Reinvented Lives - Softcover

Weissman, Annie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1482543141 ISBN 13: 9781482543148

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

This is poignant tale of lives changing. Eighty-year old Rae Hoffman shrugs off her forgetfulness. When she gets into a car accident and doesn’t remember it, her three daughters know it’s time to step in. Barbara, 56, Rae’s eldest daughter who lives in a nearby suburb of New Jersey, freaks out at her mother’s decline. Barbara is facing her own challenge of making a life for herself now that her children are grown and independent. Ellen, single and the youngest daughter at forty-eight, is a research scientist at a university in Iowa and too busy to deal with the situation. She’s vaguely dissatisfied with her life. Rhoda, the middle daughter, a first grade teacher in Phoenix and the single parent of two rebellious teenage boys is pressured into taking care of the situation. Rhoda investigates senior living options for her mother, and invites Rae to visit. Rae moves into assisted living but hates it and threatens to return to New Jersey if Rhoda won’t take her in. Rhoda, egged on by her sons, agrees. Barbara is concerned that Rhoda, who is not financially sound, will take advantage of their mother’s money. Barbara and Ellen plot to get Rae declared incompetent but Rhoda trumps them by moving Rae to Arizona permanently. All four women reinvent their lives. Ellen takes a trip to China and discovers love. Barbara forsakes the suburbs and moves into New York City. Rae’s life gets smaller and smaller. All the while Rhoda is frantic and overwhelmed as her troubles mount. Rae requires more and more care. Readers who are baby boomers, part of the “sandwich generation,” or those reinventing their own lives will revel in this engrossing quick read.

About this title

About the Author:

Annie Weissman is a writer, storyteller, dynamic speaker, blogger, educator, and creator of crossword puzzles. She was born in New York City and reared in Teaneck, New Jersey. She taught high school dropouts in Cleveland before earned her M.S.L.S. at Case Western Reserve University. She moved to Phoenix to work as a public librarian, school librarian, principal, and university lecturer. She is the author of a memoir, As One Door Closes as well as seven books for teachers and librarians. She currently writes a blog, The Single Senior (www.thesinglesenior.wordpress.com) as well as a column of the same name for The Pinewood News. Check out her website at www.annieweissman.com

Review:

In Weissman’s poignant first novel, three adult sisters and their ailing mother struggle to reconcile their often divergent points of view. The oldest Hoffman sister, Barbara, tries to re-establish her identity now that her children are grown and out of the house, while the middle sister, Rhonda, a single mother, raises two teenage boys—one of whom is headed down a potentially dangerous path. The youngest sibling, Ellen, lives her life as a single research scientist at the University of Iowa. In the book’s prologue, their 80-year-old mother, Rae, attempts to complete the basic tasks of getting out of the house and driving. Readers later learn that Rae suffers from “constricted capillary disease,” which causes her to experience dementia. When she gets into a car accident, she and her daughters are finally forced to confront her declining health and failing memory. Weissman subtly portrays how Rae’s deterioration affects all the sisters—in their individual lives and in their relationship to one another. When Rhonda takes Rae to live with her in Arizona, it raises the emotional stakes; Barbara and Ellen are concerned that Rhonda will take advantage of their mother financially, and Rhonda, in turn, is annoyed by her sisters’ mistrust as she becomes their mother’s primary caretaker. As Rae’s health declines, the three sisters keep circling one another in their efforts to communicate. At one point, Rae thinks, “The girls are angry with each other. I wonder why this time. I hoped they would get closer when they grew up, but it didn’t happen.” Toward the end of the novel, Rhonda wonders “whether our bond is strong enough to endure the loss of Mom, the glue.” Throughout, the sisters evolve as they find love, relocate and take care of their own families. Weissman’s direct, unsentimental prose provides each woman with a compelling, authentic perspective. She also deftly captures the mixture of denial and grief that parents and children feel when their roles are reversed. An important, gripping story about facing change with curiosity, fear, love and, ultimately, acceptance.
-KIRKUS INDIE BOOK REVIEW

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1482543141
• ISBN 13: 9781482543148
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 202