Mothers and Daughters

Continuing her exploration of the relationship between women and their mothers, Caron (""Don't Stop Loving Me"": A Reassuring Guide to Mothers of Adolescent Daughters) conducted extensive interviews with female subjects in the U.S. between the ages of 20 and 30 for this anecdotal study. She examines how that generation of women, who have had more freedom to choose a way of life than their mothers, are handling the transition into adulthood. The trend toward delaying marriage, Caron finds, has encouraged young women to form support networks of female friends. As Caron judges from their testimony, these young women do not turn away from their mothers and are far more likely to treat them as equals. At the same time, their mothers, whom the author also interviewed, are now freed from child care and are looking for new friendships and opportunities. Although the mothers claim to be pleased that their daughters have less constricted lifestyles than they had, they also express concern about whether their children can successfully balance the demands of career and marriage. Included also are chapters on ""Lesbian Daughters"" and on religious ties that bind--or don't. For all its useful findings, Caron's investigation appears to be limited to the college- educated, and her presentation suffers somewhat from the clinical evenness of its tone. Editor, Cynthia Vartan; agent, Molly Friedrich; author tour. (Sept.)