Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Book Review: The Bridge Ladies by Betsy Lerner





Title: The Bridge Ladies
Date Published: May 3, 2016
Publisher: Harper Wave
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Source: TLC Book Tours

Purchasing:



A fifty-year-old Bridge game provides an unexpected way to cross the generational divide between a daughter and her mother. Betsy Lerner takes us on a powerfully personal literary journey, where we learn a little about Bridge and a lot about life.

After a lifetime defining herself in contrast to her mother’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” generation, Lerner finds herself back in her childhood home, not five miles from the mother she spent decades avoiding. When Roz needs help after surgery, it falls to Betsy to take care of her. She expected a week of tense civility; what she got instead were the Bridge Ladies. Impressed by their loyalty, she saw something her generation lacked. Facebook was great, but it wouldn’t deliver a pot roast.

Tentatively at first, Betsy becomes a regular at her mother’s Monday Bridge club. Through her friendships with the ladies, she is finally able to face years of misunderstandings and family tragedy, the Bridge table becoming the common ground she and Roz never had.

By turns darkly funny and deeply moving, The Bridge Ladies is the unforgettable story of a hard-won—but never-too-late—bond between mother and daughter.

I am a mom of two young daughters so when I read the premise of this book I knew that I had to read it. While reading it I couldn't help but make comparisons to one of my favorite movies, How to Make an American Quilt. There is just something special and amazing about a group of ladies that gets together on a regular basis to hash out their lives and help each other, through laughter, anger and sometimes tears.

I really enjoyed reading about Roz and Betsy, and while there were aspects of Betsy's behavior I wasn't overly thrilled with, I thought it was well written and made me realize that maybe I should reach out to my own mother more often, and with a more open mind.

Overall a very enjoyable story.




Betsy Lerner is the author of The Forest for the Trees and Food and Loathing. She is a recipient of the Thomas Wolfe Poetry Prize, an Academy of American Poets Poetry Prize, and the Tony Godwin Prize for Editors, and was selected as one of PEN’s Emerging Writers. Lerner is a partner with the literary agency Dunow, Carlson & Lerner and resides in New Haven, Connecticut.

1 comment:

  1. I hope to have a group like that ... not sure what we'd do together, but I love the idea of a group who meets regularly through the years.

    Thanks for being a part of the tour!

    ReplyDelete