Der Liebhaber Unserer Mutter: Ein Autobiographischer Roman Von Joanna Green

by Katharine Weber, Brigitte Gerlinghoff (Translator)

Inspired by the Louisa May Alcott classic, The Little Women is the story of the adolescent Green sisters - Meg, Joanna, and Amy - who lead a charmed life until they discover that their apparently perfect family is far more fragile than they had thought.

The Greens have always been close-knit, and when the sisters uncover their mother's affair, they are devastated by her betrayal. But they are even more disturbed by their father's apparently easy forgiveness of her. Deceived by their parents' failure to uphold the moral standards and values of the family, Joanna and Amy leave New York (and their private school) and move to Meg's apartment in New Haven, where Meg is a junior at Yale. They enroll in the local inner-city public high school and, divorced from their parents, try to make a life with Meg as their surrogate mother. They share their apartment with the irrepressible Teddy Bell, whose devotion and friendship are key to the survival of this independent household.

Written in the form of an autobiographical novel by Joanna, the middle sister, the pages of The Little Women are punctuated by comments from the "real" Meg and Amy. Their notes and Jo's replies form a second narrative, as they argue about the "truth" of the novel and confront their novelist sister when she appropriates and reveals intimate details from their lives.

Genres: Fiction, Retellings, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Literature, Classics

334 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Katharine Weber's six novels and memoir, all highly-praised, some, award-winning, have made her a book club favorite.

Her eighth book, JANE OF HEARTS AND OTHER STORIES (Paul Dry Books, March 2022), is a collection of somewhat linked stories and a novella.

Her seventh book, the novel STILL LIFE WITH MONKEY (Paul Dry Books), had rave reviews and praise:

"Stark and compelling . . . Rigorously unsentimental yet suffused with emotion: possibly the best work yet from an always stimulating writer."―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Katharine Weber's Still Life With Monkey is a beautifully wrought paean of praise for the ordinary pleasures taken for granted by the able-bodied. In precise and often luminous prose, with intelligence and tenderness, Weber's latest novel examines the question of what makes a life worth living."―Washington Post

"[A] deeply but delicately penetrating novel."―New York Times Book Review

"Weber's unsentimental and poignant examination of what does and does not make life worth living is a heartbreaking triumph."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A brilliantly crafted novel, brimming with heart."―Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

Katharine's previous novel, True Confections, the story of a chocolate candy factory in crisis, was published in 2010. Critics raved: "A great American tale" (New York Times Book Review), "Marvelous, a vividly imagined story about love, obsession and betrayal" (Boston Globe), "Katharine Weber is one of the wittiest, most stimulating novelists at work today...wonderful fun and endlessly provocative" (Chicago Tribune),"Succulently inventive" (Washington Post),"Her most delectable novel yet" (L.A. Times).

Her sixth book, a memoir called The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family's Legacy of Infidelities, published in 2011, won raves from the critics, from Ben Brantley in the New York Times ("Ms. Weber is able to arrange words musically, so that they capture the elusive, unfinished melodies that haunt our memories of childhood") to the Dallas Morning News ("gracefully written, poignant and droll"), the NY Daily News ("Old Scandals, what fun...the core of her tale is that of elegant sin and betrayal"), and the Boston Globe (a masterful memoir of the private world of a very public family"), among others.

Katharine was the Richard L. Thomas Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College for seven years. She has taught creative writing at Yale University (for eight years), and was an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the graduate writing program in the School of the Arts at Columbia University for six years. She has taught at various international writing workshops, from the Paris Writers Workshop several summers in a row to the San Miguel de Allende Writers Conference and the West Cork Literary Festival in Ireland.

All of Katharine's books have been republished in paperback, some of them in more than one edition, and all are available as e-books. Take note, book groups! In these pandemic times, Zoom visits to book groups can be arranged.

