Saturday's child : a daughter's memoir
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
Berkeley, CA : She Writes Press, 2019.
ISBN
9781631525476, 1631525476, 9781631525483, 1631525484
Status

Description

"Devilishly sharp... a masterful balance of psychological excavation and sumptuous description." —Kirkus Reviews An only child, Deborah Burns grew up in prim 1950s America in the shadow of her beautiful, unconventional, rule-breaking mother, Dorothy—a red-haired beauty who looked like Rita Hayworth and skirted norms with a style and flair that made her the darling of men and women alike. Married to the son of a renowned Italian family with ties to the underworld, Dorothy fervently eschewed motherhood and domesticity, turning Deborah over to her spinster aunts to raise while she was the star of a vibrant social life. As a child, Deborah revered her charismatic mother, but Dorothy was a woman full of secrets with a troubled past—a mistress of illusion whose love seemed just out of her daughter's grasp. In vivid, lyrical prose, Saturday's Child tells the story of Deborah's eccentric upbringing and her quest in midlife, long after her parents' death, to uncover the truth about her mother and their complex relationship. No longer under the spell of her maternal goddess, but still caught in a wrenching cycle of love and longing, Deborah must finally confront the reality of her mother's legacy—and finally claim her own.

Copies

LocationCall NumberStatus
St. Charles Public Library District - Adult Nonfiction306.8743 BUROn Shelf

Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the appeal factors lyrical, and they have the genres "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child" and "life stories -- relationships -- family"; and the subjects "women authors," "growing up," and "family relationships."
These books have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child"; and the subjects "women authors," "mothers and daughters," and "identity."
These books have the appeal factors moving and reflective, and they have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child"; and the subjects "growing up," "family relationships," and "families."
These books have the appeal factors moving and lyrical, and they have the genres "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child" and "life stories -- relationships -- growing up"; and the subjects "mothers and daughters," "identity," and "growing up."
These books have the appeal factors moving, bittersweet, and evocative, and they have the genres "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child" and "life stories -- relationships -- growing up"; and the subjects "growing up" and "family relationships."
These books have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child"; and the subjects "women authors," "identity," and "growing up."
These books have the appeal factors lyrical, and they have the genres "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child" and "life stories -- relationships -- growing up"; and the subjects "women authors," "mothers and daughters," and "identity."
These books have the appeal factors moving, and they have the genres "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child" and "life stories -- relationships -- growing up"; and the subjects "mothers and daughters," "identity," and "growing up."
These books have the appeal factors moving, and they have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child"; and the subjects "identity," "growing up," and "family relationships."
These books have the appeal factors moving, and they have the genres "life stories -- arts and culture -- writing -- authors" and "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child"; and the subjects "women authors," "mothers and daughters," and "self-discovery."
These books have the appeal factors moving, and they have the genres "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child" and "life stories -- relationships -- growing up"; and the subjects "mothers and daughters," "identity," and "growing up."
These books have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "life stories -- relationships -- parent and child"; and the subjects "mothers and daughters," "identity," and "growing up."

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These authors' works have the appeal factors lyrical, and they have the subjects "women authors," "mothers and daughters," and "identity."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving and lyrical, and they have the genre "autobiographies and memoirs"; and the subjects "identity," "growing up," and "family relationships."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and evocative, and they have the genre "autobiographies and memoirs"; and the subjects "growing up," "family relationships," and "families."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the genre "autobiographies and memoirs"; and the subjects "growing up," "family relationships," and "families."
These authors' works have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "life stories"; and the subjects "women authors," "mothers and daughters," and "growing up."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, emotionally intense, and lyrical, and they have the genre "autobiographies and memoirs"; and the subjects "mothers and daughters," "family relationships," and "mothers."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, melancholy, and lyrical, and they have the subjects "women authors," "mothers and daughters," and "growing up."
These authors' works have the appeal factors moving, reflective, and lyrical, and they have the genre "autobiographies and memoirs"; and the subjects "growing up," "family relationships," and "childhood."
These authors' works have the appeal factors lyrical, and they have the subjects "mothers and daughters," "identity," and "growing up."
These authors' works have the appeal factors reflective and evocative, and they have the genre "autobiographies and memoirs"; and the subjects "growing up," "family relationships," and "independence."
These authors' works have the appeal factors melancholy and lyrical, and they have the subjects "mothers and daughters," "growing up," and "family relationships."
These authors' works have the appeal factors reflective and lyrical, and they have the subjects "women authors," "growing up," and "family relationships."

