The Sometimes Daughter

The Sometimes Daughter is a beautiful, deeply poignant novel. It is a story about a daughter often abandoned by her emotionally and physically absent mother.
Born at Woodstock, surrounded by "free love", Sweet Judy Blue Eyes grows up feeling unloved by the person whose love she seeks the most: her mother. Her father, Kirk, matures, taking his marriage and parenting Sweet Judy seriously. Cassie, her mother, continues the carefree hippie lifestyle, neglecting all responsibility. Eventually, she leaves Kirk and Sweet Judy to follow a communal life, with tragic consequences. Judy and her father move in with his parents, forming the only stability that Judy will ever know. They are Sweet Judy's salvation, never letting her down.
Throughout show more the years, Judy struggles with her mother's lack of responsibility. She watches her mother make serious mistake after critical mistake, including remarrying and its sad outcome. Over and over she trusts her mother, only to be let down. As she matures, Judy must deal with the same issues all young people do, but hers are colored by the feelings of maternal abandonment. While she has her father and grandparents, she feels the physical and emotional void of not having her mother, whom she so loves.
This book delves into the intricacies and dynamics of the mother-daughter bond. Sherri Wood Emmons lays bare the frailties of this connection, and also the necessity of it. A mother's love is the first love we feel, and the one most of us count on when all others fail us. The neglect of this essential ingredient of childhood leaves one feeling broken.
Sherri Wood Emmons has keen insight and is an amazing author. I cannot wait to see what she writes next. show less

Sweet Judy Blue Eyes was born at Woodstock to a high hippie mother, Cassie. Cassie later becomes upset when her husband Kirk “sells out” and goes to school to become a lawyer, so she leaves Kirk and Judy when Judy is only 6-years old to live on a commune. Cassie pops in and out of Judy’s life as the years go on and as Judy grows up.

I really liked this. Have to admit this was a rare book that started stronger than it ended – at least for me. Overall, though, I’m going to keep it at the 4 star rating I was thinking throughout the first half of the book. I was a bit disappointed in some choices Judy made as a teenager. I did love the relationship between Judy and her dad, though.

The Sometimes Daughter is a story highlighting the bond between mother and daughter. In this case, it is the mother who is irresponsible, afraid of commitment and brazenly forgoing rules in search of freedom and fun.
The book begins with Cassie and Kirk, at Woodstock. Sweet Judy Blues Eyes, as she was named by her mother, is born in a tent. Kirk, eventually is pulled toward a more conventional life and returns to law school to create a secure household for his family. However, Cassie is unable to shake her hippie ways. She craves an unconventional life by cheating on her husband and eventually sneaking off with Judy to a commune in the Midwest. This is the last straw for Kirk. He eventually finds Judy and Cassie and files for divorce.
The show more book focuses on Judy and her on and off relationship to her mom. She is raised by her grandparents and her dad, Kirk. Dad is a great character, patient, hardworking and committed to creating the best home-life for Judy. In contrast, Cassie is such an immature, errant mother who seems weak-willed and naive.
Cassie calls and writes, occasionally entering Judy's life just long enough to disrupt it. But little by little, Judy is growing up. She is dealing with all the normal childhood dilemas, and finally teenage issues, and it affects her greatly not to have a mom to gain insight and advice. This book is about Judy and how she carries on with a mom who only occasionally appears. She finally must decide if Cassie really deserves a place in her heart at all.
I loved reading this book. It was interesting throughout. A great read for older teenagers and all adults. Highly recommend. show less

I loved this book and became really involved with the lives of the characters. Judy Webster was born at Woodstock to a flower child mother Cassie who is more interested in taking her child to anti war protests than enrolling her in kindergarten. And then Cassie leaves her husband and takes Judy off to a commune at a young age. Judy hates this life and misses her father. Her father on the other hand has settled down and completed a law degree and he files for a divorce from Cassie and gains custody of Judy and she lives with him. But Judy has to cope with her mother entering her life and then leaving again and upsetting the balance in the process. Just when Judy thinks that she can trust her she lets her down so much so that Judy is show more never sure if she wants to even see her. And much as Judy has a great father and loves him, and her grandparents, she just wants a mother like everyone else. Her mother on the other hand makes mistake after mistake - joins Jim Jones' church but fortunatley does not go to Guyana, gets married again and leaves that marriage and child, and ends up in India at an Ashram. Judy has to suffer the embarrassment of the things that her mother does when she is there, and has to make up stories to explain her to her friends. It takes her time to find her place and she makes her own mistakes along the way. When her father begins dating another woman Treva, this is another change that she finds hard to deal with and fights against as for so long she has had her father to herself and has not had to share him.. Judy must work what is family for her. Can she be a family with Treva and her father? and when her mother returns at the end of the book and seems to finally be trying to really get her life together what kind of a relationship can she have with her? this was a beautiful and moving book. A really great read. show less

This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/2012/08/the-sometimes-daughter-by-sherri-wood...

This was a quick, sometimes enjoyable read. The title more aptly could have read "The Sometimes Mother", as the main character is fortunate enough to have a wonderfully present father.

Sweet Judy Blue Eyes is born in a tent at Woodstock to unconventional (read "hippie") parents Cassie and Kirk. As familial responsibilities begin to hit, Kirk becomes a good, responsible father, while Cassie remains volatile, possibly unfaithful, and flighty, disappearing and re-appearing throughout the novel.

Emmons does a good job of portraying the link between a mother's behavior and her daughter's mistakes, as Judy tries her best to show more fit in with the girls at her school and to live a normal life.

I felt that the story was rather erratic, and moved too quickly in certain parts. It seemed to lack the sort of depth I'd associate with the weighty subject matter, and I had to check to see whether or not it was supposed to be YA rather than adult (in the former case, I'd give the lack of depth a pass, but it is labeled adult fiction.

If you're looking for a rather effortless read, this one would be a good pick.

QUOTES

I nodded mutely. I had seen Barbie dolls on the television, although I'd never actually held one. Mama said they were fascist and paternalistic, designed to turn women into objects. But I thought it better not to mention what Mama thought of Barvie just then. For the first time in my life, I told a lie.
"Sure," I said. "I like Barbies."
And that was how I got my first friends.

I wanted a real mother who stayed and who wasn't crazy and who took care of me, instead of me taking care of her.

I didn't tell the truth, which was that my mother had been crazy and kidnapped me and taken me to a commune and almost died of a drug overdose and then joined a cult.

Writing: 3 out of 5 stars
Plot: 4 out of 5 stars
Characters: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Reading Immersion: 3 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 3 out of 5 stars show less

i really loved this book. i finished it in a day. It really shows how a mothers choices and relationship with her daughter can really affect her in the long run. you really don't like her mom at times but then again you can't help but remember that everyone makes mistakes and have problems they have to deal with. i would definitely recommend it.

Hooked by the promise of a story beginning with a child born at Woodstock, I eagerly jumped in to the pages of this book. But had I not acquired The Sometimes Daughter as an early reviewer, I would have abandoned it before finishing. It reads like it was written by an novice, or a student, perhaps--so much so that I had to double check to see if it was written for Young Adults. I can't remember the last time I read such weak dialogue. Entirely forgettable. I honestly can't imagine what the other reviewers found so “deeply poignant” or “intriguing”. I was extremely disappointed. I read a great deal of fiction, both for myself and for my teenage daughters. I thought this story lacked character development and cohesion. I was glad show more to close the book and move on to something that held my interest. show less