59 pages • 1-hour read
Like Mother, Like Mother
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Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Grace”
Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary: “College”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of emotional abuse.
On the second night of their first year at the University of Chicago—in September 2011—Grace explains her family to Ruth. Ruth is the only child of a hardworking, unwed mother, and her grandmother raised her. Her mother saved enough to send her to the University of Florida, and when she got a full ride to Chicago, her mother bought a house. Ruth is brilliant, and she credits Mrs. Goldsmith, her high-school English teacher, for helping her reach her potential. Ruth and Grace do not look like their mothers, and their birthdays are exactly six months apart: Ruth’s is on the spring equinox, March 21, while Grace’s is on the autumn equinox, September 21. Ruth points out that, if it were Grace’s father who’d been absent, she’d have no complaints and think it was “natural.” She says Grace won the “Dad sweepstakes” while she won the best mom, and she compares Grace to Athena.
Part 2, Chapter 11 Summary: “Thanksgiving”
After Halloween, Lila tells Grace to invite Ruth to Tara for Thanksgiving. On the way, Grace explains about Frances, how she will insist on taking Ruth shopping and buying things for her. Lila describes Frances’s habit as bounty and not charity; she has a lot, so she gives a lot. At 80, Frances still moves with the vigor and speed of a much younger woman. The day after they arrive, Ruth joins Frances for breakfast and asks how she met her husband. Frances explains that she had a gentile boyfriend in college, George, and when her father found out, he flew into a rage, calling her a “nafka, a whore in Yiddish, and a shande, a disgrace to the community” (127). She and her mother ran to the home of their family friends, the Maiers. Frances’s mother threatened divorce if her father became abusive again. He was top brass at GM—no divorces allowed—and Frances and Martin Maier were soon engaged because she couldn’t live with her father any longer. Frances insists Ruth come for Thanksgiving every year.
Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary: “Florida”
After the holiday, Ruth points out that Frances still hasn’t forgiven her father. Grace says she’ll “never get over Lila,” and if she has kids, they will “never get over” her either (134). Ruth claims Frances looks back at the past while Lila looks to the future. Grace is amazed by Ruth’s mind, and Ruth says she just wants to be “fair”; Grace laughs because she wants to be “right.” Ruth invites Grace to visit her mom and gran in Florida that summer. Grace explains that she and her sisters call their parents by their first names because Lila’s on a first-name basis with everyone but the president. Ruth tells Grace that she recently took a DNA test with a company called Genealogies. Her “progenitor’s” name is Robert E. Lee Bates, and the company matched Ruth’s DNA to that of his brother, Jeff Bates. Her mother and gran didn’t want her to take the test, but she felt she needed to. The day Ruth got the results, Bobby Lee’s wife, Jacqui, called Ruth’s mom, insisting “Little Ruth” shouldn’t give them any “trouble.” Her mother told them Ruth doesn’t need anything from them.
Ruth gets a summer job as a paralegal for Mr. Goldsmith. The Goldsmiths invite Ruth and Grace to dinner, and later, Ruth commends Grace for the way she discussed Lila. Grace says one of Lila’s rules is “[n]o whining in public” because people forget the story but remember the storyteller as a whiner (144).
Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary: “Interviews”
In a past timeline, just before the 2012 election, Joe puts the house up for sale, moving forward with the separation. When Grace comes home, he tells her that he and Lila are separating. Grace isn’t surprised because they’ve been living separate lives for years. Her friendship with Ruth reminds her of the Starbirds, and Joe says he can detect a new charm in her humor rather than just “barbs.” This pleases Grace. Later, she calls Lila’s office to make an appointment. When they meet, Grace asks about the separation, and Lila says she’s waiting Joe out, that she wants to stay married. Lila needs her job, but she says she loves her family more. Grace asks if she’s having an affair with Doug, and Lila neither confirms nor denies it. Grace calls the Starbirds to get their take on the separation. They know their parents are still in love, but Stella isn’t sure what Grace wants from Lila, and Ava says Grace is still longing for the kind of mother who picks her kids up from school. That’s not Lila. Stella asks if Grace ever talks to Lila about her day or her work, and Grace realizes she’s whining again. Ava points out that Grace forgets about Aldo and how Lila didn’t know how to be a good parent and left it up to Joe, which was safest. Stella defends Lila, saying she’s “damaged,” and Ava calls her “heroic.”
Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary: “Graduation”
Grace graduates with honors, as does Ruth. In the short term, Ruth wants to make money and have fun; in the long term, she wants to start a podcast called Elephant Memories. She’ll ask people, including celebrities, about their family histories and stories. Joe offers Ruth a paralegal job in DC, and Lila offers her a room. Ruth takes the job and moves in with Lila, and Mrs. Goldsmith warns her not to look back. Grace finds work as the NYC correspondent with The Town Crier. She still plans to write her book, eventually.
