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Half the Kingdom
New York Times Notable Book 2013
"No one writes like Segal — her glittering intelligence, her piercing wit, and her dazzling insights into manners and mores, are a profound pleasure. From first to last I loved this wise and irreverent novel." —Margot Livesey
"I always feel in her work such a sense of toughness and humor…. Her writing is sad and funny, and that makes it more of both." —Jennifer Egan
“Lore Segal is a marvelous and fearless writer. No subject is too hard, too absurd, or too painful for her wise, peculiar and brilliant fiction.” —Lily Tuck
The renowned New Yorker writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lore Segal—whom The New York Times declared "closer than anyone to writing the Great American Novel"—delivers a hilarious, poignant and profoundly moving tale of living, loving and aging in America today
At Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, doctors have noticed a marked uptick in Alzheimer's patients. People who seemed perfectly lucid just a day earlier suddenly show signs of advanced dementia. Is it just normal aging, or an epidemic? Is it a coincidence, or a secret terrorist plot?
In the looking-glass world of Half the Kingdom—where terrorist paranoia and end-of-the-world hysteria mask deeper fears of mortality; where parents' and their grown children's feelings vacillate between frustration and tenderness; and where the broken medical system leads one character to quip, "Kafka wrote slice-of-life fiction"—all is familiar and yet slightly askew.
Lore Segal masterfully interweaves her characters' lives—lives that, for good or for ill, all converge in Cedar's ER—into a funny, tragic, and tender portrait of how we live today.
From the Hardcover edition.
"No one writes like Segal — her glittering intelligence, her piercing wit, and her dazzling insights into manners and mores, are a profound pleasure. From first to last I loved this wise and irreverent novel." —Margot Livesey
"I always feel in her work such a sense of toughness and humor…. Her writing is sad and funny, and that makes it more of both." —Jennifer Egan
“Lore Segal is a marvelous and fearless writer. No subject is too hard, too absurd, or too painful for her wise, peculiar and brilliant fiction.” —Lily Tuck
The renowned New Yorker writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lore Segal—whom The New York Times declared "closer than anyone to writing the Great American Novel"—delivers a hilarious, poignant and profoundly moving tale of living, loving and aging in America today
At Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, doctors have noticed a marked uptick in Alzheimer's patients. People who seemed perfectly lucid just a day earlier suddenly show signs of advanced dementia. Is it just normal aging, or an epidemic? Is it a coincidence, or a secret terrorist plot?
In the looking-glass world of Half the Kingdom—where terrorist paranoia and end-of-the-world hysteria mask deeper fears of mortality; where parents' and their grown children's feelings vacillate between frustration and tenderness; and where the broken medical system leads one character to quip, "Kafka wrote slice-of-life fiction"—all is familiar and yet slightly askew.
Lore Segal masterfully interweaves her characters' lives—lives that, for good or for ill, all converge in Cedar's ER—into a funny, tragic, and tender portrait of how we live today.
From the Hardcover edition.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
124 people are currently reading
905 people want to read
About the author
Lore Segal
39 books140 followersLore Vailer Segal was an Austrian-American novelist, translator, teacher, short story writer, and author of children's books. Her novel Shakespeare's Kitchen was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
October 23, 2019
a funny/melancholy little book about all those horrible things in life: estranged family, inability to communicate or connect, death, missed opportunities, feeling forgotten and neglected, the breaking down and betrayal of the body, bureaucracy and paperwork, loneliness, and hope - all that good, impossible, heartbreaking stuff.
but it can be startlingly funny, at times. many times
most of the story takes place in the emergency room of a hospital, which is fitting, as it is where we are most vulnerable, most exposed - whether we are there for ourselves or for a loved one. barriers come down, vanity is set aside, and everything is raw, exposed worry and fear and hopefulness.
at the cedars of lebanon hospital in manhattan, all of the elderly patients have suddenly presented with alzheimer's, with more coming in all the time. could this be a new form of terrorist attack, or is it simply the strangest coincidence ever? the wide open eye come in to observe the phenomenon; a post 9-11 business comprised of eccentric academics, an elderly poet, and their bitter and resentful children, devoted to compiling the "compendium of end-of-world scenarios" which is exactly what it sounds like. is this an attack, or just the natural order of things, sped up a bit? they pepper the hospital's emergency department, going undercover as patients, conducting interviews, observing the afflicted and their family members.
