too often fails to see the person behind the medical chart.
Synopsis
Unflinchingly honest and darkly funny, this memoir will resonate with
anyone facing the complicated reality of aging and illness in the
United States.
Elizabeth and her mother, Judy, have always had a complicated
relationship. Now they face a confounding illness, as well as a
labyrinthine healthcare system, at a complicated stage of life. Nothing
is as it first seems in this riveting account of an unconventional
mother-daughter journey--a journey that from the start poses questions
about love, life, family, aging, healthcare, sex, and death.
In Bound, Elizabeth Anne Wood addresses these questions as she
chronicles the last eight months of her mother's life--a period she comes
to see, over the course of months, as a maternity leave in reverse: she
is carrying her mother as she dies. Throughout their journey, Wood uses
her notebook as a shield to keep unruly emotions at bay, often taking
comfort in her role as advocate and forgetting to "be the daughter," as
one doctor reminds her to do. Meanwhile, her mother's penchant for
denial and childlike tendency toward magical thinking lead to moments of
humor even as Wood battles the red tape of hospital bureaucracies, the
frustration of planning in the midst of an unpredictable illness, and
the unintentional inhumanity of a healthcare system that too often fails
to see the person behind the medical chart.
Synopsis
When Elizabeth Anne Wood's aging mother-a charming, needy, and passive-aggressive woman who has only recently discovered the Domme within her-falls terminally ill, it is up to Wood to shepherd her through the bureaucracy and unintentional inhumanity of the healthcare system, as well as the complicated process of facing death when she has just begun to truly enjoy life.