Sandra Tyler

Sandra Tyler's The Night Garden is thought-provoking and heart-wrenching. For any daughter sandwiched between being a mother and being motherly to her own mother, this is a must read. Read it before you are in that moment as a guide for the times to come. And come they will. Read it during the struggles and you will nod in agreement every time you turn the page. Read it afterward your mother is gone and you will look back at the bittersweet memories and maybe smile, just a little. There is show more truth on every page. There is humor to Tyler's story, too.
I do not have children and I will never know the balance of caring for two different generations, but I do know the slow building sadness that bubbles within while watching your mother age. The little things you took for granted will become monumental heartbreaks. When a loved one disowns you, it is hard to not take it personally because you are also busy refusing to believe they no longer know what they are saying. It takes strength to realize you cannot have it both ways - sharp intellect in contrast to a mind lost to dementia. When Tyler's mother had to relinquish her drivers license my heart cracked in half (although my own mother has never owned a license to operate an automobile). Another piece of identity drowned.
Be forewarned - Night Garden might start you thinking about your own mortality. Tyler evokes the poem "Spring and Fall to a Young Child" by Gerard Manley Hopkins without even trying. I found myself asking "When do you do if you know it is your last (danced, movie, fill in the blank)?" Would you rather know the exact date and time of your demise or not? What about the angel date of a loved one? Would you be okay knowing, "This is my last dinner with you. Ever."? show less

Author Sandra Tyler had always had a complex relationship with her mercurial artist mother, but things become even more complicated during the old woman’s years-long decline into dementia. In this slow-moving, lyrical memoir, Tyler takes readers through her life as a conflicted only daughter, wife and mother, one who is trying desperately to balance the needs of her family members while sneak-drinking and abusing sedatives due to the stress of it all.

As with many memoirs, how much readers show more like this book will depend on the extent to which they can identify with the protagonist.

I hope that the text’s typos and instances of awkward writing are cleaned up before the final version is released. show less

Hmmmm.......I picked this up just walking the aisles of the library stacks. The book flows along well covering major parts of evolving mother/daughter multi-generational relationships. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I reached the end and found myself wanting more. It just sort of stopped---yes---a point was reached where it could stop, but THEN what? I would have loved an epilogue---would things continue to repeat themselves, what would change? It's left to the reader but I would love show more to read the author's thoughts. show less

I liked Blue Glass so I hoped this was going to either go on in that story or be a new novel, even thought this was finished in 1995. Apparently there are no other books by Tyler. Although I like the way she writes, the story left me flat and I was sorry I didn't stop reading it near the beginning!