The Mother Act by Heidi Reimer
Set against the sparkling backdrop of the theater world, this propulsive debut follows the complicated relationship between an actress who refuses to abandon her career and the daughter she chooses to abandon instead.
Sadie Jones, a larger-than-life actress and controversial feminist, never wanted to be a mother. No one feels this more deeply than Jude, the daughter Sadie left behind. While Jude spent her childhood touring with her father’s Shakespearian theater company, desperate for validation from the mother she barely knew, Sadie catapulted to fame on the wings of The Mother Act —a scathing one-woman show depicting her maternal rage.
Two decades later, Jude is a talented actress in her own right, and her fraught relationship with Sadie has come to a head—bitterly and publicly. On a December evening in New York City, at the packed premiere of Sadie’s latest play, the two come face-to-face and the intertwined stories of their lives unravel. With years of love, resentment, and misunderstanding laid bare, the questions What are the costs of being a devoted mother and a devoted artist, and who gets to decide if the collateral damage is justified?
Compelling, insightful, and cleverly conveyed as a play in six acts, The Mother Act is equal parts stylish page-turner and provocative exploration of womanhood.
Review:
I received an advance galley of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
All of my life, I’ve loved theatre. I acted in high school and college, and when I moved to Texas, I was involved with a local theatre for 12 years as an actor, stage manager, and director. I loved it, and some of my best friends to this day are friends that I met while doing theatre. It’s a world I loved and very much enjoyed being a part of, so when I read the synopsis for this book, I immediately knew I needed to read it. It did not disappoint! This debut – set against the backdrop of the glamorous and sometimes cutthroat theater world – is filled with rich characters and plenty of family drama. It follows the complex relationship between actress Sadie Jones and her daughter Jude, a relationship that is fraught with love, resentment, and plenty of misunderstandings.
Reimer’s writing is both clever and compelling, drawing the reader into the lives of Sadie and Jude as their stories unfold in six acts. The mother-daughter relationship at the heart of the novel is portrayed with honesty and depth. Through alternating perspectives and flashbacks, Reimer skillfully explores the impact of Sadie’s choices on Jude and the lasting effects of their strained relationship. The alternating timelines and perspectives really benefitted this book. I loved the structure and the way Jude’s angst and heartache over her absent mother were established from the beginning, while Sadie was portrayed as a self-absorbed woman who only cared about herself – but ever so slowly, perspectives shifted.
We begin with Jude – now a mature adult – as she arrives at the theatre for a performance of Sadie’s one-woman show. Jude doesn’t trust her mother, and we learn what’s at the core of that mistrust during the first act when we flashback to Jude’s thirteenth birthday. She is traveling with her father’s Shakespeare-focused theatre troupe, and they have stopped in California for a performance; Sadie will be in attendance. Jude has a list of things she intends to tell her mother, and she has a lot of questions that she wants answered – mainly why her mother wrote and performed a one-woman show titled “The Mother Act” in which she laid out all of the reasons she hated her child and never wanted to be a mother. Was Jude really that unloveable?
This sets the stage for the rest of the book, with each “act” set up with several chapters focusing on Jude as a thirteen-year-old, a summer after high school, and again in her 20s. Within each act, we also see things from Sadie’s perspective as she runs away from her conservative home in the Midwest to New York, where she becomes a radical feminist, performs as part of an unconventional theatre troop, meets her future husband and eventually gives birth to Sadie and then one day – up and leaves. Through each act, more and more layers are peeled away, and the balance and our thoughts on each of the characters begin to shift.
At its core, “The Mother Act” is a novel about the choices we make and the consequences that follow, particularly when it comes to balancing personal ambition with familial responsibilities – especially when you are a woman. Reimer delves into complex themes such as gender dynamics, identity, and the nature of artistry, exploring how these factors intersect and shape the lives of her characters. Through Sadie and Jude’s struggles and triumphs, the novel poses thought-provoking questions about the expectations placed on women, both as mothers and artists.
I loved this book. I loved the characters, the complex relationships, and the questions it asks. I felt like I knew these characters, and it made me miss my theatre family in Houston; it was almost like coming home. This is a stylish and engaging read that is sure to leave a lasting impact. This is an impressive debut, and I can’t wait to read more by this author. I will definitely be adding a hard copy of this book to my shelves when it drops. There’s a lot to unpack here, and this is one I’d like to revisit down the road.
