She Is Me

She is Me was a fairly quick read for me. I could picture the story as it went along. The storyline was very familiar, as I'veseen similar details occur personally. I know how the story goesso it did nothing for me.Greta is the mother of two grown adults, the wife of a doctor and the daughter of a cancer stricken woman,Lotte. Her responsibility is to care for cancer stricken Lotte. When Greta gets cancer herself, things get rough and others try to offer support. As death draws nearer, a self discovery occurs. The familytries to go on with everyday life and somehow they mange it.This was my first book by Cathleen Schine. I'll have to read her others and see if they're any better. Having read the book I ended up giving it a rating of 4.

Rameau's Niece, an earlier work of this author, is one of those novels I press upon whoever will listen. I have dutifully worked my way through most of Schine's other books, but she has never hit Niece-like heights again for me, until now. I'm a sucker for the Jewish mother/daughter schtick. I consider myself a gourmand of the genre, consuming great quantities and often disappointed. In She is Me, Schine draws the issues of three generations with a superb comic hand. The grandmother's dialogue is a bit trite, but I suppose it's a rare Jewish grandmother that has anything original left to say. Ninety years of compulsive talking can wear you out. I particularly liked the the way she handled the middle-aged onset of lesbianism. Those of us feminists who have watched female friend after friend joyfully embrace homosexuality for the past thirty years can't help but feel left behind. Heterosexuality starts feeling like an internal parasite you've picked up and can't shake. When I read the book, I knew only that the author's long term marriage had recently ended, but did not know the circumstances. But Geta and Daisy's suprising romance was so authentically written, that I figured it must have happened to Schine. And apparently it has. She has exploited this crisis with dignity (I don't know if her ex-husband agrees, but I hear he's gone even further with American Sucker). The male characters are thinly-drawn, but like the trite grandmother, art imitates life.

Even with the great review this novel got in the LA Times, I was not prepared for the depth, comic deftness and delightful characters Shine treats us to in SHE IS ME. I really loved this book!! The complexities of family relationships and responsiblities butting up against the sometimes ungovernable passions that overtake these three generations of women were beautifully conveyed. I laughed out loud several times....I also cried. It's so rare to find a novel that deals with real experience, like illness, and desire, and taking care of children and parents, with so much humor and so much heart. One of our finest novelists.

Broadway, film and television actress Patricia Kalember gives a sensitive, thoroughly engrossing reading to this affecting story of three women. Familial relationships are explored as well as the exigencies of truth and life. Professor Elizabeth Bernard lives in New York City with her live-in love, Brett, and their young son, Harry. When a paper she has written concerning Madame Bovary catches the fancy of a Hollywood producer, she heads for the West Coast to pen a screenplay titled Mrs. B. Lotte, a former actress and Elizabeth's grandmother, also lives in California. Her once beautiful face now bears a malignant tumor, but she is as zesty as ever. Greta, Elizabeth's mother, also lives on the West Coast. She, too, has been diagnosed with cancer. Thus, Elizabeth finds herself torn betwixt and between the needs and demands of her mother and grandmother and those of Brett and Harry. Ms. Schine has woven a remarkable tale of life as it is lived - full of laughter and pain. - Gail Cooke

Greta is the sandwich generation dealing with her ailing mother Lotte and her adult (with her own child) daughter Elizabeth. Things were okay for the California based landscape artist as her spouse is a nice person, her work enjoyable, and she is at some distance from the other generationals. That changes after her father dies and Lotte demands more of her time especially since the Jewish matriarch learns she has a nasty facial skin cancer. Elizabeth, with her preschool aged son and boyfriend, has relocated from NYC to work on a screenplay of Madame Bovary.Greta loves her extended family, but would prefer less demand as she can only supply so much. However, the biggest issue to confront Greta is her deepest feelings especially after being diagnosed with colon cancer. She wonders about what she has done with her life and why she suddenly finds herself extremely attracted to film director Daisy Piperino since she has been a heterosexual from the moment she discovered boys.SHE IS ME is an insightful look at three and a fraction (Greta's grandson is only three years old) generations of Americans. Each of the key characters especially the trio of women is fully developed so the audience can easily distinguish what motivates each one. The support cast enables an even deeper look inside the prime threesome though the tale lacks any major relational conflict as everyone tries to be considerate of each other. Still fans of a powerful perspective on the modern family will appreciate Cathleen Schine's novel because most of us will see much of ourselves as one of the she (or a support he).Harriet Klausner