More Details

Published
Berkeley, CA : She Writes Press, 2019.
Format
Book
Physical Desc
253 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Language
English
ISBN
9781631525476, 1631525476, 9781631525483, 1631525484

Notes

General Note
"An only child, Deborah Burns grew up in prim 1950s America in the shadow of her beautiful, unconventional, rule-breaking mother, Dorothy--a red-haired beauty who looked like Rita Hayworth and skirted norms with a style and flare that made her the darling of men and women alike. As a child, Deborah revered her charismatic mother--but Dorothy was a woman full of secrets with a troubled past, a mistress of illusion whose love seemed just out of her daughter's grasp. In vivid, lyrical prose, Saturday's Child tells the story of Deborah's eccentric unbringing and her quest in midlife, long after her parents' death, to uncover the truth about her mother and their complex relationship. Still caught in a wrenching cycle of love and longing ,Deborah must confront the reality of her mother's legacy--and finally claim her own"--P.4 cover.

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

The upstate New York resort that her family built was a magical place for Deborah as a child. Swimming along the pool's edge to catch snatches of the women's conversations, playing on the porch, or punching buttons on the jukebox in the lounge while the musicians were resting, she hovered on the edges of an adult world where her mother, often compared to Rita Hayworth, was the undeniable star. The redhead would hold court under the adoring gaze of her daughter, who only saw her mother on weekends during the summer. It was a far cry from the rest of the year, which Deborah spent in a cramped city apartment with her father and the two unmarried aunts who raised her. And, yet, like all her memories of her distant, unconventional mother, those days are suffused with the sadness of someone looking for explanations as to why her mother was so rarely there with her. Poignant and absorbing, Saturday's Child carefully examines how a daughter's childhood obsession became a more complicated reckoning with her mother's secrets.--Bridget Thoreson Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Powered by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

Debut author Burns recalls growing up in the shadow of her glamorous mother in this memoir.The book opens with a description of a recurring nightmare, which the author experienced sporadically over many years, following her mother's death. In it, she fails to call her ill mother, as she's unable to remember her telephone number. Wracked with guilt, she asks herself, "How could I be such a terrible daughter?" Throughout her relationship with her mom, Burns says, she was always in "chasing mode, in longing pursuit of something fleeting." Dotty, the author's parent, was a "spectacular woman everyone thought was a movie star," who was frequently compared to Rita Hayworth. The memoir reveals that Dotty married into the Canzoneri family, who owned an exclusive country club that was frequented by members of the New Yorkcriminal underworld. Dotty dazzled the clientele, and her lifelong passion for socializing resulted in her daughter often being sidelined. The memoir's title is a reference to the fact that on Saturdays, the author and her mother would spend time together, shopping and having ice cream. Burns addresses how she coped with always playing "second fiddle" to her mom, while also feeling "desperate to be loved by her." She's a devilishly sharp writer who achieves a masterful balance of psychological excavation and sumptuous description. Here's her acerbic accounting of her maternal grandfather: "he was a man with no family at allas if he too had sprouted fully formed, miserable and alone after he ate whoever made him." However, when it comes to her mother, she rarely moves beyond her image of her as a "goddess." When describing Dotty's lifestyle, Burns vividly evokes the glamour of mid-20th-century American high society; for instance, she recalls how her mom "dressed in full regalia for all her public travelswith fitted knee-length pencil skirts and high patent leather heels." But the most affecting aspect of this memoir is how the author is liberated by confronting her idealized perception of her parent, while remaining tender to her memory. (Illustrated with black-and-white family photographs.) A profound, searching remembrance that explores a complex family bond. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Powered by Syndetics

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.

Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Burns, D. (2019). Saturday's child: a daughter's memoir . She Writes Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Burns, Deborah. 2019. Saturday's Child: A Daughter's Memoir. Berkeley, CA: She Writes Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Burns, Deborah. Saturday's Child: A Daughter's Memoir Berkeley, CA: She Writes Press, 2019.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Burns, D. (2019). Saturday's child: a daughter's memoir. Berkeley, CA: She Writes Press.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Burns, Deborah. Saturday's Child: A Daughter's Memoir She Writes Press, 2019.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

Syndetics Unbound

Staff View

Loading Staff View.