Mother’s Day in The Empire State

Former military and now Child Protection Services officer Constantia Munda takes readers on a road trip of what motherhood might mean in New York state (read: Albany) in MOTHER’S DAY IN THE EMPIRE STATE. Using the architecture of a legal deposition, she alternates ‘spying’ visits with two mothers in particular – Barbara Dalton and Madeline McHugh – at opposite ends of the demographic spectrum. Though the ending is tragic, it’s enlightened by descriptive prose, comic portraits (her boss and the gas station man, in particular), and occasional asides (e.g., on painter Thomas Kinkade).