Mother-daughter relationships are fraught. Jenny Xie explores how

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Jenny Xie’s debut novel is Holding Pattern.

Cheryl Chan

Jenny Xie’s new novel dives into how “strange, infuriating and precious” mothers can be to their daughters.

Who is she? Xie is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York.

Originally from Shanghai, Xie has written and edited for a number of publications, as well as received scholarships and accolades for her work.
Holding Pattern is her debut novel, and focuses on Kathleen, a wayward graduate student who finds herself back at her mother’s house after her engagement falls apart and her academic career is put on pause. Everything in her life, including her complicated mother Marissa, seem to have changed beyond her own recognition.

What’s the big deal? Xie’s novel tackles plenty of the human intricacies that can make love, family and life so unique and so difficult.

There’s the impact of Marissa’s migration from China to the United States, as well as how it impacted her divorce and relationship with her daughter.
Then it grapples with Marissa’s imperfect mothering throughout Kathleen’s childhood, including a drinking problem, and emotional codependency that muddled the dynamics between mother and child.
Plus, the novel touches on the commodification of intimacy, when Kathleen takes work as a professional cuddler, and the cultural boundaries that make her mother hesitant to accept this line of work.

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