Mother-Daughter Relationships

The majority of the stories in this collection are centered around a contentious relationship between mothers and daughters: "Wild," "Second Chances," "Windfalls," "Who Will Greet You At Home," "Buchi's Girls," "Glory," and "Redemption." The remaining five stories in the collection -- "The Future Looks Good," "War Stories," "Light," "What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky," and "Volcano" -- all include mother-daughter relationships in the background behind the major conflicts. While each mother-daughter conflict has different specifics, just about all of the conflicts center in on the same dynamic: the mother is disappointed with what she sees as her daughter's lack of achievement in the world, while the daughter struggles to operate under the weight of her mother's stern expectations.

This dynamic is, for example, the central conflict of the entire stories "Second Chances" and "Glory," with the main characters of both stories...