Reading Jane
A Daughter's Memoir
by Susannah Kennedy
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Pub Date Sep 05 2023 | Archive Date Oct 30 2023
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Description
A gripping memoir that shows what freedom looks like when we choose to examine the uncomfortable past
Jane is to the world a charismatic personality – opinionated, an inner-city teacher and public activist, a lover of Italy, proud and successful – who thrives on a carefully crafted life narrative. Susannah, her beautiful only daughter and her intended protégé, senses the stricter, darker truth, and fights to resist the control imposed on her by her mother’s narcissistic tale, especially as Susannah becomes a mother herself.
But then Jane at 75, healthy and fit, chooses suicide, leaving her daughter with grief and the unwelcome gift of 45 years of hidden diaries. Daring to “read” Jane after her death is like unlatching Pandora’s Box. For a year, Susannah twists and turns to the truths she uncovers, comparing what she remembers with what her mother put down in words. As Susannah Kennedy re-lives her life through her mother’s eyes, she grapples with the ties between mothers and daughters and the choices parents make.
Advance Praise
“Wow! was my first reaction on finishing Susannah Kennedy’s breathtaking memoir, Reading Jane. For days I was deeply immersed in Kennedy’s courageous exploration of her relationship with her mother, as she bravely examines her own psyche and comes to better understand herself, her mother, and their complex effects on one another. Brava to Susannah Kennedy for allowing us to accompany her on this fascinating journey.” —Susan Buckley, author of Eating with Peter
"Some of the most honest, heartfelt, beautiful CNF I have ever read, both as an editor and as a reader." —Liza Olson, editor of (mac)ro(mic)
“The best book I’ve read in years. The alternating spirals of love and distancing between an adult daughter who sought warmth, and a mother who just couldn’t deliver it. Elegant and beautifully written.” — David Bodanis, best-selling author of The Art of Fairness: The Power of Decency in a World Turned Mean
“Reading Jane is a beautifully told story of a mercurial, larger-than-life mother whose choice to end her own life while still in her prime sets her daughter on a quest to understand her mother’s inner world by reading her diaries. A fascinating tale of mother-daughter love shot through with longing, enmeshment and disappointment. I found myself rooting for the author to free herself from her mother’s grip and rejoiced when she did. By turns intriguing and repellent, the glamorous, eccentric Jane kept me reading late into the night and stayed with me long after I closed the book. Reading Jane is a triumph both as a literary memoir and as a contribution to the ongoing right-to-die debate in this country.” —Zoe FitzGerald Carter, author of Imperfect Endings
“Reading Jane is a brilliant memoir. It opens the door for each of us to truly consider what our family life (or lack of it) has meant to whom we have become. Kennedy reads her mother’s journals after her mother’s intentional end of life. What she learns and how it informs her own developmental history is presented in vivid, poignant, reflective terms. Her use of metaphor and shifts in time and space create a relational portrait of transgenerational and extended family experience that is both heartbreaking and invigorating. It is a gift to clinicians and non-clinicians alike.” — Dr. Harriet Wolfe, M.D., President, International Psychoanalytical Association
“Reading Jane is an extraordinary memoir of family secrets, love, loss, and a daughter’s quest to understand how her mother’s twisted history and death by suicide shaped her own life. Susannah Kennedy, raised the only child of a single mother in the kaleidoscopic days of the late 20th and early 21st century, writes with clear-eyed, sometimes brutal honesty. Her experience of other cultures – summers in Italy, life on multiple continents – informs and enriches the tale. Kennedy uncovers, in this deeply personal story, more than a few universal truths. A gifted first-time author, she leaves us wanting more.” —Fran Moreland Johns, board member End of Life Choices California, author of Marshallville Stories, Dying Unafraid and Perilous Times: An inside look at abortion before – and after – Roe v Wade
Marketing Plan
2023 Marketing Plan: Reading Jane
Publication Date: September 5
- California 16-City Bookstore Tour (16 cities): September. Northern and Southern California
- Author Road Trip Tour (14 cities): October through early November. Montreal, New England and Eastern Seaboard. Includes events as well as bookstore meet & greets
- Regional Publicity and Media Interviews in tour regions, with concentration in San Francisco Bay Area
- Social Media Campaign, targeting bookstagrammers, booktokers, and Facebook users, giveaways on Goodreads and Instagram
- Shelf Talkers available for stores
- Inclusion in CALIBA 2023 Holiday Catalog as featured title
- Featured at CALIBA 2023 Fall Trade Show
- Regional and Women’s Magazines features
- Author Excerpts and Essays on: mother-daughter relationships, parenting, mothering, narcissistic mothers, elder suicide and choices in dying.
- Book Club Outreach; reading group discussion questions printed in book
- Library Market outreach, ad in Library Journal
- Trade Advertising in Publishers Weekly, Shelf Awareness, and with California Independent Booksellers Association
- Trade Reviews pursued in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Shelf Awareness
- Galleys Available for sales force, major media, regional media, social media influencers, influential authors, booksellers and librarians; digital galleys also available for download through Edelweiss and NetGalley
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781736795477 |
| PRICE | $19.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 306 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Kelly P, Reviewer
Reading Jane is one of those books that I will remember for a long time. I thought Kennedy did an amazing job of telling the story of her relationship with her mom while she was alive and after her death. The writing was excellent and flowed well. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars.
Ellen W, Reviewer
This memoir comes from a sad but fascinating conundrum Susannah Kennedy is faced with after her mother's death by suicide: if someone leaves you their diaries, what should you do with them? In this case, Kennedy's awareness that her mother probably wanted her to 'tell her story' does not make this any easier.
This book is just as much about the author working through her perceptions of herself, her mother, and her family as it is about her mother and why she was determined not to live beyond 75 years of age. Each discovery Kennedy makes about her mother reverberates through time, helping her to understand interactions with her mother that seemed to make no sense at the time, and the many disconnects between the inner world her mother tried to conceal and the polished woman presented to an outside world.
But the key question of why Kennedy's mother was so difficult and defiant is unanswerable - that is what haunts many people who have a family member who freezes them out for long periods of time, or a parent who insists that everyone else will be happier and better off once they are gone. While it may be a difficult read at times, I'd recommend this to anyone who recognises this kind of family dynamic, or is just interested in the deep secrets families can keep and what it means when someone starts unlocking them.
Betsy M, Librarian
As an avid reader of non-fiction I found the premise of the story to be very compelling: a daughter getting to know her mother better after death through her diaries. I was not prepared for how insane the mother in this story is. The author uncovers some deeply hidden secrets about her family that are shocking (both to her and me as the reader). I'm glad I read the book, and have told a few people about stories from it, but it is rather bleak. There's no happy ending here. This is the risk you take when reading non-fiction.....it's not always pretty. It's definitely an interesting read and is very well written. Frankly, I'm not sure it was healthy for this author to read her mother's diaries. You need to be prepared for this one.
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