The Card Party and Other Stories

Three novellas. Three women. Three lives filled with history and passion. They may be old but they are not done living yet. Despite their traumatic Jewish pasts, the women in these stories-raucous, feisty, outrageous- seize life in an irrepressible bear hug. Rosie from her hole-in-the wall surplus store is girding herself to take on the neighborhood Goliath, Grossman, the Discount King, who dominates with his imposing physical size, power and money. After eighteen years Martha has prevailed on her husband to bring home his prodigal brother, the one who brought them to the brink of total ruin. As Martha prepares for his arrival she is already plotting how to manage the inevitable family tensions. When Minke dies she refuses to leave the home of her friend Gizi, where she and her gang of five spent four days a week playing gin rummy, eating strudels and gossiping about who was shtupping whom, who was on the verge of bankruptcy, and who of the next generation made good and who had gone to the devil. But even for Minke, the obdurate, time is running out.