Gwendolen Gross The Other Mother

The Other Mother

Gwendolen Gross

Shaye Areheart (Crown), Aug 2007, $23.00

ISBN: 9780307352927

Book editor Amanda works in New York City, but recently left the city for suburban Teaneck, New Jersey with her husband Aaron after she became pregnant. Her next door neighbor is a stay at home mom of three Thea Caldwell, who is living with her husband Caius in the house she was raised in.

The two women are polar opposites as Amanda plans to return to work once she gives birth while Thea seems to relish taxiing the kiddies and keeping her only preschooler in line. Not long after Amanda gives birth, a tree crashes through their house during a storm. Caius invites his new neighbors to live in their basement until the repairs are complete and Amanda hires Thea as her newborn's temporary nanny. However, when dead animals are dumped on Thea's doorstep she assumes this is a declaration of war between the two species and plots to retaliate.

This insightful book compares the two major magnetic mommy poles, the working mom vs. the stay at home mom. When the story line focuses on the inner but differing doubts of Amanda and Thea, it is a superior deep character study that has the audience considering the issues. When the plot provides external impetus for a mommy war, it turns inane and forced. Still readers will appreciate THE OTHER MOTHER as Gwendolen Gross gets inside the respective heads of her opposite lead protagonists.

Harriet Klausner