and that's how the stories unfold.
this one is hard to pin down in a review - it is defying me a bit right now. it's more a web of memories, monologues, old complaints and grievances, than any traditional narrative. it's a little bit kafka, a little bit ionesco, a little bit stream-of-consciousness at times.
it doesn't have as much cohesion as i usually like, but in this case, where we are hearing the howl and chatter of post-millennial america, cohesion is not really necessary. it's just good, sad, redeeming stuff.
and that's all i feel like telling you.
come to my blog!
but it can be startlingly funny, at times. many times
most of the story takes place in the emergency room of a hospital, which is fitting, as it is where we are most vulnerable, most exposed - whether we are there for ourselves or for a loved one. barriers come down, vanity is set aside, and everything is raw, exposed worry and fear and hopefulness.
at the cedars of lebanon hospital in manhattan, all of the elderly patients have suddenly presented with alzheimer's, with more coming in all the time. could this be a new form of terrorist attack, or is it simply the strangest coincidence ever? the wide open eye come in to observe the phenomenon; a post 9-11 business comprised of eccentric academics, an elderly poet, and their bitter and resentful children, devoted to compiling the "compendium of end-of-world scenarios" which is exactly what it sounds like. is this an attack, or just the natural order of things, sped up a bit? they pepper the hospital's emergency department, going undercover as patients, conducting interviews, observing the afflicted and their family members.
and that's how the stories unfold.
this one is hard to pin down in a review - it is defying me a bit right now. it's more a web of memories, monologues, old complaints and grievances, than any traditional narrative. it's a little bit kafka, a little bit ionesco, a little bit stream-of-consciousness at times.
it doesn't have as much cohesion as i usually like, but in this case, where we are hearing the howl and chatter of post-millennial america, cohesion is not really necessary. it's just good, sad, redeeming stuff.
and that's all i feel like telling you.
come to my blog!
April 1, 2016
This was one of few books in my life I've finished against all inclination. I found the author's writing style nearly impossible to enjoy. The book was a chore to read.
The premise was interesting, but completely underdeveloped. I found myself on the verge of forming attachment with a few characters, but as soon as I was becoming interested their segmented 'chapter' (aka set of paragraphs) ended and by the time they were discussed again I'd forgotten why I was interested.
Overall a book I would never recommend. I appreciate unique writing styles, but this one took it too far.
The premise was interesting, but completely underdeveloped. I found myself on the verge of forming attachment with a few characters, but as soon as I was becoming interested their segmented 'chapter' (aka set of paragraphs) ended and by the time they were discussed again I'd forgotten why I was interested.
Overall a book I would never recommend. I appreciate unique writing styles, but this one took it too far.
June 11, 2013
I have never read such an astonishing book about old age. It’s remarkable. This woman is one of the best writers I’ve ever had the privilege of reading.
November 5, 2013
Although I was extremely put off by the cover, which looks like someone printed it in their basement with a basic knowledge of Photoshop, I was still looking forward to reading this book. It had so many things going for it: one of my favorite publishers, Melville House; great reviews; an enticing blurb; and an author with a spate of great awards.
But I hated it. I really did. The description of the book bears little resemblance to the book. The characters are undeveloped and I didn't think they were witty or interesting -- partly because I didn't really get to know them. Lucy was an interesting character, but one note. The whole conspiracy thing? Yeah, nothing. The sentences were clunky, somehow; I had to keep going back over them and only rarely got a rhythm of reading. It was disappointing on every level.
But I hated it. I really did. The description of the book bears little resemblance to the book. The characters are undeveloped and I didn't think they were witty or interesting -- partly because I didn't really get to know them. Lucy was an interesting character, but one note. The whole conspiracy thing? Yeah, nothing. The sentences were clunky, somehow; I had to keep going back over them and only rarely got a rhythm of reading. It was disappointing on every level.
July 4, 2016
My review appears on New York Journal of Books. For additional commentary and excerpts from the novel see my article that appeared in a different and now defunct publication, which begins with the next paragraph.