Reviews

[skein · Rating 3 out of 5]

So close - and yet so very very far. The Little Women tries to be a lot of things - literary allusion wrapped in literary criticism wrapped in a rewrite wrapped in a novel - and I may have the wrong order in that. The fourth wall is broken on a regular basis by the 'author', Joanna-don't-call-me-Jo, & by her sisters, Meg and Amy, as they all make chatty criticisms of the book & each other throughout. (There was a Beth. Beth was a turtle. The turtle died.)
Since I myself am a overly educated literary snob who has read Alcott's Little Women a few hundred times, I didn't mind the premise so much & was mostly unbothered by the oh-so-very-self-conscious writing - Weber mostly pulls it off. It's when she doesn't quite manage that the whole thing flounders - and that happened more and more as the novel went on - ending on a sticky, inconclusive ending that made sense within context but left me just enough dissatisfied to give this three stars, rather than four.

(It is worth pointing out that the first half was so enjoyable, I forgot to miss Laurie.)


edit to add, a year later: okay. I agree with the above. but this book lingers and clings and sticks to my head. i re-read Alcott's Little Women recently and found myself thinking about Weber's. WHAT.
I'd say -- Weber's characters are so distinct from Alcott's and still so recognizable -- it doesn't matter that the plot is queer and unwieldy. In a way, if this were better, smoother, it would be worse.
And I cannot stop thinking about Laurie. Why can't I stop thinking about Laurie?

[Justine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weber's "The Little Women" is one of the better books I've read all year. It tells the story of the three Green sisters, conveniently named Meg, Jo, and Amy (Beth was a turtle who died). After learning about their mother's affair, they decide to leave their family in Manhattan and move in with Meg, a senior at Yale.

The story is narrated from the point of view of Jo-- and includes commentary from the other two sisters.

What was the most enchanting about this book was not only how seamlessly Weber riffs off the story of Little Women, or how self-consciously literary the narrator is. What is most charming about the book is the sparkling wit and whimsical tone of the writing. All of the characters are depicted in touching and stunning detail and have distinct personalities and quirky habits. Weber recognizes and celebrates small details and her prose glitters as a result.

What a marvelously luxuriant and pleasurable read!
Hurrah!

[martha · Rating 1 out of 5]

[2005 review.] What a truly terrible book. I was intrigued by the gimmick -- the three main characters are named Meg, Jo and Amy after the sisters in the Louisa May Alcott novel of almost the same name -- and the premise -- upset by the discovery of their mother's affair they run away from their apparently perfect home to live with Meg at college. But the execution was abysmal: nothing at all happens, there's no real plot, no rising or falling action, so the whole way through I felt like the book was just getting started and any minute now the actual story would begin. There are absolutely no obstacles to overcome, so the girls live in a stagnant bubble, where money isn't a problem, where their parents don't object to their estrangement. I did somewhat enjoy some of the more pop culturey aspects of the book, when the conversational tone felt realistic and everyday, but there were more than enough missteps in the same to balance it out. The interjections the whole way through by the 'author' (Jo) and her sisters at first seemed like they might provide an interesting kind of dialogue but instead they become unbearably tedious and pointless. And worst of all, the whole book echoes the major scenes of Alcott's novel nonsensically -- while the main characters are aware of the connection between their names and the other book they never notice how their lives are totally parodying it. I suppose some of the similarities, such as the names (Teddy, Ursula) could be explained by the fact that this is supposedly written by Jo herself, but that doesn't explain Amy's egg roll incident, the Aunt March figure complete with trip to Paris, etc, so the book ends up hovering in a weird limbo between self awareness and mimicry. Plus using the excuse that Jo is the author, not Weber, only ends up leading to the conclusion that Weber has intentionally written a bad book.

I also think this was probably the first book to ever make me groan aloud, during a discussion of dead dogs: "His name was Ezra. He came from the pound."

[Sterlingcindysu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lately I've been reading books that are springboards from other (classical) books, such as When She Woke and The Innocents (springing from The Scarlet Letter and The Age of Innocence. This was written back in 2003, so it was ahead of its' time! And Weber doesn't re-write Little Women, just uses sisters named after the characters with some familiar quirks. It would make sense that Jo would play sports if Alcott was writing it now, for example. It has been decades since I've read Little Women but enough sayings and situations reminded me of it. There's an upside and downside to springing off a classic--good, in that the reader feels smart when she recognizes parts of the original work, but then disappointed that the original is in the public domain and might get turned into Werewolves and Little Women type of novel.

