Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me

I RECEIVED THIS AS AN ADVANCED READING COPY I liked this book. It touched a bit on what I went through when my mom began to confide in me things I wished she didn't confide. So that made it a bit difficult to pick up at times. A mother cheats and spills the news with no one else than her daughter. Its bizarre. Because what person would do that? What mother thinks that doing so is a good idea? This book touches on that. It elaborates on the damages that knowing what one shouldn't does to a person. It talks about how good it feels to be that person that your mother can share the unexpected with. The writing is beautifully eloquent. It flows and keeps you reading. The fact that it was based on actual events is heartbreaking but it's good knowing that my experience is shared by more than just myself. I definitely recommend this book to mothers and daughters everywhere.

Wild Game was quite the quiet ride. A memoir about the author’s tumultuous relationship with her mother, it tells the story of an illicit affair covered up by a teenage girl. But it is so much more than that. It’s about a girl coming into her own in the 1980s, in a wealthy family with a surplus of opinions. It’s about the love between a mother and daughter. And it’s about the iconic character of Brodeur’s mother Malabar, who is central to the story. The main plot of the story navigates through Malabar’s affair with her husband’s best friend Ben, and her involvement of her daughter Rennie (Brodeur) to hide the affair. Malabar goes to great lengths to ensure the success of her relationship and treats Rennie as a girlfriend and confidante. It creates intimacy in their relationship but also puts Rennie in the difficult position of lying to her stepfather and others. As Rennie grows older and Malabar is no longer her sole focus, the relationship between the two becomes strained. I went through the first hundred pages of Wild Game slowly, luxuriating in the colorful anecdotes from the author's childhood. But then I hit a point where the author started coming into her own, starting when she leaves for college, and it became difficult to put down. I quickly became attached to Rennie and as fascinated by the magnificent Malabar as she was. It was easy to relate to their complex relationship. I felt for young Rennie as she carefully balanced her fierce protectiveness for her mother with the feelings of guilt for lying to those around her.