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Just Like That
Winner of the New South Wales Premier's Christina Stead Prize for best Australian work of fiction in 1995."Lily Brett's third novel is about a happy marriage, the presence of death in life, the yearning for meaning and the realization that making sense of life is sheer farce. Esther Zepler and her husband, Sean, both expats from Melbourne, live and work in New York. They are both successful - she writes obituaries for papers worldwide and he is an artist. They are also successful parents. Brett writes with great wit and a sometimes shockingly base humor which is always very funny - for my money she's much better than Nora Ephron. Nothing is out of place in this novel as it concentrates upon Esther's life, her pain as well as her happiness. The pleasure of Just Like That is that is has great intellectual poise while it exploits all the joys of the contemporary novel. Like Catch 22 it is a serious novel that is often hilarious. Esther Zepler is a wonderful creation. ... A fabulously good novel." - the Sunday Age (Melbourne)
410 pages, Hardcover
First published November 2, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 15, 2020
I loved this book. Edek is a Holocaust survivor who was born in Łódź, Poland, where his father was rich and owned apartment blocks. He got married in the Łódź ghetto to Rooshka. They have a daughter, Esther, born in a DP camp after the war. The family migrates to Melbourne.
At the opening of the book Edek is a bon vivant in his 70s , very fond of his food. He feels lonely as he lives just with his dog. His wife passed away much earlier. He has Zach his grandson, a medical student in Melbourne, but Zach is busy.
He visits his daughter Esther in New York, where he meets Josl and Henia Borenstein again, a couple he last saw in the German DP camp decades before. Josl passes away. Edek and Henia get together. Henia struck me as a self centred, bragging, nasty piece of work. She thought that being rich gave her some sort of cachet. Brett painted this character extremely well. Edek uproots himself from Melbourne and moves in with Henia in Florida, as she’s very keen to have him live with her.
Henia’s sons ( rotten apples that didn’t fall far from that maternal tree) want him to sign a pre-nuptial agreement so that he would not inherit anything if Henia died first. Esther and her husband Sean (a decent bloke who’s fond of Edek) warn him he might be rendered homeless if he were to do so. He’s a happy go lucky type, so he signs and marries Henia.
Sean is Esther’s second husband. We hear about their kids Zach and Zelda (only Esther’s natural kids by her first husband) and Kate, only Sean’s natural daughter. The family is an interesting tapestry, living in relative calm together, but not without their issues of course. Esther works as an obituary writer, which brings a bit of humour and levity to the story.
This is an engaging and engrossing story. I really enjoyed the ending.
At the opening of the book Edek is a bon vivant in his 70s , very fond of his food. He feels lonely as he lives just with his dog. His wife passed away much earlier. He has Zach his grandson, a medical student in Melbourne, but Zach is busy.
He visits his daughter Esther in New York, where he meets Josl and Henia Borenstein again, a couple he last saw in the German DP camp decades before. Josl passes away. Edek and Henia get together. Henia struck me as a self centred, bragging, nasty piece of work. She thought that being rich gave her some sort of cachet. Brett painted this character extremely well. Edek uproots himself from Melbourne and moves in with Henia in Florida, as she’s very keen to have him live with her.
Henia’s sons ( rotten apples that didn’t fall far from that maternal tree) want him to sign a pre-nuptial agreement so that he would not inherit anything if Henia died first. Esther and her husband Sean (a decent bloke who’s fond of Edek) warn him he might be rendered homeless if he were to do so. He’s a happy go lucky type, so he signs and marries Henia.
Sean is Esther’s second husband. We hear about their kids Zach and Zelda (only Esther’s natural kids by her first husband) and Kate, only Sean’s natural daughter. The family is an interesting tapestry, living in relative calm together, but not without their issues of course. Esther works as an obituary writer, which brings a bit of humour and levity to the story.
This is an engaging and engrossing story. I really enjoyed the ending.
