"You'd meet to discuss how to find Mom, and one of you would unexpectedly dig up the different ways someone else had wronged her in the past. The things that had been suppressed, that had been carefully avoided moment by moment, became bloated, and finally you all yelled and smoked and banged out the door in a rage." (Part 1, Section 1, p. 8).

"Either a mother and daughter know each other very well, or they are strangers." (Ibid, p. 17).

"If you are with family, you needn't feel embarrassed about leaving the table uncleared after a meal and going to do something else. You realized you'd become a stranger as you wanted Mom try to conceal her messy everyday life." (Ibid, p. 17 (2).

"The word 'Mom' is familiar and it hides a plea: please look after me. Please stop yelling at me and stroke my head; please be on my side, whether...