MY YANKEE MOTHER

A loving, if irreverent portrait of a Canadian woman who became a thorough-going New Englander by marriage and adoption -- written by her son. After an unheardof fling of independence in nursing, she married a New Englander, and this is a kaleidoscopic story of her life in Massachusetts, town and country, her efforts to combat smoking and drinking -- and how gracefully she was worsted; her pioneering in motor cars, her strictly Republican political leanings and her campaigning, her religious problems, her projects for doing the house over in spite of the family, her skirmishes with Aunt Abby on spending money, gadgets, etc., her trips, her place in all family affairs. Then again a venture into nursing, with the establishment of a nursing home and the excitement it entailed. Her idolatry of Lindbergh -- and her indignation and right-about-face when he went isolationist. Her militant interventionism -- and her delight when the president and the country followed her lead. Pleasant reading -- and a change, for most books in this vein have been books about fathers.