OK I hate my mother as much as the next woman, but thankfully I didn't try to turn my whining into art by the use of the rather dubious device of repetition. Her mother didn't even seem that bad and if you take into account her generation and cultural back ground she was probably what we feminists call a `good woman'. As for her relationship with her brother -same. Give it a rest, take it to therapy and get over it. Boring book.