The Crooked Branch

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Majella has recently given birth to her first child and is upset to find she is not a natural at the whole mothering thing. She has always been the best at everything so assumed this would be true for parenting as well. Instead she feels isolated and insecure. She overhears her husband tell his brother that everything is pretty much the same except now there's a baby. No lost sleep, no C-section incision, no loss of identity.

The Crooked Branch – Jeanine Cummins

In alternating chapters, we follow Ginny Doyle, in Ireland in 1846-7, during the famine and Majella, her great-great-great? granddaughter in current day NYC as each struggles to figure out how to be a good mother, what you should be willing to sacrifice, and what you should not. How are Jade and Majella similar? In what ways are they different? Does either of these women represent a typical, new-mother experience, or are they both somewhere beyond the conventional ideas of what it’s like to become a mother for the first time? Are those traditional concepts of new motherhood still changing, or have they become static? And those who dare to have children or long to have children open themselves to the potential of heart rending suffering and grief and loss.

I could remember having some of the same thoughts as Majella when I was a new mom, but I bet I would have enjoyed her story line even more if I’d read it 12 years ago! I was totally absorbed by the plight of Ginny Doyle who desperately tried to feed her family during the horrendous Irish potato famine of 1846-7, and equally by the daunting struggle faced by Majella in present day NY as she tried to come to terms with her radically altered life after having a baby.

The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins: 9780451239242

Mancusi, Nicholas (2020-01-16). "Review: Jeanine Cummins' 'American Dirt' Is a Harrowing Tale of Immigration, Family and Memory". Time . Retrieved 2020-01-25. Conroy, Catherine (January 25, 2020). "I Didn't Know If I Had the Right to Tell The Story". The Irish Times . Retrieved June 5, 2022.Ein typisches, viktorianisches morality tale. Wer seine Kinder zu sehr verwöhnt, muss damit rechnen, dass sie auf die schiefe Bahn geraten. Niemand sollte danach streben, sich über seinen Stand zu erheben. Vorhersehbar, irgendwie ein wenig an den Haaren herbeigezogen, denn wirklich klar wird nie gemacht, warum Benjamin so missraten konnte, auf einem abgelegenen Bauernhof. Möglicherweise führte zu viele Bildung über seinen Stand hinaus zu dieser charakterlichen Missbildung. Dear Oprah Winfrey: 142 Writers Ask You to Reconsider American Dirt". lithub.com . Retrieved 2021-01-03.

Book Review: The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins Book Review: The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins

A typical Victorian moralising tale. Enjoyable to a degree in covering the evils of drink and debauchery. Not one of Gaskell's best works but a treat if you're into Yorkshire dialect and phonetics.

Eventually, Dr. Zimmer suggests a prescription to help ease Majella’s anxiety. Should she take those pills? Why or why not? When Majella reads her ancestor’s diary, she begins to worry that she may have inherited some bad mothering genetics. Is she right to worry about this, or is it meaningless? Are parenting skills hereditary, or can women learn how to be patient, calm, and nurturing with their children, even if that sort of temperament doesn’t come naturally? Is Majella looking for an excuse for her shortcomings?

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Claire Kirch. "Oprah, Macmillan Promise 'To Do Better' to Amplify Latinx Voices". www.publishersweekly.com . Retrieved 2021-01-24. Ginny, her husband, and three children are trying to survive the potato blight, while continuing to produce grains on their plot of land to pay the rent to their absentee British landlord. Those who couldn't pay were evicted and their homes burnt down. They were left to starve and if any neighbors tried to help them, they suffered the same fate. Evicted and burnt out. With a population of about 8 million at the time, Ireland lost one million people who died in the famine, and another million who emigrated. When Majella learns the truth about her ancestor, she feels absolved and rejuvenated. How are Majella and Ginny alike? In what ways are they different? What about Majella’s mother? Are there family characteristics that all of these women share, despite the generations that have passed between their stories? How much of motherhood is passed down, either through observation and experience, or genetics? To what degree is it possible for a woman to overcome poor examples of parenting and create her own path as a mother? Nicely done review. I like the premise of it — between two different times and settings. Sounds goodMajella eavesdrops on her neighbors using her baby monitor. Is this an unethical behavior, either immediately or eventually? If so, when does it cross the line? When people “ fill in every conversation with fluff, to prevent you from trying to talk about anything real […] there’s usually some super-deep reservoir of hurt under there that they’re trying to hide. And they spend their whole life doing jazz-hands so that nobody will notice the gushing wound of pain behind the curtain.” Despite the centuries that separate them, Majella is heartened to learn that her ancestor Ginny was in so many ways a woman just like herself - just a mother struggling to find a way to raise and protect her young children. Ginny's battles may have been more fundamental than Majella's - as she struggled to keep her young family alive during the time of Ireland's Great Hunger - yet Majella can't deny the strong connection that she still feels towards Ginny. However, does the fierce tenderness that Majella begins to feel towards her newborn daughter outweigh everything else - or is she actually genetically fated to be a bad mother? Determined to understand the truth of her heritage as well as her own identity, Majella seeks to learn more about Ginny Doyle's personal history - and discovers surprising new truths about her family and, ultimately, about herself. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a fan of alternating timelines or viewpoints, but this book is the exception that proves the rule.