How to Make a Life
by
Florence Reiss Kraut
Publisher: She Writes Press
Publication date: 13th October 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 320
Format read: Paperback
Source: Courtesy of Smith Publicity Services
About the book
When Ida and her daughter
Bessie flee a catastrophic pogrom in Ukraine for America in 1905, they
believe their emigration will ensure that their children and
grandchildren will be safe from harm. But choices and decisions made by
one generation have ripple effects on those who come later—and in the
decades that follow, family secrets, betrayals, and mistakes made in the
name of love threaten the survival of the family: Bessie and Abe
Weissman’s children struggle with the shattering effects of daughter
Ruby’s mental illness, of Jenny’s love affair with her brother-in-law,
of the disappearance of Ruby’s daughter as she flees her mother’s
legacy, and of the accidental deaths of Irene’s husband and
granddaughter.
My review
How to Make a Life is an enthralling
saga of a family both brought together and divided by the mental
illness of one member.
Spanning four generations of the
Amdur/Weissman family, the story is narrated through different
members of the family over the years, highlighting their ever
changing relationships with each other.
How to Make a Life begins with Ida
fleeing a massacre on their land in Ukraine and taking her two
surviving children to America to start a new life safe from
persecution. Life is tough and there is more tragedy in store but Ida
and daughter Bessie know to survive they must always look ahead.
How to Make a Life spans 106 years and
to squeeze this amount into one book it quite often skips large spans
of time, so you might suddenly find out a character’s husband had
died some time ago and there was no previous mention. This made for a
lot of telling the story and I would have liked the story to be
longer to include all these momentous events in detail.
How to Make a Life is a fast-moving
story filled with emotion and plenty of family drama. I became
totally invested in all the characters lives and their hopes, fears
and dreams.
Florence Reiss Kraut includes many
themes in this generational drama including unplanned pregnancies,
mental illness, unrequited love, loss, guilt, family responsibility,
holding onto your faith and how the choices we make can have a ripple
affect through the generations.
About the author
 |
Photo Goodreads
|
Florence Reiss Kraut was
raised and educated in New York City. With a BA in English and a Masters
in Social Work she worked for over thirty years as a clinician, a
family therapist and eventually CEO of a family service agency before
retiring to write and travel. Her own close family of 26 aunts and
uncles and 27 first cousins and listening to stories around the kitchen
table, coffee klatches and family parties inspired her to write her
fictional, multi-generational family drama, How to Make a Life.
She
has published stories for children and teens, romance stories for
national magazines, literary stories, and personal essays for the
Westchester section of the New York Times. Her fiction has appeared in
publications such as The Evening Street Press and SNReview.
Oh... this sounds interesting. Thanks!
ReplyDelete