SYNOPSIS
The Card Party and Other Stories is a collection of three thematically linked novellas, tales of raucous, feisty, outrageous older Jewish women. Rosie, Martha and Minke, although shadowed by traumas of the past and conflicts of the present, remain exuberant in their disregard of convention and age as they seize life with a sly wit and unrestrained passion and joy.
The Great Furniture War is a mock epic. After her Hermann dies everyone is sure Rosie will finally give up the lease to Grossman on the hole-in-the wall store which barely kept the family afloat. Grossman has big plans to redevelop the site for his new megastore. He also has designs on Rosie herself. Rosie has other ideas. Rosie, a widow with two snot-nosed brats, Rosie who married a Luftmensch, a builder of castles in Spain, this Rosie--what a laugh!--thinks she can take on Grossman, Grossman who is a giant of a man, the Grossman whose outlet store dominates the neighbourhood, the Grossman who tears down and raises up. No contest, but everyone relishes the sport to come.
Martha Dove is a Jewish Mrs. Dalloway. On the eve of Yom Kippur she is frantically preparing the holiday meal. This Day of Atonement may be the most important in her family. Max, the prodigal brother, the one who eighteen years before brought them to the brink of total ruin, is returning to the fold. For eighteen years Hugo, an ox is more malleable, won’t hear the word Max so much as whispered in the house. In old age Hugo becomes a veritable rebbe, mouthing the words of the prayer book like a kid just learning his ABCs. As Martha koshers the chicken, plumps the dumplings, measures out the flour and eggs, her mind is full of thoughts of Max, what he did, what Hugo did, and how she knew all along what had to be done.
The Card Party, is a Jewish ghost story. Minke has been playing gin rummy with Kish Piri, Agi and Elza for thirty years, always at Gizi’s because she cooks and bakes like a magician. When Minke dies spirits come to lead her to her reward. They tell her, You have to come with us. She says, No, I’m staying here at Gizi’s. They tell her, You can’t play cards any more. So, I’ll kibitz, she replies and doesn’t budge. Who knows how time passes in Minke’s nether region. For her past and present fold into each other. But even for Minke, the obdurate, time is running out.