Being Esther by Miriam Karmel

Being Esther by Miriam Karmel

Growing old is one of the most surprising things that has happened to her. She hadn't given it any thought. Then one day, she was eighty-five. She is old. Not just old, but an object of derision, pity. Is there any use explaining that she is still herself--albeit a slower, achier, creakier version of the original? --from Being Esther

Born to parents who fled the shtetl, Esther Lustig has led a seemingly conventional life--marriage, two children, a life in suburban Chicago. Now, at the age of eighty-five, her husband is deceased, her children have families of their own, and most of her friends are gone. Even in this diminished condition, life has its moments of richness, as well as its memorable characters. But above all there are the memories. Of better days with Marty, her husband. Of unrealized obsessions with other men.

As she moves back and forth through time, Esther attempts to come to terms with the meaning of her outwardly modest life. As a young woman, she wondered about the world beyond the narrow, prescribed world she inhabited. Now, cruelly, she can't help but wonder if she has done anything for which she will be remembered.

At once sad and amusing, unpretentious yet wonderfully ambitious, Miriam Karmel's debut novel brings understanding and tremendous empathy to the unforgettable Esther Lustig.

A journalist and freelance writer, Miriam Karmel has published writing in ARP The Magazine, Minnesota Women's Press, Bellevue Literary Review, and Minnesota Monthly. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Sandisfield, Massachusetts. Being Esther is her first novel.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13
Title	Being Esther
Author	Miriam Karmel
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type
Publisher
Year published
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.