Good Reads / Community Library Notes
They May Not Mean to But They Do
Cathleen Schine
Review by Priscilla Comen
They May Not Mean to But They Do
Cathleen Schine
Review by Priscilla Comen
They May Not Mean to But They Do by Cathleen Schine is a delightful story of a family coming of age. Author Schine writes a bitter-sweet tale of aging parents and growing children who try to be independent, but feel guilty when their parents get old. Joy is the matriarch who takes care of her ailing husband Aaron. She cleans him up after a bad night, changes his colostomy bag, and goes to work at a museum nearby. Her daughter, Molly, lives in California with her lesbian wife. Daniel, Joy’s son, is married to Coco and has two children, Ruby and Cora. Daniel lives nearby and visits weekly—or monthly—as his conscience dictates.
Molly and Daniel want mom to put Aaron in a home, but she won’t. She knows he would hate it. Author Schine writes with experience of her subject, but makes it humorous as well as troublesome. Molly feels guilty too when her mother says it’s too cold and icy to go outside. The doorman of her building won’t allow her to go out. Molly invites her to California for a month in the winter. Joy goes, but hates it. She feels useless so they get her a dog, Gatto. He refuses to walk so she carries him everywhere. She takes him to her New York apartment. He’s her best friend.
Daniel and his family celebrate Christmas and Chanukah, and their daughter Ruby, studies to be Bat Mitzvah. She gets a slingshot as a present and shoots a hole in the window of a local market. She is so sorry, but the owner’s friend, a rabbi, says it was an accident. Aaron dies, and after his funeral, Joy is told, she was “a trooper.” She was. It was the saddest day of her life. Freddie, Molly’s wife, must deal with her father’s strange behavior at Green Gardens retirement home in California. He has many women friends there, and they’re all jealous.
Joy doesn’t like to be alone at night—nor during the day. When her grandson Ben comes to stay in New York for a week, she is overjoyed. Author Schine tugs at our hearts. When the entire family goes to up state New York to Joy’s country home for the summer, Joy loves seeing her grandchildren every day, but is annoyed by all their noise and running around. She meets an old college friend, Karl, an old friend of Aaron’s, in Central Park. They also meet at a local Deli most mornings and develop a friendship. They talk about the past and about their children, who try to tell their parents how to live their lives. Will Joy invite Karl to Ruby’s Bat Mitzvah? Will they live together as he suggests?
This tender family story is on the new fiction shelf of your community library.
Molly and Daniel want mom to put Aaron in a home, but she won’t. She knows he would hate it. Author Schine writes with experience of her subject, but makes it humorous as well as troublesome. Molly feels guilty too when her mother says it’s too cold and icy to go outside. The doorman of her building won’t allow her to go out. Molly invites her to California for a month in the winter. Joy goes, but hates it. She feels useless so they get her a dog, Gatto. He refuses to walk so she carries him everywhere. She takes him to her New York apartment. He’s her best friend.
Daniel and his family celebrate Christmas and Chanukah, and their daughter Ruby, studies to be Bat Mitzvah. She gets a slingshot as a present and shoots a hole in the window of a local market. She is so sorry, but the owner’s friend, a rabbi, says it was an accident. Aaron dies, and after his funeral, Joy is told, she was “a trooper.” She was. It was the saddest day of her life. Freddie, Molly’s wife, must deal with her father’s strange behavior at Green Gardens retirement home in California. He has many women friends there, and they’re all jealous.
Joy doesn’t like to be alone at night—nor during the day. When her grandson Ben comes to stay in New York for a week, she is overjoyed. Author Schine tugs at our hearts. When the entire family goes to up state New York to Joy’s country home for the summer, Joy loves seeing her grandchildren every day, but is annoyed by all their noise and running around. She meets an old college friend, Karl, an old friend of Aaron’s, in Central Park. They also meet at a local Deli most mornings and develop a friendship. They talk about the past and about their children, who try to tell their parents how to live their lives. Will Joy invite Karl to Ruby’s Bat Mitzvah? Will they live together as he suggests?
This tender family story is on the new fiction shelf of your community library.