Showing results by author "Cathleen Schine" in All Categories

Joy Bergman is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace her children, Molly and Daniel, would prefer. She won't take their advice, and she won't take an antidepressant. Her marriage to their father, Aaron, has lasted through health and dementia, as well as some phenomenally lousy business decisions. The Bergman clan has always stuck together, growing as it incorporated in-laws, ex-in-laws, and same-sex spouses. But families don't just grow, they grow old.

The Grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret "twin" tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but this love, which has always bound them together, begins instead to push them apart. Their fraying twinship finally shreds completely when the sisters go to war, absurdly but passionately, over custody of their most prized family heirloom: Merriam Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition.

When Joseph Weissmann divorced his wife, Betty, he was 78 years old and she was 75. The Weissmann sisters, Miranda, a successful literary agent, and Annie, a library director, unexpectedly find themselves the middle-aged products of a broken home. Dumped by her husband of nearly 50 years and exiled from their elegant New York apartment, Betty moves to a small, run-down Westport beach cottage. Joining her are Miranda and Annie, who comes along to keep an eye on her capricious mother and sister.

It's 1964. Eleven-year-old Fin and his glamorous, worldly, older half sister, Lady, have just been orphaned, and Lady, whom Fin hasn't seen in six years, is now his legal guardian and his only hope. That means Fin is uprooted from a small dairy farm in rural Connecticut to Greenwich Village, smack in the middle of the swinging '60s. He soon learns that Lady-giddy, careless, urgent, and obsessed with being free-is as much his responsibility as he is hers.

For years Mamie Künstler, ninety-three-years-old, as clever and glamorous as ever, has lived happily in her bungalow in Venice, California, with her inscrutable housekeeper and her gigantic St. Bernard dog. Their tranquility is upended when Mamie’s grandson, Julian, arrives from New York City. Like many a twenty-something, he has come to seek his fortune in Hollywood. But it is 2020, the global pandemic sweeps in, and Julian’s short visit suddenly has no end in sight.

Elizabeth is an ambivalent academic living in New York City with Brett and their young son, Harry. Everyone wants Elizabeth to marry Brett, including Brett, but whenever marriage comes up, the intended bride quickly changes the subject. Then Elizabeth publishes a paper on Madame Bovary that catches the eye of an impetuous movie producer, and her life turns upside down...

Joseph Weissmann er 78 og hans kone Betty 75, da han meddeler hende, at han vil skilles. Betty forvises fra deres stilfulde lejlighed i New York efter 48 års ægteskab og flytter midlertidigt ind i et lille, nedslidt sommerhus i badebyen Westport. Her får hun selskab af sine to midaldrende døtre, der hver især har deres at slås med. Den impulsive Mirandas karriere som litterær agent ligger i ruiner efter en række skandaler, og den mere pragmatiske Annie har svært ved at finde sig til rette, efter børnene er fløjet fra reden, men føler sig nu forpligtet til at holde øje med sin ulykkelige mor og ustabile søster.