“…exceptionally lucid, unrelenting in its candor…extravagant in detail, unbridled in its laudatory acknowledgement of the mother figure…Reynolds’ finest..”
—Modeste Downes, author of Phases, Theatre of the Mind, and A lesson on Wings
Forthcoming May 2025
Through the example of his mother’s life, one of St. Lucia’s best storytellers and foremost public intellectuals brings us a rich and compelling narrative, suffused with the history and culture of his country, that presents invaluable lessons about dying, about how best to raise children, and how best to live a meaningful and impactful life right thru old age. It is a tour de force, an unflinching interrogation of history, the society that gave rise to the author, parent-child bonding and separation, family values, intergenerational trauma, mortality, religion and spirituality, and the nature of love and sacrifice.
The story is told of Philomene (1929-2020), the fourth of thirteen children of Marie and Jonah Francis, growing up under austere circumstances in rural St. Lucia in the Great Depression era. In her late teens, she forsakes the mainstream Roman Catholic Church into which she was born for the fringe Seventh-Day Adventist denomination. Her subsequent marriage to St. Brice Reynolds, a tailor by trade, takes her to the town of Vieux Fort in the late 1940s as the Americans were in the process of decommissioning their World War II Vieux Fort military base.
In Vieux Fort, she and her husband wage a bread-and-butter struggle to keep their family of nine children afloat while wrestling to keep them on the straight and narrow path in a town they deemed a den of iniquity.
In the late 1950s, Philomene left her children in the care of her father and younger sisters to join her husband in London and thus become part of the great post-war West Indian migration, which would go down in history as the “Windrush Generation.” Philomene and her husband’s stint in England lasted only a few years and was part of an effort to better provide for their children, but the separation would have dire and possible lasting consequences for the children left behind.
Praise for My Mother
“The writing is exceptionally lucid and unrelenting in its candor…extravagant in detail, unbridled in its laudatory acknowledgement of the mother figure; this book is Reynolds’ finest…it reads as smoothly and as entertainingly as any Hemingway, Dylan Thomas, or Toni Morrison work.”
—Modeste Downes, author of A Lesson on Wings
“A wonderful book… a rich reading experience… This will be an important book for many people, in how it goes deep into the workings of a family, and how it holds up for both inquiry and honoring, this quite astonishing woman; and in how it brings forward the intricate connections of the historical, cultural, emotional, economic context with the lives of individuals and families. The real nature of this book is that it thrives in its wonderful writing, honesty, rich context, and guided investigation by the narrator of how his world works.”
—Anya Achtenberg, author of Blue Earth
“Anderson Reynolds tells the life story of a St. Lucian woman, his mother, whose motherly love, as well as her capacity to extend this overwhelming concern to her larger family and community, seems almost larger than life…it’s a tale of the best in the human spirit…”
—Allan Weekes, author of Talk of the Devil
The juxtaposition of the author’s personal experience of his mom, his mother’s researched life story (and that of her relatives), and St. Lucia’s contemporary history makes this a well-written, very interesting, very readable, very multi-faceted book. Narrated social history at its best.
—Dr. Jolien Harmsen, author of A History of St. Lucia
Author’s Note
My Mother: A Memoir of the Enduring Human Spirit is my second memoir and seventh book. It is the second installment of a planned memoir trilogy, where the first installment, My Father Is No Longer There, focused on my father, and the third and final installment will focus on my life with emphasis on my school days. Please look out for My Mother in May 2025, when it will be published and officially launched.
I want to thank you for reading my books and blogs and following me on social media. I hope you found my books worthwhile reads. I’m very much interested in what you thought of them, and I’m sure other readers would, too, so it would mean a lot to me for you to leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or other online platforms.