Resumo de My Mother''s Ghost - FERGUS BORDEWICH

In his vivid new memoir, New York
writer Fergus Bordewich describes the death of his mother as . . . an eternal
moment, ever occurring . . . The tragedy that would shape the author''s life
happens in 1962, when his mother LaVergne Madigan jumps off a runaway horse
while the 14-year-old Fergus watches helplessly. LaVergne''s death leaves the
young boy with his demented maternal grandmother and his father, a quiet
mechanic who expresses his devastation by withdrawing into alcoholism. Within a
few years, their family falls apart.

My Mother''s Ghost is a
moving account of Bordewich''s quest to come to terms with his mother''s death.
During his high school and college years, the author remains numb and obsessed
with the tragedy. At City College,
Bordewich learns to write -- and drink. Although he becomes a successful travel
writer, foreign correspondent and novelist, he is plagued by depression and
suicidal impulses.

Eventually, Bordewich chooses
recovery and life. In prose at once powerful and lyrical, he describes his move
away from depression and obsession, and the new way in which he begins to see
his mother, a brilliant, passionate individual who was restless and driven.
Becoming curious about her as a person rather than as a mother, Bordewich
investigates his parents'' and grandparents'' lives, combing through newspapers and
records, tracking down friends, teachers and colleagues. His research leads him
to those who still love and remember LaVergne,
an exceptional scholar and poet who quit writing in the mid-1930s to become a political
activist. As the executive director of the Association of American Indian
Affairs in New York,
LaVergne helped pave the way for native self-government and sovereignty in the
1950s. A woman with a gift for organization, she achieved great things without
losing her commitment to helping the oppressed.

Painful revelations accompany the son''s joyous discoveries. Bordewich
uncovers his mother''s hidden interior life of love and misery, joy and abuse.
But in seeking the real LaVergne, he destroys the ghost that haunts him,
finding in its stead a figure who is more fascinating, mysterious and complex
than he suspected. My Mother''s
Ghost is a beautifully rendered memoir of his search for her true
spirit, a poignant tribute to a remarkable woman.

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