Looking After: A Son's Memoir

In 1988, at the age of 80, Zilla, the author's independent, adventurous mother, became unable to continue living alone on the Maine seacoast and relocated to her son's home in Portland. Daniel, a poet (Common Ground), essayist (The Trail Home) and teacher, here relates the four difficult years he and his wife, Marilyn, spent caring for Zilla, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In graceful, poignant prose, he describes how his mother, a former labor organizer and spiritual seeker who traveled to ashrams in India, declined into an increasingly helpless old woman. The author is at his best when recounting his sometimes fruitful attempts to communicate with Zilla and in describing the strain caretaking put on his marriage. His mother died in 1992. Daniel also recalls events from his childhood in an attempt to fight an ongoing depression. Although some of his memories are interesting, accounts of his LSD trips are repetitive, and his relentless introspection grows tiresome. (Oct.)