If you were my daughter A memoir of healing an unmothered heart

Children's author Richmond (The World Is Awaiting You) makes an impressive adult debut with this harrowing examination of her tumultuous relationship with her mother. When Richmond was nine years old, she experienced the first in a series of frightening full-body seizures. Initially, doctors couldn't identify a cause, and Richmond's devout Christian mother prevented them from treating her symptoms, insisting that prayer was more powerful than medication. The seizures recurred throughout Richmond's childhood and adolescence until she learned, at 23, that she had a brain tumor, which doctors surgically removed. Much of the narrative charts the author's attempts to process feelings of abandonment stemming from her mother's treatment of her condition, especially after Richmond married and had four children of her own. In the book's final third, Richmond's mother is diagnosed with dementia, and Richmond endeavors to forgive and care for the woman who failed to care for her. Richmond's direct, unfussy prose has the intimacy of a personal diary ("At thirty years old, I wasn't sure I wanted children. Eight years later, I have four"), and her deep empathy rescues the tale from mawkishness or finger pointing. Readers grappling with their own family dysfunction will be especially moved. (Mar.)