Fascinating Authors

Book Review
by
John H. Manhold

Her Mother’s Diary, ISBN 9781604943597, Wheatmark, Paperback, 232 pages, $18.95 by David Curry Kahn.

The protagonist is a teen-age girl left homeless upon death of both parents and the passing of her grandmother. The homeless state is the result of a quirky ownership clause in which the ranch, in a particularly remote part of Oregon, cannot be willed to family members – it must return to the family foundation, from which the grandmother originally had been banned because of a youthful indiscretion.

However, Allison has an uncle in Chicago who was her father’s partner in a business, but is not the place she wishes to move because aspects of the business were not legitimate. She understands that she does have another relative, an aunt who was an actor in Hollywood.  The story moves quickly from the details of Allison becoming homeless, to her travels attempting to find the aunt and beyond. These include aid by long-haul truck drivers, an elderly man devastated by the tragic loss of his wife, a housekeeper who is studying to become a nurse, and others. Along the way, she embarks upon a search for a missing million dollars her mother had hidden and cryptically described the whereabouts of, in a diary, the possession of which keeps eluding her. In her endeavors to find a home and the diary, she further encounters a vengeful prostitute, drug dealers, a killer, reappearances of her mother’s image, and enough action to keep the reader constantly awaiting the next move.

This book is highly praised by Marriage and Family Therapists and other members of the Psychological Counseling Profession, and the reason is apparent.  Allison endures countless hardships and yet refuses to be beaten down. Instead, she moves relentlessly forward because, “There’s a magic in believing,” and “Nothing is ever accomplished without believing.” These thoughts are the basis of what counselors are attempting to instill in teenagers in foster care and in others in difficult periods of their lives.

My assessment of Kahn’s book is a difficult one to make and is dichotomous in nature. From a literary point of view for most adults, the book has an uneven pace, a difficult to accept bending of the rules of law dealing with some legal matters, and a detached feeling with regard to character portrayal. However, from the viewpoint of a teaching tool, as a person once engaged in Psychological Counseling procedures, I quite readily agree with the reviews by members of this profession. The presentation of the young girl’s tenacity of purpose in the face of so many seemingly insurmountable odds can provide an often much needed stimulus to persons facing sets of adverse circumstances. One of the counselors states “I can imagine referring clients to this book to find connections with characters who are coping with life’s struggles.” Her Mother’s Diary well can serve in this capacity and provides an additional advantage in that it moves along at a pace that should satisfy the teen-age reader while absorbing the elevating aspects of its basic theme.