Lore Segal's new novel Half the Kingdom examines old age
One way to read Lore Segal's new darkly comic novel Half the Kingdom, which will be published tomorrow by Brooklyn publisher Melville House, is as a commentary on Psalm 71 verse 9, "Do not cast me off in old age;/when my strength fails, do not forsake me!" In my New York Journal of Books review I describe the novel as an "unflinching look at the frustrations and indignities that accompany old age and at the relationships between the elderly and their adult children."
Ms. Segal, who is 85, uses a fictional investigation into a dementia epidemic that breaks out in a local Manhattan hospital as a way to link together character sketches of the various elderly characters who include both undercover investigators and patients (at least half the characters are Jewish New Yorkers).
Not all the scenes take place in the hospital. An early chapter portrays a lunch date between Jack and Hope, an elderly couple who “had lived together, before marrying two other people. Jack subsequently divorced his wife who had subsequently died. Hope was widowed.” They choose Café Provence because its bathroom is on the same floor as the dining area and they both have mobility issues.
Their conversation begins with Jack offering an agenda: that they share their resolutions. They also reminisce about a trip to France they took together five or six decades ago when they were still a couple. Afterward their respective adult children, Jeremy and Nora, come to pick them up.
Before leaving Hope looked in the bathroom mirror and “stood gazing at the crone with the gray, girlishly loosened locks around her shoulders and saw what Diane Arbus might have seen and was appalled, and being appalled pricked her interest right up: ‘I’ve got an agenda: The Diane Arbus Factor of old age,’ Hope looked forward to saying to Jack the next time it would be convenient for Jeremy and Nora to arrange lunch for them at the Café Provence.”
Hope's reaction to seeing her image in the mirror and the mental sharpness with which that reaction generated a new idea is an example of Ms. Segal's pre-dementia elderly characters. The portrayals of the afflicted patients call to mind the second half of the verse from the psalm with which this article opened.
My NYJB review concludes by assigning Half the Kingdom as "required reading for everyone hoping to reach his or her life expectancy and for the adult children of people who have already reached that age."
Lore Segal's new novel Half the Kingdom examines old age
One way to read Lore Segal's new darkly comic novel Half the Kingdom, which will be published tomorrow by Brooklyn publisher Melville House, is as a commentary on Psalm 71 verse 9, "Do not cast me off in old age;/when my strength fails, do not forsake me!" In my New York Journal of Books review I describe the novel as an "unflinching look at the frustrations and indignities that accompany old age and at the relationships between the elderly and their adult children."
Ms. Segal, who is 85, uses a fictional investigation into a dementia epidemic that breaks out in a local Manhattan hospital as a way to link together character sketches of the various elderly characters who include both undercover investigators and patients (at least half the characters are Jewish New Yorkers).
Not all the scenes take place in the hospital. An early chapter portrays a lunch date between Jack and Hope, an elderly couple who “had lived together, before marrying two other people. Jack subsequently divorced his wife who had subsequently died. Hope was widowed.” They choose Café Provence because its bathroom is on the same floor as the dining area and they both have mobility issues.
Their conversation begins with Jack offering an agenda: that they share their resolutions. They also reminisce about a trip to France they took together five or six decades ago when they were still a couple. Afterward their respective adult children, Jeremy and Nora, come to pick them up.
Before leaving Hope looked in the bathroom mirror and “stood gazing at the crone with the gray, girlishly loosened locks around her shoulders and saw what Diane Arbus might have seen and was appalled, and being appalled pricked her interest right up: ‘I’ve got an agenda: The Diane Arbus Factor of old age,’ Hope looked forward to saying to Jack the next time it would be convenient for Jeremy and Nora to arrange lunch for them at the Café Provence.”
Hope's reaction to seeing her image in the mirror and the mental sharpness with which that reaction generated a new idea is an example of Ms. Segal's pre-dementia elderly characters. The portrayals of the afflicted patients call to mind the second half of the verse from the psalm with which this article opened.
My NYJB review concludes by assigning Half the Kingdom as "required reading for everyone hoping to reach his or her life expectancy and for the adult children of people who have already reached that age."