After graduation, The Tallahassee Register runs a story about Ruth. A week later, Ruth gets an email from Jefferson Davis Bates, her paternal uncle. He says he writes on behalf of the family, that Bobby Lee was only 16 when she was conceived, a “young sinner.” Now, he’s a born-again Christian, and Jeff hopes Ruth is a “good Christian.” He wishes her a pleasant life. Ruth bursts into tears, and her mom says that the Bateses are not good Christians; her gran says they’re scared because they don’t want people to find out about Ruth. She shows Joe the email, and he thinks Jeff may have had a lawyer help him write it. Lila says it was designed to hurt Ruth and that she would respond so as not to give the impression of consent. Ruth regrets taking the DNA test, but Lila says Ruth was standing up for herself.
Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary: “Real World”
Ruth asks Joe if she can use the firm’s investigatory service to find email addresses for Jacqui and Bobby Lee. He advises her to look up their criminal records, too. Jeff has a criminal record and spent a year in jail. Jacqui was arrested once for battery. Ruth emails Jeff, saying she’ll only discuss the matter with Bobby Lee. She spends two years at Joe’s firm, then decides to go west to learn to ski. First, she goes home to Tallahassee, but it doesn’t feel like home anymore. She visits the Goldsmiths while their twin sons, Nico and Xander, are there. Nico flirts with Ruth and kisses her when he drives her home. They agree to meet the next day for lunch.
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary: “Real Life”
Grace tires of the gossip beat. She wants to cover the wealthy, especially those who make big political contributions. She approaches her boss, determined to take Lila’s advice to never say no to herself but, rather, make someone else do it. He gives her permission, and after one particularly successful article, Grace takes a job at The New Yorkist. Lila likes Grace’s writing, and her praise pleases Grace. They share interview strategies and tips, and Grace is thrilled to “talk shop” with Lila. She wishes Lila would say she loves her when they hang up, but she realizes Lila didn’t take any credit for Grace’s success either. She recalls Lila saying, long ago, that taking pride in her kids’ achievements felt like taking credit for them. Grace puts The Lost Mother on hold again.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary: “Oligarchs”
Grace starts the job at The New Yorkist in November 2017 and spends six months covering real estate moguls before asking to cover the Russian oligarchs. She claims they supported Webb, who brags that Putin thinks he’s the “greatest” world leader. Grace’s first article features an interview with one of the oligarch’s ex-wives, Daria Molotova, and it gains attention. Molotova tells everyone that Grace is the best reporter she’s ever met, and doors open. Josh Morgan calls her with tips, admitting he knows Lila. He and Grace meet for lunch, and he encourages her to think of him as a mentor. He asks her to lunch a couple of days later and sends flowers. She has a good time; they make more plans. The next time, they go to a hotel. He is married, and she knows better, but they make standing plans to meet at the hotel every Friday.
Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary: “Next Moves”
On a ski slope on Christmas Eve, 2018, Nico and Ruth agree to marry “sometime,” but she wants to wait until after she launches her podcast. The Goldsmiths throw them an engagement party. Xander likes Grace from the start, but she scolds him for talking too much about himself. Later, Grace tells Ruth she understands why Jo March married the German professor instead of Laurie, and she wonders if Xander will ever be like his father. When the engagement announcement appears in The Tallahassee Register, Jacqui Bates calls again, asking Ruth’s gran how they could let her marry a Jew. Ms. McGowan says they have the wrong number and hangs up.
Part 2, Chapter 19 Summary: “Stuck”
After 18 months at The New Yorkist, Grace revisits her notes on The Lost Mother. She decides to start with Zelda, calling hers the family’s “origin story.” Grace insists Zelda fled to save herself, abandoning her children to an abusive father, and she tells Ruth that Lila believes in Zelda’s death because the alternative is too painful. Ruth moves to New York to be near Nico, still living on savings and working on the podcast, so she and Grace are back in the same city. Grace invents a life for Zelda after Aldo, realizing how much she wants to believe that Zelda lived. Her affair with Josh ends suddenly when his former lover warns Grace that he’s trying to get even with Lila. Grace breaks it off because she realizes the relationship has no future.
