Stern, Kathryn Glasgow

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STERN, Kathryn Glasgow

PERSONAL:

Married James D. Stern (a managing partner in an investment firm, Broadway and Hollywood producer, and part owner of the Chicago Bulls); children: Esmé, Satchel.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Chicago, IL. Agent—c/o Random House, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

CAREER:

Writer and journalist. Producer, with others, of the film 35 Miles from Normal, 1997.

WRITINGS:

Another Song about the King (novel), Random House (New York, NY), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

In Kathryn Glasgow Stern's first novel, Another Song about the King, she explores the difficult relationship that exists between a mother and daughter, Mimi and Silvie. Mimi had one bright spot in her life, at age sixteen: a single date with future superstar rock-and-roll singer Elvis Presley. Mimi goes on to marry someone else, a traveling shoe salesman named Dan, with whom she has Silvie, but she remains obsessed with Elvis and her brush with fame.

Another Song about the King "captures the interesting place of women in the sixties, as Mimi struggles with her boredom and unfulfilled ambition," Beth Gibbs noted in Library Journal. Mimi's frustration leads her to become competitive with Silvie and to express herself the only way she knows how: sewing her own outrageous frocks. After growing up in Mimi's overbearing and melodramatic shadow, an adult Silvie escapes to New York, makes a new life for herself, and falls in love, but when Mimi is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Silvie returns to her family's Michigan home to take care of Mimi as she dies. Stern "handles the love/hate relationship between mothers and daughters with skill and understanding," Kristine Huntley wrote in Booklist.