Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

Traveling with Pomegranates is marketed as “A Mother-Daughter Story”, an interesting twist on the memoir, with a sort of she said/she said approach to major life themes. It seems every book I read lately has alternating narrators, and this book is no exception. In this case, it was appropriate, and handled very well. Stories did not overlap — if something happened during Sue’s chapter she commented on it and then went on. Ann did not go back and belabor any points or rewrite the story from her point of view. This allowed for a surprisingly balanced telling.

As the story begins, Sue Monk Kidd is a struggling would-be novelist; fearing life after fifty and not at all happy about what lies ahead. Her daughter, Ann, seems to be at the start of this road; about to graduate college with nothing but potential in her future. In fact, while I did enjoy reading this book, it is actually one big pity party. Sue is secretly jealous of the opportunities her daughter will have, and her daughter is cripplingly frightened she will never be as passionate as her Mom about anything. At times you want to tell them to just stop their whining; they’re traveling through Europe on their own and they really have nothing to complain about. (As a general rule, I feel that people who are able to travel on vacation multiple weeks or months at a time have no reason whatsoever to complain – this applies also to Elizabeth Gilbert, though I still enjoy her books.)

Sue and Ann are taking this trip to Greece ostensibly to celebrate Ann’s graduation and Sue’s 50^th birthday. But it is really a trip to reclaim their mother-daughter bond, which has become strained over the last couple of years. Though I haven’t read it yet, I was thinking that this book is the Lift (Kelly Corrigan), for women with grown daughters, who never had the time to write them a heartfelt letter.

During most of the time the story takes place (1998-2000), Sue has been working on her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, and she is obsessed with the many forms of the Virgin Mary, especially the black madonnas they are searching for all around Europe. She leads groups of women to ancient chapels and common tourist spots, in search of myths and biblical truths. The writing, at times, is just beautiful. The story of Demeter and Persephone is gracefully woven into the narrative as a recurring theme for their own relationship. I found the spiritual aspects of the story compelling enough to want to read her previous book, Dance of the Dissident Daughter. Sue is a firm believer in signs, and I enjoyed the recounting of the many signs she allowed to guide her journey.

There are mentions of Sue’s son and husband, and Ann’s future husband, but they are mostly backdrop. This is a story about women. By the end of the book, Mother and Daughter are still traveling, even as they plan Ann’s wedding. I especially enjoyed Ann’s descriptions of the many talismans she wore over and under her gown, mementos of these trips they had taken together, in search of their past, their futures, and each other.