The readers' notes made by Meg and Amy get too philosophical at the end when Jo tells them they're a figment of her imagination, because of course they all are. As for the actual story, I didn't understand why the girls felt they had to leave, but they had to be parentless for a portion to follow the original so there you go. I thought the painting on the front was very unflattering around the faces! I wonder if that was added afterwards or before the final chapter was written. Weber adds her one-line jokes courtesy of Amy, "what did zero say to eight?"

[Joanne-in-Canada · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirky book that plays on the perennial question of novels: Just how autobiographical is it? Ostensibly written by Joanna Green, the middle of three sisters, about the falling apart of their family's idyllic existence after they discover that their mother had an affair. The author's voice is spot on for a high school girl, which enabled me to continue despite lengthy nostalgic descriptions of past events and some repetition. Weber allows the other two sisters--Meg and Amy--to "comment" on Joanna's manuscript, which is an interesting twist, but she seems to run out of things for them to say. The book also winds up rather abruptly.

Yes, the three sisters were named after three of the March sisters in Little Women. I had originally thought that the novel was about the March sisters transposed to contemporary times, which, for all I know, it was. I have sadly forgotten most of the details about the original book, and felt that there were inside jokes that I completely missed.

[Rajivi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure if the device of having the two other sisters commenting on the story as told by the narrator is entirely successful - it seemed to me that it was an attempt to try and give a very slight, rather familiar tale a bit more substance. And it is quite a slight story: three sisters, named after the (surviving) sisters in Alcott's Little Women, decide to cut off contact with their parents and live in an apartment in New Haven, as the oldest sister goes to Yale. That's basically it - the story is just about three quite different sisters living together. In the end, I enjoyed the book because I found the girls and their relationship with each other and their roommate Teddy quite charming, although I can imagine that others might find it all too mannered for words.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

How did I miss this book a few year's ago? Partway through I thought, isn't this the author of "True Confections?" Yup. Anyway. I thought this book was delightful. A retelling of the sisters created by Louisa May Alcott (the parents skipped Beth because they knew how it ended) this brought back my childhood memories and love of "Little Women" while amusing me with its twist on the old tale. The plot could stand on its own, but knowing your Alcott was the perfect spice. This book is very, very clever and despite revisiting "Little Woman" not altogether predictable. Think of Jo, I mean whatever she was called here, working at Starbuck's and Amy trying to impress her school friends with sushi. I loved it and passed it right on to a friend.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really nifty little novel about three sisters (Meg, Joanna and Amy) who lead a perfect life until they discover mom's had an affair which dad's forgiven. They cannot forgive either one and the 3 teens move out and form their own family with one Teddy Bell. Lots of very clever literary devices are used. An original and very unusual story that I enjoyed very much and will recommend.

"This is the story of the year we left our mother and father in order to live on our own, away from their bad behavior and their infuriating pretense that they were the most splendid parents in all the world."

Great follow up to reading Alcott so you can see all the parallels.

[Tracy Mecum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly, while I enjoyed the story, I never quite understood why the girls were so angry with their parents that they had to leave them (even temporarily). Often the girls seemed a little self-absorbed and unsympathetic, like spoiled rich kids, which they are. I enjoyed spending time with them because I enjoyed the literary references, but pretty much hated the interruption of the plot to read their critical evaluation of the prose. Ultimately, I found the entire read a bit unsatisfying, while I thoroughly enjoyed the original LMA version of Little Women. I kept wanting to be done with it, and so now I am.

[linnea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ab fab. Where was this book in my college days. Had a whole class on fiction and points of view and credibility. I love Weber. Not to mention I am familiar with the New Haven refrences. Good reads, good reads.

[Meggityb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clever retelling of the story...I love it.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever story that speaks volumes about the way we create personal narratives for ourselves and others, then become angry when reality doesn't match with our preconceived notions.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. It manages to be original while at the same time hearkening back to the plot, story, and language of Alcott's Little Women. There are three sisters, college student Meg, high school junior Jo, and high school freshman Amy. When they discover some unsuspected family drama, feelings run high and the three girls decide to shift for themselves on their own. Fortunately, there seems to be quite a bit of family money to finance this endeavor. It's a little self-conscious at times, but this balances out with clever language and dialogue twists that are truly delightful. And it's certainly a pleasure to meet up with Harriet Rose again.

