Whether we realize it or not, many life decisions hinge on permission — from ourselves or others. Two novels and a memoir explore the power of permission in our daily lives and in decisions large and small.
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe (Knopf, $25)
Will Schwalbe, a book editor, was already aware of the power of books and stories in people’s lives. Through his conversations with his mother, Mary Anne, over the course of her two years of treatment for pancreatic cancer, he learns the true potential of literature to illuminate and celebrate life. While spending hours at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Will and Mary Anne begin an inadvertent book group of two, reading in tandem an impressive array of fiction, nonfiction and poetry from classics like Herman Wouk’s Marjorie Morningstar to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. At first Will wonders if a book group can only consist of two, writing, “Mom started the book club unwittingly, and I joined it grudgingly,” and yet their discussions unfold organically. The conversations they share provide insight on their relationship and their views of the world. Mary Anne’s remarkable voice and spirit shine through the work she tirelessly pursues on behalf of refugees and in building a library in Afghanistan as she faces her own personal struggles, making this memoir all of the more powerful. Schwalbe has penned a nuanced, touching homage to an extraordinary woman and the love of books and reading that they wove between them.
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Random House, $15)
Sometimes love comes when you aren’t looking for it. When Major Pettigrew finds Mrs. Ali on his doorstep one morning, the two widowers begin talking about their lives and slowly become more than mere acquaintances. Major Pettigrew, a retired military man, lives a quiet life after his wife’s death, with a distant, cosmopolitan son focused on career mobility. But when his younger brother dies, a set of guns passed down in their family opens a simmering feud into the Major’s otherwise staid world. Meanwhile, Jasmina Ali is a Pakistani woman who works at the grocery shop in their small English village and has lived in England all of her life, yet she has never been fully accepted. When the Major and Mrs. Ali begin bonding over books and sharing stories about their late spouses, they discover common ground through the easy pleasure of the other’s company. But Mrs. Ali’s outsider status becomes increasingly clear as the Edgecombe St. Mary community suspects the blossoming friendship between the Major and Mrs. Ali may be headed for something more serious. Love meets impediments even in our modern, more open-minded world. Simonson’s debut is a comedy-of-manners about small-town community life, romance later in life, and the bravery it takes to recognize and run after second chances.
The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg (Grand Central Publishing, $24.99)
Richard and Edie Middlestein created the picturesque Jewish family in the Chicago suburbs. Their son Benny grew up to marry a trim, organized Jewish girl, and Richard and Edie dote on their twin grandchildren. Their daughter Robin, while troubled, is an independent-minded schoolteacher. But when Richard leaves Edie after 30 years of marriage, the cracks in the heart of their family life become increasingly apparent. Edie has a problem with food, a problem pushing her weight well over 300 pounds. Her overeating is sending her closer to death’s door, a fact that is increasingly clear to her loved ones. The crisis raises the question: What authority do grown children have in their parents’ lives? How do we save the ones we love? The novel delves into one family’s strains and contradictions while disclosing the complex terrain of familial expectations and connections. At 60, Richard explores the dating scene again, eager to give physical and emotional love a try again after years of marital neglect. In a narrative that shows glimpses of the future within the present, Attenberg creates a loving albeit unflinching look into a dysfunctional family that is nonetheless a funny, sympathetic portrait of human foibles and dreams.
