Dickerson Reviews His Book Review

I tried to say something complicated and textured about a woman and a mother-son relationship that was both. When my parents divorced, I moved out of Mom’s house. But when my daughter was born, my wife and I named her Nancy in tribute and celebration. I may have failed in telling this story. But the review pretends I never tried. Worse, it suggests I set out to ruin my mother. Is this what happens when you try to honestly assess the life of a pioneering woman? To write anything other than hagiography exposes that sometimes people have to make hard choices and that life is messy.