Mother-Daughter Banquet: A Memoir explores the concept of motherhood. After losing her mother at the age of nine, Alice Bloch becomes a surrogate mother to her four younger siblings. In turn, a formidable triumvirate of grandmother, stepmother, and aunt step into the maternal role to fill the void in Bloch's development as a woman and as a writer. Mother-Daughter Banquet: A Memoir explores the concept of motherhood. After losing her mother at the age of nine, Alice Bloch becomes a surrogate mother to her four younger siblings. In turn, a formidable triumvirate of grandmother, stepmother, and aunt step into the maternal role to fill the void in Bloch's development as a woman and as a writer.