Missing mom : a novel

In MISSING MOM, 31-year-old Nikki Eaton, single, sexually liberated and economically self-supporting, a young woman who never particularly thought of herself as a daughter, learns to cope with the unexpected loss of her mother over the course of a tumultous year of mourning that brings sorrow, illumination, wisdom, and even, from an unexpected source, a nurturing love.

Nikki Eaton, single, thirty-one, sexually liberated, and economically self-supporting, has never particularly thought of herself as a daughter. Yet, following the unexpected loss of her mother, she undergoes a remarkable transformation during a tumultuous year that brings stunning horror, sorrow, illumination, wisdom, and even—from an unexpected source—a nurturing love.

The New York Times Book Review - Stacey D'Erasmo

With Missing Mom, Oates turns her considerable force on the conundrum of the absence of an ordinary woman, Gwen Eaton, a 56-year-old housewife in Mount Ephraim, N.Y.…and how that absence ripples through the lives around her…Oates's grip on crime, violence and the long-buried is sure, but Missing Mom is actually more disturbing in its relentless, dead-on accretion of small-time, small-town, middle-class details. Oates piles them on with pitiless virtuosity.

Title from e-book title screen (viewed on Oct. 5, 2005)