According to her
website, Lauren Grodstein is the author of four novels, the last of which is Our Short History. She teaches in the MFA program at
Rutgers-Camden. She lives in South
Jersey with her husband and a dog. After
first looking at the dust jacket, I was afraid it would be depressing, or
worse, boring. But something pulled me
in. I think it was the book jacket which
featured a silhouette of a woman holding the hand of a child. After about 20 pages, I knew I had to finish
it.
Karen Neulander is
an experienced manager, who is running a local campaign. She is also a single mother of a precocious
six-year-old. When she revealed she was
pregnant, Dave, the father of the child, abandoned her. He had said, in no uncertain terms, he did
not want to have any children. Fast
forward 6 years. Karen has been
diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer.
The doctors have given her, perhaps, two years. She decides to write a memoir, for her
son. She is smart and feisty. Karen knows what she wants and how to achieve
it.
Her abandonment, by
a man she loved, and whom she thought loved her, all boil into resentment
against Dave, and a desire to protect her son.
Grodstein writes, “Allison and I frequently discuss issues of privilege
and economy. She says it doesn’t mean we
have to raise our kids broke just because that’s how we grew up. She thinks that insecurity about money
doesn’t necessarily make a person more empathetic or kind: Sometimes it just
makes a person nervous her whole life.
And she’s right, I know she’s right, but still it irks me to think
you’ll never understand that you are, in so many ways, so very lucky. Allison says, ‘But in at least one way you aren’t
lucky at all. None of us are. And money is no compensation.’ // There is no
compensation. I am your only parent; I
am forty-three years old; I have stage IV ovarian cancer. I have perhaps two or three years left in my
life, and once I am gone you will move here, to Mercer Island, to live with my
sister, Allison, and her family. You can
bring your hamster and all your toys.
You can bring anything you want.
You know this, Jake. You know
that if it were up to me, I would live forever with you in my arms” (5).
Jake begins
asking questions about his father, and Karen begins preparing her son for her
death. Grodstein writes, “It seems to
me, Jacob, that when the time comes for you to pick a life partner, you should
pick someone who behaves well in a crises.
It’s very easy to think you know someone – it’s very easy to think you
know yourself – when life is calm and
orderly, movie dates on Saturdays, chicken dinner at seven. But people become their truest selves in
emergencies. Selfish people jump into
the life raft first. Cowards sneak out
the back door. Liars say whatever it
takes to get out of trouble. Craven
people walk away from what they have wrought.
But good, morally sound people take responsibility for their actions and
stand up for the people they care about, even if they put themselves at
risk. Even if they put their own desires
second. I want you to choose someone who
is good and morally sound” (77-78). This
sums up her relationship with Dave, while preparing Jacob for his future.
Lauren Grodstein’s
novel, Our Short History is a story
filled with wisdom and cautions for Jacob.
Despite the looming tragedy, there is humor, anger, and fears Karen wants
Jacob to understand. 5 stars.
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