Nothing Is Quite Forgotten In Brooklyn

Alice Mattison (Harper Perennial)

Perhaps, in part, because of the enormous popularity of Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, in which the 46-year-old college professor revealed that he was dying of cancer, there's a lot of talk these days about saying goodbye to loved ones.

It brings an added dimension to Alice Mattison's new book, in which the sudden, unexpected death of a mother propels the narrative. That this woman's daughter never got a chance to say goodbye - hadn't even considered there might soon be a time or a reason to do so - has cast a troublesome shadow over her life, over her sense of who she is and how she should live.

Mattison's heroine, Constance Tepper, pays dutiful attention to what's going on in the world. Although she's a lawyer who specializes in discrimination against women in the workplace, she's a timid, tentative person, never able to locate the "perfect client", even when that client turns out to be her own child.

In 2003, Con is nearing 60. Twice divorced, she hasn't been in a good mood for a long time, possibly for years. As it turns out, she's a lot like her deceased mother - an ordinary person who is at times wary, hapless and annoying.

Con's idol since childhood is her mother's friend Marlene Silverman. She fills the role of the chosen mother for Con. Marlene is at the center of the novel, but she's oddly disembodied. We know her primarily through phone calls and old letters, and she doesn't make an appearance until the end of the book. What's important is how she is seen by other people.

Finally, Con grasps one profound truth: She was greatly loved. And with this knowledge, she is able to wrap her own daughter in her arms with the same radiant adoration. Con may not have been able to say a last goodbye, but in realizing how much her mother loved her she determines to live so that final farewells no longer matter. It is worth the journey to get to such an understanding. New York Times Syndicate