From saccharine flattery and emotional blackmail to the dark threat of hell, there’s hardly a tactic the narrator and his aging mother don’t employ before finally achieving what’s good for them…
“Have you heard the joke about the mother who gives her son two ties for his birthday? No? Well, a mother gives her son two ties for his birthday, even though he’s specifically told her not to give him this sort of present. But when, for her sake, he wears one of the ties at the next dinner, she looks at him, hurt, and says: ‘What about the other one? I guess you don’t like it!’”
The reader senses that this mother-son relationship has never been easy. And, as the mother ages, it only becomes more difficult when they have to deal with the big decisions regarding her autonomy: give up her driver's licence, sign a power of attorney or consider applying for home nursing care.
Yet what begins as a wrestling match also yields existential insights – about love, death, and family secrets: how the complexities of German history shaped the displaced mother, and how lifelong struggles can ultimately lead to reconciliation and happiness.
