Books like The Autobiography of My Mother

Who am I? Am I the sum of my family's biological and social imprint on myself, or am I what is left after subtracting that sum from the total of me? Jamaica Kincaid writes a compelling autobiography of a fictitious character's mother, who died at the birth of the narrator and yet had such strong influence on her life. How do we play with the cards we are dealt? Do we even know the rules of the various card game(s) we (un)engage in? Why does it seem we always have fewer cards than we need, and not the right ones at any given moment?Life's both complicated and banal, lovely and lonely, strange and familiar. And thus, this novel on life is all those things as well. My life is a little richer for having read it!