b'notme.Itsalittle piece of the mood, of SUMMERthe vibe.Mothersarenot REGISTRATIONmerely a subject that REGISTER NOW! IS NOW OPEN! intriguesherbe-Try somethingcauseshehasspent somuchofherlife new. Take yourbeingone.Likeher interests toprotagonist in In the another level.Orchard, Minot also Get a head losthermotheratThe Price/Minot family in 2012: family life was busy and full.an early age. She was start onjust seven years old when her motherMinot replies my older sisters (rough-next yearswas killed in an automobile accident. ly 19, 21, and 22 at the time) stepped classes. Her first book, The Tiny One, wasinto that space, and my dad too, as best also a fictionalized act of remember- they could.ing,boththatmotherandthelittleAnd eventually, one imagines, it was SE S SIO N SR U N girlwhomournedher.Thatsheher own act of becoming a mother that should turn that act of memory intofilled the void. In 2006, pregnant with M AY2 3AU G U ST2 5 a novel seemed natural to her. She isher last child and just before her sec-the youngest of seven; two of her olderond novel was published, she told The siblings also are novelists, and her step- New York Times that I think a good SCANsister, who she grew up with, is authoramount of having four kids for me is HERE TOLily King.to give them (and myself, I guess) the LEARNHer father was from an old Bostonkind of childhood that I didnt have. MORE family and a banker, but Minot says heAssuming I dont get mowed over by a had a way with words. Deep down,bus. But one never knows. And if that I think he was a writer. Her motherhappens, theyll have each other, just also loved words and was a great read- like I have my siblings.er. And she was just 13 when her olderFortunately, Minot is still here. Be-sister Susan became an almost imme- causeofthat,theworldhasanovel diateliterarysensationwithherfirstthat speaks to the awe and poetry of novel. Having grown up hearing themotherhood,andfourchildrenin clack of Susans typewriter, Minot rea- Maplewood have a mother who (as its soned that writing novels seemed likeeasy to tell from reading her work) is a real thing to do. present, loving, and wonderful, paying Besides, she confesses, it was a wayattention to it all. of coping. TiaSwansonalsocomesfromalarge So, it seems, is family. family and is a mother of four. She knows Askedwhohadfilledtheroleofthe wonder of it.mother for her after her moms death, A Zoom call with family during the pandemic in 2020.14/ matters magazine / spring 2023'