• Mother Daughter Me

  • A Memoir
  • By: Katie Hafner
  • Narrated by: Katie Hafner
  • Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (64 ratings)

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Mother Daughter Me  By  cover art

Mother Daughter Me

By: Katie Hafner
Narrated by: Katie Hafner
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Publisher's summary

The complex, deeply binding relationship between mothers and daughters is brought vividly to life in Katie Hafner's remarkable memoir, an exploration of the year she and her mother, Helen, spent working through, and triumphing over, a lifetime of unresolved emotions.

Dreaming of a "year in Provence" with her mother, Katie urges Helen to move to San Francisco to live with her and Zoe, Katie's teenage daughter. Katie and Zoe had become a mother-daughter team, strong enough, Katie thought, to absorb the arrival of a 77-year-old woman set in her ways.

Filled with fairy-tale hope that she and her mother would become friends, and that Helen would grow close to her exceptional granddaughter, Katie embarked on an experiment in intergenerational living that she would soon discover was filled with land mines: memories of her parents' painful divorce, of her mother's drinking, of dislocating moves back and forth across the country, and of Katie's own widowhood and bumpy recovery. Helen, for her part, was also holding difficult issues at bay.

How these three women from such different generations learn to navigate their challenging, turbulent, and ultimately healing journey together makes for riveting listening. By turns heartbreaking and funny - and always insightful - Katie Hafner's brave and loving audiobook answers questions about the universal truths of family that are central to the lives of so many.

©2013 Katie Hafner (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Heartbreakingly honest, yet not without hope and flashes of wry humor." ( Kirkus)

What listeners say about Mother Daughter Me

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Listen and be swept away!

This is a touching, insightful, wise, and beautifully written memoir, filled with insights that will resonate with anyone who has ever wrestled with her memories of an unreliable attachment figure . The author is a master of her craft and also, obviously, an extremely evolved and compassionate human being. Listen and be swept away!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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A Deep Look into Relationships

A very well written book about relationships between mothers and daughters and their affect on our lives and behavior. A look at alcoholism and it’s affect on families. I gave it 4 stars because of some profanity which I felt was unnecessary. Excellent book otherwise. Well worth the time to read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Masterful story telling. Heart, hurt, release.

Accomplished New York Times writer and author of early cyber days turns to family history - a VERY different genre - and delivers with a wallop.

There's an art to creating the experience of the author's life as her voice matures and untangles, through decades of dysfunction, toward some maybe-future sanity. I kept wondering what nutso/psycho manipulative trick someone would pull next, as everyone tried to get on with life, yet it's all told calmly, without cliff hangers - the way life usually happens. It makes the pain, the struggles, and times of stability realistic.

The performance is lifelike and credible, adding realism to each voice in the family experience.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An impossible dream

If you could sum up Mother Daughter Me in three words, what would they be?

The impossible dream

What was one of the most memorable moments of Mother Daughter Me?

When the grand daughter packed away her cello after being criticized by her grandmother.

Any additional comments?

Three women who shared the same dream of rebuilding their relationship but the reality of generational differences, old resentments, past neglect and alcohol addiction made the dream impossible. Insightfully written and with equal parts anger and compassion, it's a book that every woman can relate to.

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