October 15, 2023
Segal has written a grimly humorous novel abut old people, mostly demented ones. Whether the humor or grimness takes precedence is open to interpretation. Dementia is grim, yes, bu how is it humorous?
The action takes place in a large New York city hospital emergency room where people with dementia who are a risk to themselves or others show up. An unusual number of cases have been showing up, prompting a research firm, suspecting a possible malevolent plot to undermine America’s mental health, to plant an older person there as a “spy “ to observe and take notes.
What follows is both a comic and tragic, and it is in this mixture that the book has its strength. The 75 year old spy is alert, but she is beginning to slip a bit, shown by her obsession with a story she has written and submitted for publication but has never gotten either acceptance or rejection. The reader begins to wonder if this is even a real situation. She begins to think of another story she might write based on what she is observing and working it into a story which ends with a doctor shouting “Rumpelstiltskin” as his patient who is in pain begins to throw up. To add to the comedy, she is mistaken for a real patient, despite her protests.
There is an assortment of old patients who appear in the ER, most in dire shape but unable to articulate their problems, or even know who they are and what they’re suffering from. They get caught up in bureaucratic delay caused by too many patients before they can be transferred to a special unit for dementia patients, euphemistically called the Senior Center. One old lady continually takes off her clothes while she’s awaiting her transfer. Another thinks he has already died and talks confusedly about where he has ended up. A essentially harmless old man is tormented by music in his head that never stops.
The book opens and closes with a quote from the Brothers Grimm, “And if they have not died, they are living to this hour.” The title, as well, makes an reference to a folk tale about a girl meeting and marrying a prince, and ending with them inheriting “half the kingdom.” The aged and mentally infirm people in this story are half here – the physical half, not in good shape, the mental half missing.
The reader may have been taking his own mental notes, and will find no malevolent plot to undermine our mental health, except a natural and home-grown one of becoming too old. There is no inheritance of a healthy kingdom, just the loss of one.
The action takes place in a large New York city hospital emergency room where people with dementia who are a risk to themselves or others show up. An unusual number of cases have been showing up, prompting a research firm, suspecting a possible malevolent plot to undermine America’s mental health, to plant an older person there as a “spy “ to observe and take notes.
What follows is both a comic and tragic, and it is in this mixture that the book has its strength. The 75 year old spy is alert, but she is beginning to slip a bit, shown by her obsession with a story she has written and submitted for publication but has never gotten either acceptance or rejection. The reader begins to wonder if this is even a real situation. She begins to think of another story she might write based on what she is observing and working it into a story which ends with a doctor shouting “Rumpelstiltskin” as his patient who is in pain begins to throw up. To add to the comedy, she is mistaken for a real patient, despite her protests.
There is an assortment of old patients who appear in the ER, most in dire shape but unable to articulate their problems, or even know who they are and what they’re suffering from. They get caught up in bureaucratic delay caused by too many patients before they can be transferred to a special unit for dementia patients, euphemistically called the Senior Center. One old lady continually takes off her clothes while she’s awaiting her transfer. Another thinks he has already died and talks confusedly about where he has ended up. A essentially harmless old man is tormented by music in his head that never stops.
The book opens and closes with a quote from the Brothers Grimm, “And if they have not died, they are living to this hour.” The title, as well, makes an reference to a folk tale about a girl meeting and marrying a prince, and ending with them inheriting “half the kingdom.” The aged and mentally infirm people in this story are half here – the physical half, not in good shape, the mental half missing.
The reader may have been taking his own mental notes, and will find no malevolent plot to undermine our mental health, except a natural and home-grown one of becoming too old. There is no inheritance of a healthy kingdom, just the loss of one.
Read
November 13, 2014I have no idea what happened to my earlier comments. Nevertheless, Segal, always extraordinary, reminds us how little fiction we have written by the truly elderly about the elderly. This is simply stunning work, putting us inside our future (presuming we live as long and well as she has), and it is a far from comfortable place we hope to be going.
