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Being Esther (2013)

by Miriam Karmel(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1571310967 (ISBN13: 9781571310965)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Milkweed Editions

review 1: A real charmer on many levels. Though Karmel lives in Minneapolis, she knows Chicago so well that it is an essential element for enjoying the book. Esther is 85 and doesn't want to move to assisted living as her family thinks she should. She likes her life just as it is. Her life becomes more narrow as her friends don't remember her; she isn't allowed to drive anymore, but she has fond memories of her husband and her earlier life. Karmel has written quite a fresh view of aging in this first novel. Hope she is working on another. And she thanks Ragdale Foundation for the time and space to write it.
review 2: This is book on the challenges of aging and the complexities of family relationships is both poignant and funny. I loved the feisty 85-year-old narrato... morer, Esther, and the language is wonderfully evocative while still remaining completely down-to-earth (my only complaint in this area is that the author used the simile "like handling quail's eggs" three different times in a book of less than 200 pages, which jumped out at me, but that's a quibble ... maybe says more about me than it does about her). I'd recommend this to anyone who's aging or who loves someone who's aging. :) less

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