The Night Garden: Of My Mother is the story of a woman watching the slow breakdown of her aging mother’s mind and body, as she struggles to connect the woman she sees now with the woman from her memories.
Spoiler-free Summary:
In The Night Garden, the author narrates the lives of two women: her mother and herself. Sandra goes through many phases of life, such as becoming a caregiver and losing her mother. She becoming a mother, and balancing all her responsibilities for her family.
Sandra is fulfilling two roles side by side: a daughter who is taking care of her mother and a mother of her own young ones. Sandra is witnessing her mother’s decline in both physical and mental health, the difficulties of dementia, and how it’s robbing her of her independence and strength.
The memoir beautifully balances the past and present. Sandra continuously revisits memories from the past which are a mixture of closeness and tension for her, highlighting her strong bond with her mother despite all the challenges they faced together. Sandra tells readers how she has beautiful memories of her mother like helping her dress up a doll to moments where she wished her mother was ‘gone’, explaining their complicated relationship. After her mother’s death, she is left in intense grief and is eventually sent to a psychiatric emergency where she processes her deep relationship with her mother.
My Take On The Night Garden: Of My Mother:
The Night Garden: Of My Mother is a memoir by Sandra Tyler, focusing on her relationship with her mother. It touches on the themes of grief, love, and the amazing bond between mother and child.
Sandra’s The Night Garden: Of My Mother is a heartbreaking memoir with raw emotions following Sandra after the death of her mother.
Sandra seamlessly blends flashbacks into her current life, offering a view of her past and present. She wrote this memoir with raw honesty, even explaining her frustration as a caregiver for her mother and the fear of losing her forever. Her emotions throughout the book are beautifully explained by her.
Readers can connect to Sandra on an emotional level. They can be moved by the complex mother-daughter relationship and witness what it’s like to see someone you desperately love and care, slowly disappear.
“I remember that, my wailing. Hearing it from a distance, the way we could hear the ocean from her deck… That thunderous breaking of the waves on a still night.”
Sandra uses a first person perspective and uses a personal tone with parts that show intense emotions. She creates an emotional depth to the story, engaging the readers from the start.
Reading this book will lead you to examine your own life and relationships. It’s a book that will remind readers of the nature of life and the beautiful moments that remain with us after our loved ones are gone.
Content Warning
Sandra’s memoir explains delicate moments of life making it a touching book for those who lost someone they love and are navigating their emotions. It contains heavy subjects like grief and death of loved ones. This book might not be for readers sensitive to these topics.
About The Author Of The Night Garden: Of My Mother
Sandra Tyler is the author of Blue Glass, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and After Lydia, both published by Harcourt Brace. Her memoir The Night Garden: of My Mother was published by Pierian Springs Press. She is the founder and editor in chief of the renowned literary and fine art magazine, The Woven Tale Press. She was the recipient of fellowships to The McDowell Colony and The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; and a grant from the New York Public Library “Writers on Writing—Literary Legacies: Women in the Twentieth Century”. She earned her BA from Amherst College, and her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. She has taught creative writing at Columbia University, NY; Wesleyan University, CT; and Manhattanville College, NY.
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