October 17, 2013
Half the Kingdom is an incredibly funny satire of old age, hospitals, and aged writers/intellectuals. The little plot there is involves a possible terrorist plan to infect the" over-62s" who arrive for care at the Cedars of Lebanon hospital emergency room. Joe is a retired think tank intellectual searching for a cause. He is terminally ill, and on one of his trips to the emergency room, meets Dr. Haddad, a Jewish ER doctor who wears a hajib. She has noticed that all the over-62s passing through have become demented in the hospital. Only those that arrive with Alzheimers get better; the rest deteriorate into insensibility. Joe offers to gather a team to investigate the "copycat Alzheimers," and starts by theorizing a terrorist connection. He hires his team from among his acquaintances and family, assigns them to interview arriving patients, and schedules a meeting with hospital doctors and administrators to take place once the interviews are complete. The bulk of the book describes with deadly black humor the nature and personalities of the patients who arrive for emergency room care, what brought them there, a bit of background on their lives and problems, and some idea of the progress of their lives subsequently. The scene at the end when Joe has to decide whether to continue living with machine assistance is heartbreaking, but the ending in the hospital chapel when Dr. Haddad discovers the source of the outbreak is surprising, and maybe a little weak. Still deciding.
It's a very short book. I may read it again. I liked in a lot and would rate it a 4.5 despite the ending.
It's a very short book. I may read it again. I liked in a lot and would rate it a 4.5 despite the ending.
June 29, 2013
Really, 4.5 stars. What a great book. Dark humor at it's best.
One of those books where I could tell you exactly what happens and spoil the jokes and it wouldn't matter because the joy of this book is reading this book (assuming the author doesn't call and read it to you).
Mrs. Segal made the hospital waiting room everything that is, horrible, menacing, hilarious and enervating.
How she managed to do all this at once is a mystery.
Please go out and buy this book. If you don't, the terrorist win.
One of those books where I could tell you exactly what happens and spoil the jokes and it wouldn't matter because the joy of this book is reading this book (assuming the author doesn't call and read it to you).
Mrs. Segal made the hospital waiting room everything that is, horrible, menacing, hilarious and enervating.
How she managed to do all this at once is a mystery.
Please go out and buy this book. If you don't, the terrorist win.
January 26, 2014
Wow- did I hate this book. The writing is all over the place- and is precocious fit the sake if being precocious. In an attempt to be cite and quirky Md innovative- the author sacrificed all story and characterization
I read this because it was on done "best of list ". I simply didn't get it. Worst book I've read on years
Don't read this.
I read this because it was on done "best of list ". I simply didn't get it. Worst book I've read on years
Don't read this.
September 12, 2017
Page 35: Action without plot or theme and no protagonist, unless it was the crying young woman (presumably a stand-in for the reader?).
Characters enter and exit at the rate of about one per page. The storyline is only just barely detectable.
HtK is a novella about Alzheimer's. But this is carrying verisimilitude too far.
Characters enter and exit at the rate of about one per page. The storyline is only just barely detectable.
HtK is a novella about Alzheimer's. But this is carrying verisimilitude too far.
December 28, 2014
A true disappointment. I perservered and read the entire book because I usually like Lore Segal's writing but this book was not worth my time. My New Year resolution is to quit reading something if I do not like it. I think there is some magical thinking involved in perhaps disappointing the author. I need to get over it!
March 27, 2014
I chose this book based on reviews and was I disappointed. I expected a medical mystery and instead I got a book I couldn't follow. I never did figure what the author was trying to say. Don't waste your time!
January 9, 2014
man, this book went downhill. it was a real slog to finish the last 80 pages, and it's only 165 pages long.
too jumbled for me...too many characters with too few descriptions. just not my bag.
too jumbled for me...too many characters with too few descriptions. just not my bag.
Want to read
January 2, 2017Found this title scrawled on a piece of paper I was discarding. Not sure who, or why it was recommended.
November 24, 2019
I looked at some of the reviews and was kind of wowed that so many people h a t e d this and were vitriolic in the the level of distaste.
It's a small book. It was very NY Jewish from a time period which had moved on. It was a series of character developments wrapped around an era that will not come back. I am not a member of the tribe.
I loved the way the characters had such depth and the writing was so intense--you see a glimpse and it moves on. That is the way many older people are viewed--what is that old woman doing? and then you don't care. The older guy who apparently had a stroke on the beach and wasn't seen even though people walked right by him? Come on, that's going to stick with you. The one who kept taking off her clothes in the emergency room, the one who would read her short story aloud over the phone even when friends hung up on her? I'll explain it to you--they are vital and not seen or heard.
