Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mother’s Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind By Julie Metz Atria Books; 320 pages; $28 The Eve in the title was Julie Metz’s mother, a rare example in her day of a woman who managed to have it all. She rose to the position of art director at Simon & Schuster while raising a family, running their city apartment and country house, cooking meals, doing laundry, preparing tax forms, and on and on. She was a formidable woman, who was more feared than loved by her daughter. The two tussled throughout the latter’s childhood and eventually settled into a calmer relationship that was, for Julie, no more satisfying, characterized as it was by her conscious avoidance of conflict and “without the full abandon we probably both craved.” The Eva in...

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