[Chloe Current · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could barely make it through- I stopped about 75% of the way because I felt like I had already wasted enough time. It was formatted to include author and reader notes that only complicate the story. This book was extremely dull and had no real, major plot points. The characters are privileged, seem to have no realistic concerns about finance, and the parents never question their living situation. The girls are not relatable or funny, and lack a the true spirit of an independent women living in the city. I am a junior in college and picked this up thinking it would speak to me. Spoiler: it did not.
Read the real Little Women book.

[Lorri Steinbacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved Weber's use of language and was really into the Green family story, but I was not that interested in the girls' life after they abandoned their parents. The reader's notes were interesting--they were a critique of the novel you were reading, of Alcott's Little Women, and fiction in general.

Weber did not exactly map March and the Green girls and that was good. So you weren't reading modernized versions of Alcott's characters, but characters with Alcott-like qualities.

I would recommend for the writing alone, especially if you are willing to overlook the rampant privilege (harder to do now than it had been) and if you are not looking for a retelling of Little Women.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for a book to get back into my reading habit and this had been sitting on my shelf for years unread. I love Little Women and hoped this would help me get back in the groove- mission accomplished.

I found the device of the sisters writing readers' notes within the text unnecessary. It didn't add anything to the story. But I did enjoy the story itself for the most part. Pulp's song "Common People" definitely played in my head the entire time I was reading it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a clever and readable adaptation of Alcott's novel, set in (more or less) contemporary New York/Connecticut. I enjoyed, especially, the ways that the traits of characters from Alcott's novel's were maintained but updated for the current day. I think I enjoyed less the readers' asides, which were pleasant at moments but too distracting at others.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

everyone is extremally irritating. couldn't finsh

[Shambhavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved itttt

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did. I thought the idea of an updated Little Women was an interesting idea, but found the execution more than a little inconsistent. I thought the way the girls talked was a little precious--they're SO smart! Even Amy who never did well in school! And I found it odd the way that it didn't seem to be much like Little Women at all--and that was okay, by the way, that it just took inspiration from it and said, "What IF the March family wasn't as perfect as it seemed?"--except when there were whole incidents from the original basically lifted and updated. Now that I'm thinking back, the only one I can think of is the bit when Amy brings in all those "lovely" California rolls for her new crowd at Duncan High School and then the substitute teacher makes her throw them out the window. That's straight out of "Amy's Valley of Humiliation." There was also a throwaway reference to the time that Amy deleted Jo's writing journal off of her computer...and the whole fact that Jo was the one writing the novel in the first place.

Overall, though, I thought it was an interesting read, with compelling characters. I liked the moment when Meg--in the comments from Jo's sisters--pointed out that Jo was painting Meg to be the dull older sister who disapproves of everything, since that's how Meg is in the original. There was the speculation about Jo's sexuality which I thought was particularly well done, since that's something that everybody who reads Little Women (at least, adults who read Little Women) wonders about. And I did like Laurie's--sorry, TEDDY's--analysis of the family and how the IDEA of the Green family was the missing Beth. Too good to live.

[Thing Two · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Weber's The Music Lesson: A Novel, and have had this re-do of Louisa May Alcott's famous book on my list for quite some time. Unfortunately, I took it off my list and actually opened the book. Ugh.

The premise of the book is obvious, a modernization of the traditional tale of the four March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - however, Beth is a turtle in this version. Weber does an adequate job of modernizing the story. Meg is still the mother-like figure to her younger sisters, Jo is the narrator-tomboy, and Beth-the-turtle does die young. Adultery, homosexuality, and birth control all make an appearance.

Weber does us the technique of having the two non-writing sisters review the manuscript and provide commentary to the reader, which at times is comical, but mostly just comes across as a technique that doesn't work well.

The story as a whole lags.