April 2, 2025
Die Versuchung den Kommentar mit einfach so anfangen ist 4/5
August 12, 2015
This is one of those books that is iconic to me because of the experience I had reading it. My mother is of the same generation as Lily and the way she writes on her own understanding of her place in history as a child of survivors of the Shoah is unique and spoke directly to my confusion with my own families responses at times. She speaks the truth and does it with wit and personality.
April 23, 2023
Hauptperson ist Esther, eine Australierin, die in New York lebt. Ihr Geld verdient sie mit dem Schreiben von Nachrufen. Sie beschäftigt sich viel mit dem Gedanken an den Tod, denn ihre Eltern sind Überlebende des Holocaust.
Lily Bretts Thema ist die Spannung zwischen Lebenslust und Tod; immer gewinnt die Lebensfreude.
Sehr empfehlenswertes Buch.
Köstlicher Humor.
Lily Bretts Thema ist die Spannung zwischen Lebenslust und Tod; immer gewinnt die Lebensfreude.
Sehr empfehlenswertes Buch.
Köstlicher Humor.
September 15, 2022
Lily Brett ist das einzige Kind von Überlebenden der Shoa. Die Geschichten handeln oft davon, wie dies ihr Leben beeinflusst hat. Ihr wunderbarer Humor wirkt aufmunternd und macht zuversichtlich.
Man fühlt sich einfach besser, wenn man etwas von ihr gelesen hat.
Sehr empfehlenswert!
Man fühlt sich einfach besser, wenn man etwas von ihr gelesen hat.
Sehr empfehlenswert!
October 9, 2021
I have always enjoyed everything I've read by Lily Brett, but this one, written in 1995, some years prior to the wonderful You Gotta have Balls, seems like a poor precursor to it.
This is the story of Esther and her husband Sean and their family especially Esther's father Edel. Their Jewish faith, history and heritage are central to most of Brett's stories. Both Ruth, in the later novel, and Esther in this suffer from anxiety, often manifested in symptoms of physical illness. Esther is presented as a difficult personality, constantly worried and obsessed with so many concerns bit real and imagined. While much of this is beyond her control, it is hard not to find her personality quite painful.
Edek is her father and very similarly presented in both books: difficult, somewhat beligerent and pig headed but likeable. In this novel he relocated from Melbourne to US (Esther lives in New York) and marries the entertaining and 'very intelligent' Henia.
While not nearly as good as her later novel, both are entertaining and show different aspects of family life ***
This is the story of Esther and her husband Sean and their family especially Esther's father Edel. Their Jewish faith, history and heritage are central to most of Brett's stories. Both Ruth, in the later novel, and Esther in this suffer from anxiety, often manifested in symptoms of physical illness. Esther is presented as a difficult personality, constantly worried and obsessed with so many concerns bit real and imagined. While much of this is beyond her control, it is hard not to find her personality quite painful.
Edek is her father and very similarly presented in both books: difficult, somewhat beligerent and pig headed but likeable. In this novel he relocated from Melbourne to US (Esther lives in New York) and marries the entertaining and 'very intelligent' Henia.
While not nearly as good as her later novel, both are entertaining and show different aspects of family life ***
November 9, 2020
I'm not really sure why I liked this book so much, because not much happens, but I enjoyed reading it a lot. Lily Brett has a beautifully subtle sense of humor.
August 13, 2022
A difficult read as I found the main character mostly unlikeable. Luckily the other characters such as Dad, Sean and Sonia added some likeability. However I was still glad when it was over.
February 28, 2025
Lily Brett ist immer eine gute Wahl, weil sie so unglaublich ehrlich ist…
July 18, 2025
4,5 ⭐️ ganz viel Liebe für die Protagonistin, ich hab mich in jeder Neurose wiedererkannt🙂↕️
September 5, 2012
soooooooo funny, witty, intelligent. great jewish humor. i don't like to compare, but somehow "woody allen" indeed could be a reference!
March 28, 2013
An Woody Allen type novel about an Australian woman living in New York with her painter husband. Incorporates an immigrant story, religion (Jewish), and the story of WW2 survivors oh and guilt.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews