The mother

Outer characterization

The mother is an important character in the short story “The North London Book of the Dead” by Will Self. Her son, the unnamed narrator, reveals that his mother had “a couple of failed marriages and a collection of children who, on the whole, were a bit of a disappointment to her” (p. 115, ll. 6-8). She used to dress in an eccentric fashion, at least according to her son (p. 116, ll. 30-35).

When the narrator meets his mother in North London, she is wearing “a sort of bluish, tweedish long jacket and black slacks and carrying a Barnes & Noble book bag, as well as a large handbag and carrier bag from Waitrose” (p. 118, ll. 26-29).

The narrative also reveals that the mother is “a fervent atheist and materialist” (p. 115, l. 10) and that she owns cats before and after death (p. 119, l. 14). She dies of cancer, and, after her death, she works “for a li...