The Bridge Ladies

The Bridge Ladies is a memoir written by Betsy Lerner.  This is a mother/daughter story of learning to talk to your mother and understanding her and her friends, the Bridge Ladies.

The nicest thing about this book is that Lerner finds a way to have a better relationship with her mother before it is too late.  So many women have a strained relationship with their parents, not feeling comfortable talking about important topics.  Lerner finds a way to get to know not only all the ladies who have been playing bridge every week with her mother for many years, but a way to talk to her mother while learning the game of bridge.

The book is interesting and I am sure even more so to someone who plays or at least understands the game of bridge.  I have never been someone who can sit and play bridge or mah jong for hours on a regular basis.  I do envy the women who have their weekly group that plays and talks every week, sharing their lives, good times and bad together.k

This is a memoir about the lives these women have lived.  A generation that is fading away, women who were expected to get married, have children and take care of the home, while the husbands went out and earned a living.  This is a vanishing lifestyle.

So though interesting it kept my interest for awhile, but then if you do not know these women personally, there came a point in the book where I felt I had read enough.  There was not enough fascinating events or experiences to keep my interest all the way through.  Maybe if I was more knowledgable about how to play bridge or interested in learning, I would have appreciated the bridge lessons Betsy and her mother were attending.  But there the only thing I appreciated was that they had found area of interest.

I hope Betsy finds the same kind of long term friendships that her mother did.  I am always looking for that also.  I think that those friendships will be very important as we age.