I'm mid-way through "Circling My Mother" by Mary Gordon. Not really a memoir, not quite a biography, Gordon looks at her mother from several viewpoints (sister,wife, employee, Catholic, etc.) Beautiful,honest writing.
Here's an excerpt where she discusses her Aunt Lil:
There's the story of her response to the Kennedy assassination. We were all sent home early from school, and when my cousin walked in the door, my aunt said,"Sit down, son. I have something terrible to say to you." He thought, " O my God, not only has the President been assassinated, my father's had a heart attack."
"Something terrible's happened today, son," she said. "Jack Lemmon's been shot."
"No, Mother," my cousin said. "It's not Jack Lemmon, it's Jack Kennedy."
"I was wondering why everyone was so upset," she said.
. . .
And her remark, after Karen Carpenter's death, "If only she had eaten that ham sandwich instead of Mama Cass, they would both be alive today."
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