Chapter 1: motherland.A memoir of love, loathing,and longing.

washington post columnist\poor mans feast shares the intimate and fascinating story of her alternately loving, turbulent, and toxic relationship with her mother.growing up in 1970s forest hills, queens the only child of a publishing executive father and a former model and nightclub singer mother,the author was sent conflicting messages.while her mother rita critiqued her daughters weight,clothing and overall appearance her father treated her to lunches at upscale restaurants and bought her a tweed sweet and oversized coat. Altman adored her parents who divorced after 16 years of marriage. but was neverthless troubled by their idiosynctasies particularly those of her mother a narcissistic woman who was addicted to purchasing and applying make up and obsessed with weight persistently urging altman to slim down get her highlights done,and be more like her.altmans relationships with other, meanwhile, would only highten her mothers competitive nature. she disapprived of altmans friends friends and lover is jealous of her relationship with altmans father and is irritated like lemon in a paper cut by altmans graphic designer wife susan, even after 19 years. throught out her life altman struggles to balance devotion to her mother with the need to maintain boundaries her her own self preservation all of which comes to a moment of clarity with altman decides to have children.