The author published this when she was 75. Oh, yeah--as a 62+ I am following her (into the grave assuredly and hopefully not for awhile). I read this while on a conference trip to Atlanta. I stayed in an airbnb condo that did not have wifi as advertised and the homeless people 10 floors down howled unabated for 3 days and nights. You could only hope it was drug induced and not mental illness. Pedestrians walked around in a wide berth as they ranted.
I did not like the Malcom Gladwell book finished earlier in the month and donated it to Goodwill.
It's a small book. It was very NY Jewish from a time period which had moved on. It was a series of character developments wrapped around an era that will not come back. I am not a member of the tribe.
I loved the way the characters had such depth and the writing was so intense--you see a glimpse and it moves on. That is the way many older people are viewed--what is that old woman doing? and then you don't care. The older guy who apparently had a stroke on the beach and wasn't seen even though people walked right by him? Come on, that's going to stick with you. The one who kept taking off her clothes in the emergency room, the one who would read her short story aloud over the phone even when friends hung up on her? I'll explain it to you--they are vital and not seen or heard.
The author published this when she was 75. Oh, yeah--as a 62+ I am following her (into the grave assuredly and hopefully not for awhile). I read this while on a conference trip to Atlanta. I stayed in an airbnb condo that did not have wifi as advertised and the homeless people 10 floors down howled unabated for 3 days and nights. You could only hope it was drug induced and not mental illness. Pedestrians walked around in a wide berth as they ranted.
I did not like the Malcom Gladwell book finished earlier in the month and donated it to Goodwill.
November 15, 2025
I knew I was in trouble ten pages in. Overstuffed and clunky, this novel bombards the reader with too many characters—none of whom are properly introduced, just drizzled in like salad dressing by a show-off acquaintance who assumes you’re already on a first-name basis with all their friends. The prose leans hard into unnecessary specificity, like someone freshly thrilled by the existence of adjectives.
What’s meant to be droll lands as dense and joyless. I pushed through and resented it the whole way, and am filled with an irredeemable hatred for the composition.
What’s meant to be droll lands as dense and joyless. I pushed through and resented it the whole way, and am filled with an irredeemable hatred for the composition.
December 9, 2017
“Perfectly good writing”
May 9, 2018
Odd, disjointed and very unsatisfying. I'm sure it must be "literature" because I have no idea what I just read or why.
July 28, 2019
A brief but affecting multicharacter story about aging and parenthood and medicine.
February 9, 2021
Written as comedy for the most part, the pandemic demolishes the comedy. Maybe read it next year.
August 5, 2023
What a strange book. Lots of people, lots of names, and they’re all “going round the bend” - and alzheimer epidemic of sorts.
Did finish, but wouldn’t recommend to anyone I know.
Did finish, but wouldn’t recommend to anyone I know.
Read
May 3, 2025weird
March 19, 2014
The book equivalent of the two-bite brownie, this 170 page story trots out a full novel's worth of characters and situations, but in a very compressed span of time. The premise, that 62+ year olds admitted to a certain hospital are falling prey to dementia on a mass scale, carries with it a ticking time bomb quality. It needn't be this way; this premise could easily have supported a book three times its length. However, the number of stories and characters gave it a sort of "Catch-22" feel, with a similar morbid humor.
Like Todd Haynes' film "Safe," the mystery is never really solved, and like "The Crying of Lot 49," the purpose of the quest sort of dribbles away at the end, to decent effect. Lore Segal knows why she thinks the elderly are unplugging, and it's pretty much what you think -- neglectful kin, pace of modern life, inability to let go of petty grievances, all-pervasive Muzak. If you're not sufficiently fearing old age, feel free to leave this book on your nightstand, where it can really penetrate your subconscious and infect your dreamlife.
All that said, there's an energy and a brazenness about this book that I respected. There's a lot of craftiness and some genuine moments amidst the wildly varied mood of the individual scenes (the bumbling "investigation team" in sharp contrast with the heartbreaking and/or mauldlin back stories of the 62-pluses being interviewed). But it's either too much or not enough. Pared down to a short story, it could be shattering. But the narrative engine would more than support 200 extra pages of machinery, especially considering the sheer number of characters present.
