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A Wonderful Mother-Daughter Story

October 1, 2009 •

I’ve just devoured Trav­el­ing with Pome­gran­ates, a lov­ing duet co-authored by Sue Monk Kidd and her daugh­ter, Ann Kidd Tay­lor; a story told in “braided voices.” I highly rec­om­mend it if you’re inter­ested in travel mem­oirs, life’s major pas­sages, an exam­i­na­tion of cre­ativ­ity, or the rela­tion­ship between moth­ers and daugh­ters. (And it helps if you remem­ber your Greek myths or were ever exposed to the con­cept of arche­types…)

On Becoming a Novelist

Sue Monk Kidd wrote the wildly pop­u­lar The Secret Life of Bees, her first novel.  Traveling-with-PomegranatesAs we learn in Pome­gran­ates, Kidd ago­nized over the deci­sion to write a novel given her long career as a non­fic­tion author. She reveals how and where she made the deci­sion to write a novel, The Secret Life of Bees, as well as what inspired many of Bees’ themes and imagery (such as the Black Madonna and bees). Trav­el­ing with Pome­gran­ates and The Secret Life of Bees are con­nected on many lev­els, both lit­er­ary and spir­i­tual.

For aspir­ing nov­el­ists her descrip­tions of emo­tional upheavals, cre­ative fer­ment, sources of inspi­ra­tion, spir­i­tual “moments of truth” and an ongo­ing bat­tle with self-esteem offer a pre­cious peek into the cre­ative process.

The … surge of cre­ativ­ity I’ve felt…. Where does the impro­vi­sa­tion, the free­dom, the hint of new author­ity and potency come from? Images well up in me more spon­ta­neously, trail­ing along a stream of ideas, mem­o­ries, feel­ings, and sym­bols, and I feel con­nected to a source­like place in myself.

Pome­gran­ates is a yummy book — I should have savored it instead of rac­ing through so I could return it to the library. It’s def­i­nitely a book to rec­om­mend to friends and re-read some­day at a more leisurely pace.

Life Passages

On the sur­face this is a travel mem­oir, a story told in alter­nat­ing voices, as mother and daugh­ter con­trast their expe­ri­ences of travel togetblack-madonnaher in Greece and France. They visit key des­ti­na­tions for early Chris­t­ian pil­grims, as well as ancient God­dess sites – a sort of fem­i­nists’ jour­ney. I’ve vis­ited some of those places, and enjoyed the oppor­tu­nity to relive them through the authors’ expe­ri­ences. And even more, to learn the inspi­ra­tional sources of imagery in The Secret Life of Bees, such as the Black Madonna of Roca­madour, shown here.

But the book’s most pro­found moments occur when each author describes her feel­ings as they work through life pas­sages, and rede­fine their rela­tion­ship as they both tran­si­tion into new life stages:

  • On the thresh­old of turn­ing 50, the mother is fac­ing menopause, mor­tal­ity (her own and her mother’s), and is think­ing about unre­solved rela­tion­ship issues with her mother and her daugh­ter.
  • The daugh­ter has just grad­u­ated from col­lege, is still ago­niz­ing over her rejec­tion from grad school, suf­fers from low self-esteem, and does not yet know who or what she wants to be.

For her fel­low Baby Boomers, the most poignant moments occur when Sue Monk Kidd writes about the pain of leav­ing youth behind while not yet ready to embrace what she calls “The Old Woman.” And then she describes the joy and release of accep­tance. Here’s a sam­ple, writ­ten toward the end of the book when she begins to embrace “the final third of my life”:

By Christ­mas, the need to exam­ine my face for lines and sags left me. I rec­og­nized the grow­ing per­mu­ta­tions as more than the effects of time. They became a poignant his­tory – trac­ings of my expe­ri­ence and char­ac­ter, the pas­sion­ate indi­vid­u­al­ity of my soul, the story of lived life writ­ten in the ten­der­ness of skin. I began to find a worn beauty in all of that. I could never cut it away.

Need­less to say the title’s ref­er­ence to pome­gran­ates is laden with sym­bol­ism and ref­er­ences to Greek myths, fer­til­ity, and other imagery.

Happy read­ing!

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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