Thursday, April 23, 2015

Being Esther

Esther is aging and her daughter wants to put her in an assisted living facility.   The subject matter is one that so many baby boomer kids are facing these days as their parents grow older.  The story is told from Esther's point of view.  She is living in an apartment with a friend across the courtyard, who she sees everyday and talks to on the phone every morning.   Esther thinks back on her life.  Little trigger thoughts of her parents, her marriage, all her old friends now gone.

She makes phone calls to old friends and learns that they have gone to nursing homes or past on.
She recalls her marriage to Marty and when her daughter, Ceely,  left home.  She wonders what happened but can not seem to have any deep discussions with Ceely even now.  "Esther sets down her pen and wonders if Ceely will ever sit like this and wish things had been otherwise.  Perhaps she should warn her daughter, 'Let's talk.  Now.  Before it's too late.'  But Ceely is too busy, even for a cup of coffee."

The characters in this book do not come alive for me.  They are silted and the dialog is unemotional.
The reader does not become attached to anyone.  There is no suspense or plot development.  You just go along hearing what day to day life was and is like for Esther.  This is not a book to excited over.

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