I just finished The Critic’s Daughter, by Pricilla Gillman—yet another example of how reading about another women’s life teaches me so much about my own.
Like the author, having grown up in New York City, I deeply resonated with her intimate father/daughter tale—one so influenced by art, theatre, and writing. When she describes her enchantment with the musicals West Side Story and The Sound of Music—what the lyrics and performances mean to her—my own glee glistened.
A great title; no subtitle necessary
Yet from the book’s title, I thought the story would be about how her father, a famous theatre critic, criticized her to the hilt. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s more about the author’s need to protect her father thereby denying her own feelings and desire be remain the innocent child she was.
Boy, does she delve into the “parent-child relationship”—both father-daughter and mother-daughter—all while stuck in the middle of her parents’ acrimonious divorce. Her mother, a very successful literary agent, takes her own fears and needs from the divorce out on her. How can a child possibly heal from her parents’ devastating breakup while her mother shoves hurtful (for her) information about her father upon her she has no business sharing?
Yet growing up with a privileged New York City lifestyle (weekend getaway home in Connecticut, intact), the author struggles like the rest of us—children with disabilities, her own divorce in the midst of a painful career transition and soul-searching, and general lack of self-awareness and ease.
(Without ever feeling a smidgeon of entitlement.)
Fortunately, she gains that awareness through living and learning, as we are wont to do. If we really desire to rise above our own challenges, with the Universe’s help, we’ll find a way.
