The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken
In August 2019, ten months after her mother died, the author Elizabeth McCracken returned to London, a city she and her mother had visited many times. While there, McCracken grieves her mother’s death and begins to write The Hero of this Book. Some readers debate whether the book is a memoir, not fiction. But that deliberation distracts. Though I wish the book had tried to dig deeper into her mother’s interior life, the book is a beautiful homage to the humorous, brilliant, gritty, stubborn force of nature that was McCracken’s mother.
Born in 1935, McCracken’s mother embodied erudition. She quickly received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. After various compelling jobs, including directing plays in New York, she landed an academic position at Boston University, where she worked for 40 years. McCracken describes her mom, “My mother was less than 5 feet tall, walked with canes during my childhood, had tarnished black hair she wore in a bun, was talkative, had black eyebrows even when her hair had gone mostly white and was olive skinned. She was a Jewish girl of Eastern European descent born in a small town near Des Moines, Iowa, the older of twin girls.”
Like a long eulogy, the author recounts anecdote after anecdote about her mother, hoping that the cumulation of these tender and humorous stories will reveal her mother’s essence. Her observations are reverent and irreverent, complementary and critical. McCracken believes that her mother’s determination to keep moving despite her limited mobility was central to her mother’s core. The canes and scooters were visible, but her mother did not share her feelings. Her mother quipped, “What good was understanding your own mind if you jammed it in the process?” However, because McCracken is a gifted writer, astute observer and devoted daughter, she describes and depicts her complicated and charismatic mother in detail.
The Hero of this Book is a poignant, provocative and humorous book. But mostly, it is a daughter’s loving tribute to her mother. 4/5