Dr. Lillian Rubin's book examines the lives of women as they grow from daughters into mothers and move on into the intimidating territory of old age. Tangled Lives uses pivotal events from the author's own life to illuminate the influence the mother-daughter bond has on a woman's identity, and the profound changes that come with aging.Interweaving her present-day challenges with the story of her immigrant Jewish family's struggle, Dr. Rubin presents a tapestry of a contemporary woman's life. Her mother's death gives her occasion to reflect on her life's path: her father's sudden death when she was five, her mother's grueling labor in the New York garment industry before unions made the work barely tolerable, her own climb from poverty, and her lifelong battle with her mother. As she lies in a hospital bed recovering from a nearly fatal blood clot, she recounts triumphantly how, in defiance of her own troubled history with her mother, she forged a deep and meaningful relationship with her daughter. Read Less