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Swish: Maria in the Mourning

By Pamela Palmer Mutino

Book Room Review

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“The American dream deferred...but you will never forget Maria.” A true story of love, loss, and recovery, which chronicles a mother's process of mourning after losing her only child, the beautiful and charismatic Maria, to a heroin overdose at the age of twenty-three, Swish transcends any other book ever written about addiction. The author's eloquent and unique writing style masterfully speaks to every aspect of the human condition through its powerful imagery and deft depictions of unconditional love, strength and hope.

The books cover shows Maria's maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Daniel Palmer, on their wedding day (January 26th, 1946). Maria’s grandfather (a master sergeant in the U.S. Army who landed in Normandy on D-Day, and served for thirty-one years in the military) seems to hold the twenty-three year-old bride as if he sensed that their time together would end too soon. Maria's grandmother died of breast cancer at the age of forty-one. In the foreground of the picture, on the same dance floor, are Maria and her beloved boyfriend, Frankie. Although seemingly poised as the golden couple, they unknowingly duplicate the same foreshadowing embrace. Thus, it offers a portrait of the American dream deferred.

Imagine your daughter’s wedding day and helping her into her beautiful dress. Now, imagine the sound her dress makes…Swish…Swish. Pamela Mutino will never hear that sound. She will never see her only daughter get married. She really does have to imagine that day because it will not be reality for her. Swish is a beautiful story written by a mother to her daughter. Pamela Mutino’s only child died of a heroin overdose at the young age of twenty-three. Mutino delves deep into her soul and bares her pain for all of her readers. In the first chapter, Mutino imagines her daughter’s wedding. In the second, she faces reality at her daughter’s graveside. And we feel her pain.

Mutino writes about her experience and details events I could not imagine. Especially touching is when Mutino noticed petals had fallen on Maria’s body during Maria’s visitation and she wondered why Maria did not brush them off. Another chapter that affected me was her chapter detailing her cruel treatment at the hospital when she found out about Maria’s death. She writes a letter to the hospital asking them, among other things, why they could not have even cleaned the blood off Maria’s neck and shoulders before she had to face her daughter lying on the table. Mutino shares with readers of Swish Maria’s personal letters from jail and rehab, so we gain some insight into the struggles Maria faced in her short life. A talented writer, Mutino is also a playwrite, and as she tells in her book, she had no intention of ever writing anything. But she knew at some point her writing was her way of working through her personal tragedy. The best way to do justice to such a beautiful and emotional story is to end with Mutino’s words.

“I only knew that there was a story in me that was going to haunt me until it was in print. I did not want pity for my suffering. I wanted Maria’s beautiful spirit to live on in such a way that others would connect to their own truths, when it came to loving, losing, living, dying and moving on.” – Pamela Palmer Mutino, Swish: Maria in the Mourning

Learn more about the author, Pamela Palmer Mutino, and her personal insights on life, writing, and more in our exclusive Authors Room!

Book Room Grade

A

Review Posted: June 11, 2008

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