All of Us: Stories and Poems Along Route 17

by Esther Cohen

All of Us is about people in a small town in upstate New York - different, even alien, from one another, often politically at odds, yet managing to live in peace, side by side. Seen through the lens of a warm-hearted narrator with an eye for a good story and a good laugh, All of Us is a unique tribute to rural upstate New York - a funny Spoon River Anthology, a northern relative of Eudora Welty's Why I Live at the PO.

148 pages, Paperback

Published November 6, 2023

About the author

Well it shouldn't be impossible for me to write a biography that is honest and satisfying and helpful and maybe even funny. But it is.

I am never entirely sure what to say, what details would be interesting and helpful and useful to you,
The Reader, you reader of these sentences and many others.


I am tallish. And curious. I am getting older.

Today at a shoe sale on 57th Street, because I was a few minutes early for a meeting I didn't really want to have with a woman who is successful, self-involved, and in the end interminably dull, today at a shoe sale I met a stranger, a Brazilian woman who teaches family sociology at Princeton. We had a happy conversation (about families, not shoes) for about 20 minutes.
I'll probably see her again.

Reviews

[Nina Shapiro-Perl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esther Cohen has been writing about all of us and teaching all of us to write for many years. Teaching her first class in upstate New York in the aisle of a local supermarket, Esther has been democratizing poetry, inviting everyone to write – and through those poems, seeing the world through the eyes of another. In 2006 she led an audacious project, unseenamerica that gave cameras and photo lessons to union workers to document through pictures and words what they saw. It’s beautiful.

With this wonderful new novel, All of Us: Stories and Poems Along Rte. 17, Esther takes us along with her in a place not unlike the rural community Esther has lived in for 35 years. We are immersed in the daily routines of Middlefield, America, filled with rural folk, New York transplants, old and young, MAGA and leftists, living, helping, fighting, coexisting with each other. Talking to each other.

That’s what Esther’s novels, her poetry, her classes, and now her beautiful new book are about. Seeing each other’s hearts and minds and the common humanity we share.

[Breena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esther Cohen is such a skilled writer because she's a good listener. And because she listens with nearly complete empathy, she is an archivist of personal stories. She imbues her work in this collection, All Of Us: Stories and Poems along Route 17, with dignity. Each character - some of them are REAL characters - gets the chance to be seen and heard even if they are somewhat less than heroic nice, or attractive. Ambling along Route 17 with Esther Cohen and her protagonists is to spend an afternoon (morning or evening) enthralled by eccentrics and plain nice people. And the flow of the stories is like the undulating movement of a road, of a river, of a long conversation.

[Cynthia Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a storyteller with a narrative voice so real I had to keep reminding myself this was fiction. All OF US is overflowing with a love of upstate New York, its people and their stories. "[T]he people, all of them, are the real story of Middlefield, our town on County Route 17." You will meet Grandma Hannah and Alexander Bloom and Gay Sarah who was just going Somewhere Else. And Peggy and Delores and so many others... These stories are "how we say who we are." Crisp, sharp sentences. Not an unnecessary word. I loved it.

[Barbara Hill]

I got the book a few weeks ago at one of Esther’s readings. I open “All of Us” each day and read a story or poem and then put it down. Some of the stories I have read a few times. The people in the book have become my neighbors. I have been moved to listen more deeply to my own neighbors and people I cross paths with…to slow down and take time and to be surprised. I can hear Esther saying “that is so interesting” in her conversations. She is a story whisperer. Esther has a reverence for all of our stories. I’m called to have that as well. I want more of this beautiful writing!

[Marlena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esther Cohen is a masterful listener and teller of stories. (I subscribe to her wonderful newsletter, "Overheard," on Substack.) Her recent book, All of Us is set among neighbors and villagers in a small town in upstate New York. There's the painter Ezra, Arlette, Nora, Delores--ordinary and extraordinary folk like you and me--weaving in pieces of her own story. Of the town, the author says, "there's nothing manicured, nothing too rational." This is how this delightful book feels like to me--nothing manicured, it's funny, odd, deep. I recommend it highly.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect book for this moment in time (and I fear that comment won't be out of date any time soon). People managing to live in peace alongside one another, despite insanely different views on the world and wildly varied politics.
Astutely observant and at times hilarious.
You want to meet these characters.

[Lisa Jardine · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of Us is the book we need right now. Through Esther's storytelling, she brings us together and shows that no matter our politics or points of view, we are still people, with the same needs, wants, and dreams. Esther sees past the noise to get to the good stuff. Every short story and poem could be its own book. I read it from start to finish in one sitting and it left me wanting more.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters living along Route 17 in upstate New York come fully alive in this remarkable collection of stories and poems.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nearly everything Ester Cohen writes & says is something I would lean in to know. She has a way of capturing the contradictions that live inside people with warmth.