Part 2, Chapter 20 Summary: “Onward”
Doug Marshall starts a podcast in early 2020, calling it The Press Gang. He consults Lila for advice. Xander visits New York and asks Ruth to arrange a meeting with Grace. Ruth, Nico, Grace, and Xander have dinner, and Grace invites Xander to her place. They go to his hotel instead. In February, Lila gets COVID-19, and she spends three weeks in the hospital. She works all but the few days when she cannot lift her head. Lila asks Doug to take Ruth under his wing, and he hires her for his podcast team. After Lila, Ruth is the person he most likes working with, and he wants to help get her podcast off the ground. Xander asks Ruth if Grace could love him, and she tells him he must keep going to make it happen.
Grace is embarrassed around Doug after her book comes out. Ruth advises her to talk to him about it, and she does, wishing she’d not made up his affair with Lila. Doug tells her she should apologize to Joe. She now regrets writing The Lost Mother. Xander tells Grace he’s “crazy” about her, and she says thank you. Ruth gives him the same advice she did before. In two months, he tries again, saying he knew Grace was “the one” the first time he saw her. She laughs and promises to get back to him soon.
Part 2 Analysis
In this section, Rieger continues to employ allusions as a primary mode to develop characters. When Ruth first visits Frances at Tara, she thinks that the dining room table, which is “at least fourteen feet long,” resembles “the table in Citizen Kane […] but longer, grander” (126). Citizen Kane, which came out in 1941, satirizes the real-life newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst via the character of Charles Foster Kane. In the film, Kane’s wealth cannot buy him the relationships he wants, and it suggests that wealth without real emotional connection is empty and meaningless. Frances Maier, however, is Kane’s opposite. She never uses her money to influence others, and when there’s a risk that someone might perceive her bountiful gestures as manipulative—such as when Ruth visits—she abstains from making them. When Grace points out that Frances didn’t buy Ruth anything, Ruth says, “She knew I couldn’t have refused it, much as I would have wanted to” (132). Unlike Kane, then, Frances only uses her money to show love, never to exert power or establish control, a juxtaposition that demonstrates her integrity and goodness. Her generosity is not performative, nor is it transactional—it is simply an extension of her belief that wealth should be shared freely with those she cares about. This contrasts sharply with the way characters like Aldo or the Bates family view wealth, using it as a means of control rather than a source of genuine care.
In addition, Grace’s boss at The New Yorkist is named Charles Foster Kane, just like the film’s protagonist. He, too, exists in stark contrast to his movie counterpart. Grace likes working for him and impresses him with her knowledge of his namesake: “[Chuck Kane] was fair, he was honest, he was blunt, he was flexible, he was inappropriate” (184), emphasizing that one can be successful without being corrupt just as Frances shows that one can be rich without coveting power. This name choice subtly suggests that Grace’s professional environment at The New Yorkist mirrors Frances’s approach to wealth—one where success and integrity can coexist, offering a counterpoint to the corruption that pervades much of the novel’s political and journalistic landscape.
Other allusions amplify the emotional weight of the characters’ decisions and personalities. For example, Mrs. Goldsmith warns Ruth not to give up her plans and potential by returning to Tallahassee, lest she turn into a “pillar of salt” like Lot’s wife in the Bible (159). Lot’s wife was warned by angels not to look back upon the destruction of her home, which was a sinful place, but she did it anyway, and she turned to salt. It’s as though the job and room Joe and Lila offer in DC represent a kind of salvation for Ruth, a new start from which to make her dreams a reality, rather than remaining in the quagmire of a city she knows and hates. This biblical reference reinforces the idea that nostalgia or unresolved ties to the past can be inhibiting, preventing characters from moving forward. Ruth is given a choice: to remain bound to her origins or to carve out a new future for herself. Likewise, the Bates family’s tradition of naming children after Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis helps to establish their moral corruption and hypocrisy—especially as they claim to be “good Christian[s]” even as they eschew responsibility for Ruth and judge her for marrying a Jewish person. Their fixation on a past rooted in racial and cultural supremacy is juxtaposed against Ruth’s progressive and independent nature. By attempting to define Ruth within their own rigid, outdated framework, they expose their own moral bankruptcy. If Tallahassee is associated with people like the Bateses, then it’s clear that Ruth—who is progressive and intelligent—cannot remain in this setting.
Further, when Grace says she cannot imagine naming her children after presidents or generals, she speculates that she might be up for naming her kids after fictional characters, proposing “Jo March Maier and Nancy Drew McGowan” (128), as though these could be her own and Ruth’s names; this comparison is strengthened when she compares Xander to Laurie and Mr. Goldsmith to the German professor, Friedrich Bhaer, in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Laurie is emotionally immature, while Bhaer is older and wiser. By aligning herself with Jo March, Grace highlights her ambition and stubbornness, but also her tendency to resist traditional expectations of femininity and romance. That Grace sees Ruth as more like Nancy Drew also helps to demonstrate the way she sees her friend. Jo March is quite stubborn and very proud, while Nancy Drew is much easier to get along with and known for being exceedingly clever. Nancy Drew’s detective-like qualities also align with Ruth’s investigative approach to understanding her origins, particularly through her decision to take a DNA test.
