The stories couldn't be more different. "The Bad Mother", a novel by Isabelle Gray, is deliberately titled to intrigue. In fact, the character Tessa Parker is an excellent mother to her two teenagers. It is she who blames herself quite unfairly when her son runs away from home. Tessa's perceived failings and inattention to her family, however, seem excusable, given that she has only just found out she was adopted. To loving parents, yes. Somehow, Tessa tracks her origins, discovering her real father is serving jail time. Even so, she can't resisting meeting him, unwittingly offering naive trust to a dubious man. The tension level in this book is maintained very well. Along with Tessa, we suffer the confusion, misplaced hope and fear that erode her confidence as she searches for the truth.
The second book is a kind of memoir. Jeanette Winterson is of course a prize-winning author, well-known for several novels including her book, "Oranges are not the Only Fruit," where a girl adopted by Pentecostal parents falls in love with a woman. That painful story of judgment and punishment reminds us of just how harsh the world was, if you happened to be different. The title of this later volume is "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal," which were the parting words she was offered as she was driven from her home at sixteen.
This is another painful read. The author is honest without blaming. She feels the wrench from her birth mother intuitively, while her adoptive mother deals out religion and punishment. Her daughter spends time in the coal hole or is put to sit on the doorstep overnight. Yet there is some kind of bond. "She was a monster but she was my monster," is the adult Jeanette's response when the birth mother she eventually traces seems to criticize the other woman. The author can be funny, and has a devastating eye for the ridiculous moments in life. One hopes these candid soul searchings bring some sort of catharsis and peace.