The story will linger in the mind, but not long. There is still so much to do, and we are still so young.
Like Todd Haynes' film "Safe," the mystery is never really solved, and like "The Crying of Lot 49," the purpose of the quest sort of dribbles away at the end, to decent effect. Lore Segal knows why she thinks the elderly are unplugging, and it's pretty much what you think -- neglectful kin, pace of modern life, inability to let go of petty grievances, all-pervasive Muzak. If you're not sufficiently fearing old age, feel free to leave this book on your nightstand, where it can really penetrate your subconscious and infect your dreamlife.
All that said, there's an energy and a brazenness about this book that I respected. There's a lot of craftiness and some genuine moments amidst the wildly varied mood of the individual scenes (the bumbling "investigation team" in sharp contrast with the heartbreaking and/or mauldlin back stories of the 62-pluses being interviewed). But it's either too much or not enough. Pared down to a short story, it could be shattering. But the narrative engine would more than support 200 extra pages of machinery, especially considering the sheer number of characters present.
The story will linger in the mind, but not long. There is still so much to do, and we are still so young.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2015
This is a book about old age, its endless list of infirmities and its occasional moments of grace. Although I was aware of Lore Segal, I must own that I had never read anything by her before, and found the cast rather large for such a slim book. I guess it isn't a problem if you've encountered these people before in her previous collections. I agree with Elaine Showalter that this book is a bit "sketchy", and based on the blurbs in my edition, I expected more from it, and so am writing from a standpoint of disappointment. However, there's quite a lot of bite to Segal's satire of geriatric healthcare, and there are enough poignant and funny vignettes to make this worth reading. Her pronouncement that "The world outside the hospital has non concept that the things we do to keep the patient alive another day, another twelve hours, meet Abu Ghraib standards" hit me in the solar plexus as I remembered my mother's ordeal during the last week of her life. I think this is one of the most important issues our society is facing, and if only for that reason, Segal's book is useful.
July 30, 2016
I tend to like books with older characters, but not this one. The author, apparently 85 years old herself at the time of the book's publication, peoples this little book, set mostly in a hospital emergency room, with elderly characters, all of whom develop, while there, some degree of dementia. Short sections alternate among a number of characters, with only the thinnest thread to link them, making it difficult to keep them straight, and there's no real ending; it just stops. There is perhaps a suggestion that the hospital's demented bureaucracy is causing the dementia among its patients, but I'm not sure about that. Can't recommend this one.
January 18, 2014
Not only is dementia contagious at a local hospital, but it varies depending on each person's fears about aging and death. Sounds like a horror novel, don't it? Instead, this is a New York literary satire. While there was much to amuse, the counterbalance of sadness and fear overturned the narrative. There's not really a plot, either, thus mirroring our own lives as we move from episode to episode, growing older until time takes us.
Not really very funny. Well, a little.
The New York setting and ethnic Jewish humor limits the audience for many of the jokes, I think.
Not really very funny. Well, a little.
The New York setting and ethnic Jewish humor limits the audience for many of the jokes, I think.
August 12, 2016
Lore Segal's writing and characters are always memorable. This thin book reminds me a bit of her "Shakespeare's Kitchen," a group of character sketches and crises that eventually coalesce into a story. In this title it takes a lot of concentration to keep them all straight and connected in these funny but frequently heartbreaking incidents. The individuals & their problems reflect the situation of her age cohort. Does this echo my recent struggles caring for my parents, or is it already prefiguring my life?
Not as good as "My First American."
Not as good as "My First American."
February 22, 2015
Ten pages into this, I wasn't sure I could finish it. It's written as a series of jump cuts every 2-3 pages, and Segal throws a lot of seemingly bland characters at you, one after another. If you settle in, though, this is a great read. It's a little about dying, and a little about being lonely, and mostly about getting old, and I found it to be really heartwarming and smart. Love the frustrated writer, Lucy, most of all here, although some of the patients we meet at the hospital are great as well. I want both sets of my parents to read this, so I'm getting it for them.
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