The contrast between Grace’s choice of characters to represent herself and Ruth also highlights Ruth's position as Grace’s foil. Ruth credits Grace with asking excellent questions while Grace says to Ruth, “The things you think of never cross my mind. I don’t know if it’s because I’m unimaginative or inattentive” (134). Ruth tries to understand others, while Grace focuses on how others affect her. Ruth cares about being “fair,” she says, which makes Grace laugh because, like Jo March, Grace “want[s] to be right” (134). This fundamental difference between them—Ruth’s search for balance versus Grace’s desire for certainty—suggests that Grace’s worldview is shaped by the traumas of her upbringing, whereas Ruth’s is shaped by a deep sense of justice and objectivity. Ruth weighs possibilities, thinks deeply, and assesses others’ motivations, while Grace is more concerned with pragmatism and expresses a generally negative life outlook. While Grace complains about Lila, Ruth suggests that Grace never considers her father and that if her mother were her father, Grace would find nothing untoward about Lila’s behavior. She advises Grace to “[k]now [her] luck” in getting Joe as a father (116), just as Ruth knows how lucky she is with her mother.
Using another allusion, Ruth compares Grace to Athena, saying she’s her “dad’s daughter […], bursting from Zeus’s brain” (116). She crafts this comparison based on Grace’s looks and last name, but it also hints at the way her mind works, how Grace considers herself motherless just as Lila did. Like Athena, who was born fully formed and battle-ready, Grace resists the idea of emotional vulnerability, seeing it as a weakness rather than a necessary part of growth. This similarity emphasizes The Inescapability of Maternal Legacies, even when those legacies involve physical or emotional absentness. Further, Athena was the ancient Greek goddess of war, and Grace never shies away from conflict. Joe says the Starbirds were “easy […]. Not Grace” (95), as she “regularly started the day spoiling for a fight” (53). She can also be bristly and isn’t particularly eager to fall in love or marry, like the perpetually single maiden goddess. This comparison also suggests that Grace, like Athena, values intellect and strategy above emotional connection, which explains both her journalistic ambition and her struggle to form deep personal relationships.
Ruth’s first act of rebellion, on the other hand, is taking a DNA test during college. Ruth and Grace’s birthdays also highlight their differences, as Ruth’s falls on the spring equinox while Grace’s is on the autumn equinox; these days share exactly equal amounts of daylight and darkness, but one precedes the season of new birth while the other precedes a season of decline. This symbolic contrast suggests that Ruth represents renewal and forward motion, while Grace is more preoccupied with loss and past wounds. This mirrors Ruth’s focus on the good she sees, the light and the joy, while Grace fixates on what is dark or disappointing. As her foil, Ruth has some things in common with Grace, like being primarily raised by one parent, highlighting Grace’s choices and attitudes. Ruth also helps Grace to see herself clearly and to grow. Over time, Ruth’s presence in Grace’s life forces her to reconsider her rigid notions of selfhood and motherhood. By engaging with Ruth’s perspective, Grace gradually shifts from merely deconstructing her past to actively shaping her future.
Grace’s relationship with Ruth is particularly significant in shaping her self-perception, providing an external counterpoint to her own entrenched beliefs. While Grace often views herself as cynical and battle-ready, Ruth’s presence challenges this self-image, highlighting how Grace’s toughness is, in part, a defense mechanism rather than an inherent trait. Ruth’s ability to balance objectivity and emotional intelligence—traits that Grace struggles to reconcile—positions her as a guide of sorts, offering a perspective that Grace instinctively resists but ultimately values. The contrast between them emphasizes that Grace’s outlook is not immutable; rather, it is a product of her upbringing, and her interactions with Ruth reveal glimpses of her capacity for change. This dynamic reinforces the inescapability of maternal legacies while also suggesting that self-awareness and external influences can create opportunities for personal transformation. Grace’s friendship with Ruth, then, serves as a narrative vehicle for growth, underscoring how relationships—whether familial or chosen—shape one’s ability to break generational cycles.
Overall, this section of Like Mother, Like Daughter deepens the novel’s engagement with themes of The Importance of Women’s Personal and Professional Fulfillment and The Impact of Unresolved Trauma. Grace’s professional rise and personal struggles mirror Lila’s in some ways, but she also shows signs of breaking free from some of the cycles that shaped her mother, though they leave a heavy cloud on her outlook. Ruth’s role as both foil and confidante pushes Grace toward self-awareness, making their friendship a crucial element of her eventual transformation.
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