MOMMY DRESSING A Love Story, After a Fashion

In narrating this book about growing up in a single-parent celebrity household and having a loveless childhood, reader Mary Peiffer manages to avoid some of the whining tone obvious in the text. She presents an upbeat interpretation of the story, including the depressing and horrifying portions of Gould's girlhood. Distinguishing not at all in tone between the self-pitying passages and those of fun and mischief, the performance sounds kind of creepy. While ostensibly a memoir of Gould's relationship with her mother, designer Jo Copeland, this book says more about Gould herself, and offers disappointingly little insight into the life of the famous fashion designer. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 00]