Mother with Dog

Äiti ja koira

The Bergman marriage is buried in silence. The divorce elicits only a few shrugs and halfhearted surprise: They were still married? After all, divorces come and go, like coronary angioplasties, bankruptcies, prostate cancers, heroin overdoses, and mental problems. Andy Bergman gets the townhouse and a straw-blond laboratory assistant, and he continues his research into a Viagra for women. Meeri gets a rental apartment, three adult children who shun work and seek self-realization, and a grandson.

The shock, grief, and bitterness are kept appropriately civilized and apologetic, and the story unfolds as expected—until Meeri meets a dog that cannot bark and a young painter creating a fresco on a ceiling in a luxury cruise ship. Then she learns about a coffee commercial and a production team desperately in need of a dog, a fresco, and a woman who looks like Buster Keaton. Her life changes in an instant, and this is too much for the family. Men routinely flaunt younger girlfriends and other trophies, but is a younger lover appropriate for mothers? Even for middle-aged mothers?

Mother with Dog examines this delicious turn of events from the perspectives of the various family members.

Previously published in

Latvian (Atena)
Lithuanian (Mintis)