Stephanie Wrobel on mothers and The Recovery of Rose Gold

by |May 18, 2020
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Stephanie Wrobel grew up in Chicago but has been living in the UK for the last three years with her husband and dog, Moose Barwinkle. She has an MFA from Emerson College, has had short fiction published in Bellevue Literary Review, and was nominated for the 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Before turning to fiction, she worked as a creative copywriter at various advertising agencies.

Stephanie’s debut novel is a psychological thriller about the relationship between a mother and daughter called The Recovery of Rose Gold, and today she’s on the blog to tell us about it. Read on …


Stephanie Wrobel

Stephanie Wrobel

When I had gotten the restraining order against her, did I truly believe I would never see or speak to my mother again, for as long as we both should live? Maybe I liked to think so during fits of anger, but the honest answer was: no, of course not. I had permanently cut other people from my life for less, but none of them was my mother.

What is it about our mothers? Their opinions matter more. We let them get away with more. Their words make us fly higher and crash harder. We don’t hold them to the standards we put on other people. Because they’re not just other people.

Whether she deserves a medal or prison sentence for her parenting, she has a grip over us like few others in our lives. Maybe it’s because we once lived inside of her. She was our first home. From her we learned to breathe, to blink, to eat. When we separated from one being into two, she showed us how to be. She taught us right from wrong—or tried to, anyway. She knew what to do about skinned knees and broken hearts. In a world full of enemies unknown, she is the one person who’s supposed to keep us safe, to be on our side. The mother/child bond is sacred.

Except when it isn’t.

In some cases, like the one in The Recovery of Rose Gold, the mother is the child’s affliction. Patty is both the disease and the cure. When Rose Gold realises Patty has ruined her childhood, she vacillates between a thirst for revenge and an aching need for the seminal relationship in her life. Without her mother, she loses her way.

With their cat-and-mouse games, Patty and Rose Gold Watts may seem like anything but the average mother and daughter. But if you remove the deceit and dysfunction, you’re left with a relationship like any other. Rose Gold wants independence from her mother while holding onto Patty’s love and approval. Most of us can relate to that, can remember our own struggles to exert ourselves as we left behind childhood’s innocent certainty for the shaky ground of adulthood. As for Patty, she wants to be needed, appreciated, even adored once in a while. She put her entire life on hold to care for her daughter, and now she feels tossed aside, insignificant. How many parents have watched their children in their more angelic moments—playing nicely in the backyard, taking summertime naps—and wished they could freeze the moment right there, prayed that their children would stay young and need them forever?

Patty and Rose Gold are not so unlike you and me. They’re looking for happiness and freedom and connection. They’d like to have their cake and eat it too. The only difference is they’re willing to poison the cake to get what they want.

The Recovery of Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.

The Recovery of Rose Goldby Stephanie Wrobel

The Recovery of Rose Gold

by Stephanie Wrobel

Rose Gold Watts believed she was sick for eighteen years. She thought she needed the feeding tube, the surgeries, the wheelchair . . .

Turns out her mum, Patty, is a really good liar.

After five years in prison Patty Watts is finally free. All she wants is to put old grievances behind her, reconcile with her daughter - and care for her new infant grandson. When Rose Gold agrees to have Patty move in, it seems their relationship is truly on the mend. But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty won't rest until she has her daughter back under her thumb...

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