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredibly disappointing; a rehashing of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, but with none of the warmth, wit and charm of the original. It tries to be intelligent and scholarly, an exploration of classic literature archetypes in a very modern world, but fails miserably into a vague self-indulgent ego trip for the author.

Self-consciously an attempt at postmodernism, Weber attempts to be clever and insightful, winking at her audience throughout the novel from the perspective of this new Jo, snidely alluding to the character’s awareness of being a willing participant in this experiment whilst being aware of the original text at the same time, a confusingly ornate combination Weber never convincingly executes. The hasty, ill-conceived ending further adds chaos to this already puzzlingly pointless story.

Read the original Little Women instead.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I added this book to my list of things to read after I heard about it on the Writer's Almanac. It's a modern twist on the classic Little Women. I really like reading books that are set in places I've visited -- this novel is set in New Haven and one of the main characters attends Yale. I've recently visited New Haven and walked around Yale so I was excited to read about a place I've been to. So I enjoyed that connection. I generally enjoyed the plot of the book, but didn't care for the constant narrative interruptions. The author is told from the point of view of the middle sister, Jo, with reader and author notes added to the plot. Kind of Infinite Jest without being clever or particularly important to the plot.

[Dottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book and I didn't get along all that well but the overall experience was a good one. Though a major stylistic element drove me a bit crazy -- it did in the long run move things to the end point of the story. As for the overall construct of relating the story to Little women -- I of course LOVED it because Alcott's work is so ingrained in my being from repeated readings and from wide-ranging reading on Alcott herself. This one will stay alongside my Alcott books -- just for the fact that it exists and I might want to one day explore further the various connection points which were made between the two stories.

[Shelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. It was an interesting idea, I guess, but the execution bored me entirely.

When the Green sisters find out that their mother had an affair and their father easily forgave her, 17 year old Joanna and 15 year old Amy move in with their older sister, Meg, who's attending Yale. This is Joanna's story about that year, with comments from her sisters every now and again. It twisted Little Women enough to be interesting, but....blah. I didn't really like any of them much, and the ending was so abrupt as to be obnoxious.

[Duckpondwithoutducks · Rating 2 out of 5]

As might be postulated from the title, this book is a take-off of Louisa May Alcott's book, Little Women. This is a reimagining of the story in the modern day, but with a big difference - Meg, Jo and Amy move out of their formerly happy family home in disgust after their mother has an affair. The book is written from Jo's point of view as a novel, but then there are many comments from Meg and Amy, questioning Jo's telling of the story, and her idea of the truth of the tale. I found the story itself a pale imitation of the original, and the frequent interpolations distracting.

[Jgknobler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adored Weber's "True Confections," but this novel, about three sisters who take off to live together after learning of their mother's brief affair, I found lacking. It has some of the same wit and charm, but needs a plot. And one central question to me--how would young girls raised in a privileged private school in Manhattan fare in a New Haven public school--was never answered, perhaps because it was too serious a question for this author to tackle. And the frequent disruptions, the comments from the supposed memoirist and her various sisters, were affected and annoying.

[Cheyenne Stuebs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't quite sure what to think of this book at first. It's a novel based on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women with the three main characters (sisters) named Meg, Joanna and Amy. However, the novel completely diverges from there. The sisters find out about their mother's affair, and although their parents are unconcerned as it has been resolved, they take great offense and Jo and Amy go with Meg to school.

I'm giving this four stars because I found it to be rather witty and the ending was very clever. I also appreciated the exploration of their feelings and their relationship as sisters.

[Miriam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Books like this are the reason why I decided not to study literature in graduate school. I understand that it is playing with the genre of homage novels that have become so popular, and I picked up the book, like I do most homage novels, because I was interested in seeing what the reader did with the story. I felt, however, that she was too clever by half, and spent more time showing her awareness of literary criticism then she did developing characters and a story that I could care about.

[Milo · Rating 1 out of 5]

whoa. i really disliked this book. the only glimmer was the (gratuitous) mention of new haven landmarks. even those seemed like a stretch to make the book feel somewhat comforting to people familiar with the locale.

happy to be done.

oh yeah. the last book i read that i disliked to the same degree was The Great Gatsby. a book the main characters in the Little Women absolutely cherish. what a cool coincidence.