"The author makes Tom out to be a loving son, but the mother writes a note to him saying that there was a rift between them and he didn't return her love. C'mon

"The author makes Tom out to be a loving son, but the mother writes a note to him saying that there was a rift between them and he didn't return her love. C'mon Tom, you spend your life ignoring your mother, then she's gone and now you care about her life?" An alternative reading of the situation might be that the mother was emotionally needy and manipulative, using her death to get the last word. It's extraordinarily common in teenage suicides, and this woman seemed similarly immature. Anybody with any experience of a dysfunctional relationship could identify the telltale signs of attention-seeking and conditional love. Tom seems very much the victim, here. As does his mother, frankly. It takes a very narrow, cynical view of psychology to claim that her mental state was irreversible, hinting at a serious, systemic lack of oversight and possibly even abuse. The ex post facto notification of the Tom's mother's death is particularly cruel.