Things My Mother Never Told Me

This is a memoir of the author's mother, told in clear, direct prose, embellished by letters found in a bundle after his mother's death. It is a love story from the Fifties, complete with romantic music, prejudice (against the Irish, Jews, Catholics and just about anybody not English) and social mores now abandoned (women are nurses, not doctors, you wear hat and gloves to church and there is NO premarital sex). That Kim O'Shea breaks with all of these traditions is a testimony to her will power. But the price she pays and the continual battle she wages for independence is heartbreaking. This is a lovely portrayal of a kind, determined woman and the World War II world she lived in. A nice book for feminists, historians and just about everybody.