As a child, Nicholas Dawidoff knew that his mother, a single mom and teacher, spent her days talking about literature with other people’s children, but most of her history—and her feelings about it—were a mystery to him. This discontent permeated their relationship. “It was apparent to me then that she was a person intended to be a loving and full-hearted parent, and I could not ever grasp the disconnect between this and the often chilly reality. I knew what she was up against, and tried not to cause her problems. What was I being punished for?” Dawidoff writes.
Dawidoff’s emotional distance from his mother carried into adulthood. Then when COVID hit, he got the opportunity to know her better through one of her great loves: books. The pair read 50 books together in four years, and continued their book club until his mother’s death from cancer. Learn more about how reading illuminated her life for him, and led to a deeper understanding between the pair: www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essa...