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There are currently 22 member reviews
for Our Short History
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Janine S. (Wyoming, MI)
Poignant and powerful
Our Short History is a poignant but powerful story of love. Karen Neulander is an every woman figure of sorts but with a twist. She is a determined, self-motivated, successful career woman and single parent to son, Jacob, who now is facing her death from ovarian cancer. We meet her as she is starting a journal for him, something he can read when he is older so her memory doesn't fade. She wants to impart wisdom and give him a sense for who she but also to explain his family of origin. It is at this point she must introduce a man whom she deeply loved but who did not love her enough to commit to a relationship. Jacob's father is the bane of Karen's existence. He represents a profound loss of love in her life and giving Jacob to him would be the ultimate betrayal, especially because of an earlier misunderstanding that caused her to bar him from knowing he had a son. As we get to know Karen and feel her pain, anger, regrets, resentments and fears, we get to learn a lot about ourselves too. There are moments when as a reader you want to throttle her, say "grow up" or think "I wouldn't have done that" only to ask yourself: why are you thinking this way, at which point you realize her power as a character. The author brilliantly weaves in other characters whose lives touch Karen's and support the theme of what it mean to love. You will not be sorry for having read this wonderful book.
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SusanR
Our Short History
It may sound strange to say that a book about a single mother dying of cancer is a fantastic book, but let me tell you that it really is. Our Short History is the first book that I've read by this author and I plan to go back and read her previous books after reading this one. Many thanks to BookBrowse for a copy of this book for a review. (All opinions are my own.)
Karen is a successful political consultant in NYC with a young son when she finds out that she has stage IV ovarian cancer. When she got pregnant with her son, the father broke up with her and she never told him about the baby. When her son is six, he asks to meet his father. Up until this time, they had been a family of two and Karen is very apprehensive about bringing his father into her son's life. However father and son bond very quickly and despite Karen's anger over including the dad into her son's life, she realizes that time is running out for her. Will she be able to learn to share her son with his father or will she continue to try to keep them apart?
The novel is written as a book that Karen is writing for her son to read when he is grown to explain the life that they had together. I liked the style the novel was written in as she told the story of her life to her son and also added little comments about how to be good person in his life. I thought she was an extremely fantastic and well written character and the anger that she held against her ex boyfriend, her cancer and life in general is definitely justified. This is a fantastic book -- warning - keep Kleenex close at hand!
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Deborah M. (Auburn Hills, MI)
Difficult Choices
I enjoyed this book. It is indeed a very sad subject matter and I am fortunate to be an ovarian cancer survivor. I understood all the emotions that Karen was feeling and I understood Jake wanting to be with his father. I struggled with the same things Karen did, this man who was out of her life and her son's life is now back when she is struggling with a battle she may indeed lose. I didn't rooted for her to get better, for her son to not like this man who never made any attempt to find out what happened to the woman pregnant with his child. The author handled it well and things in life are not easy and indeed messy. The naive in me wanted a very different ending.
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Lenora F Antioch, IL
I totally get her
This was a book I didn't want to put down once I started reading it. The author is a very good storyteller. The story is character driven, has good pace, and excellent flow. It may sound strange but I do enjoy stories about people facing death. I think they remind me of how imperative it is to enjoy every moment. To embrace the life we have even it is not the best life, or the life we dreamed we would have. Life is full of possibilities, and a bad life is certainly better than no life. Excuse me for a moment while I climb (with great difficulty) off of my soapbox :)
When I finish reading a book I like to go online and see what others thought about the book. Boy was I surprised at the negative response to the main character! So many reviewers said she was a female dog, and many did not like the profanity in the book. I agree about the profanity it bothered me a lot, but I totally identified with the main character and understood her actions. I responded to her on a gut level. I divorced when my children were fairly young and I understand how angry or frustrating it can be when you do all the work and weekend daddy gets to reap the benefits. Most of us grin and bear it for the sake of the children- we don't want our precious babies to have daddy issues when they grow up. The main character, Karen, did not grin and bear it. She fought against her son having a relationship with his father and I get that. She was about to lose everything including her life, she didn't want to lose the exclusive relationship she had with her little boy. Her emotional growth was one of things I liked best about this story. She was a flawed character but her love for her son moved her to grow emotionally, to learn to let go and do what was best for others. Minus the profanity, I really enjoy this story and I plan to use it as one of my book group selections. Another book about a young mother facing death that I also enjoyed was The Household Guide To Dying by Debra Adelaide and I don't remember it having any profanity.
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SMASH
Touching but oddly written story
This was a book that was hard for me to put down. It clearly told of love between a mother and child. It resonated with me in a particular way though. Having lost a child to cancer, not the other way around, it struck me in a way that made me think this is how it should have been. It brought tears and a glimpse of another perspective and another reality. The language offended me however and some of the sharing distanced me. I think these things made me feel just as removed from this story as my own experience did. Not sure if I will share this book with friends.
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Arlene M. (White Oak, PA)
Our Short Story
Our Short Story is a touchingly poignant sad/glad story that I could not put down. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a memoir, but a novel.
Karen, a single mother and her young son Jake move to Mercer Island from NYC to be close to her sister Allison and her family. She has ovarian cancer which is now in remission and she wants her son to know his future family. Karen is a political consultant but she has always wanted to be a writer. She wants to have Jake remember her after she is gone and she begins the story of their life together.
She left her boyfriend Dave when she was pregnant because he didn't want to have any children. Now, 6 year old Jake is curious about his father. When they eventually meet, Dave wants to be a part of his son's life much to the chagrin of Karen. She soon finds out the cancer has returned and she is more adamant than ever that Dave should not be involved with Jake.
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Poornima A. (Walpole, MA)
The possessive mother
Lauren Grodstein has the possessive protagonist model down to a science. Her outstanding debut, A Friend of the Family, revolved around a father who just couldn't set his teen son free. In this novel, Karen Neulander feels the same way about her son although for a completely different reason: she is dying of cancer. As a mother, Karen is completely believable, if at times frustrating. But Grodstein stretches the possessive angle too far, stalling the story for too long well beyond the point where we can see the predictable ending coming at us. It is difficult not to indulge in histrionics in a story about a mother dying from cancer but Grodstein does pull this off for the most part. Our Short History is a sound addition to Grodstein's oeuvre, it's just not her best.
