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Exit Interview with My Grandmother
Lily Meyersohn’s Exit Interview With My Grandmother is a rumination on young adulthood, through the prism of her relationship with her ninety-two-year-old grandmother. At once profoundly personal and far-reaching, Exit Interview With My Grandmother serves as a meditation on the beginning of a young woman’s life and the series of questions that arise from examining love, loss, family, memory, and death.
Moving between cities and centuries, Meyersohn probes her family's Jewish history and her grandparents' relationships in part to decipher her own young queer relationships, but also to examine how we ought to behave in the face of a world riddled with uncertainty and doubt. Comprising a personal narrative and an intimate, recorded conversation with her grandmother, Meyersohn’s essay confronts what it means for something to begin, what it means for something to end, and what we should hold onto along the way.
Moving between cities and centuries, Meyersohn probes her family's Jewish history and her grandparents' relationships in part to decipher her own young queer relationships, but also to examine how we ought to behave in the face of a world riddled with uncertainty and doubt. Comprising a personal narrative and an intimate, recorded conversation with her grandmother, Meyersohn’s essay confronts what it means for something to begin, what it means for something to end, and what we should hold onto along the way.
Audible Audio
First published April 30, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 220 reviews
May 3, 2020
This book was one part conversation with her grandmother, one part her really, really making me angry with her horribly misplaced priorities, one part her trying to sound like she's lived this long, impressive life when she's like 22, and 7 parts her pining for her girlfriend. This was a genuinely bad book.
At one point she legitimately said, "We were 19. No, she was 18. SHE was so young. It's easy to forget that."
She is REALLY unlikable. I just wanted to pat her head and say, "Poor little rich girl. I feel for you. Really, you've had it rough." ...eye roll...
At one point she legitimately said, "We were 19. No, she was 18. SHE was so young. It's easy to forget that."
She is REALLY unlikable. I just wanted to pat her head and say, "Poor little rich girl. I feel for you. Really, you've had it rough." ...eye roll...
May 5, 2020
One word, boring! Her 90+ grandmother who was occasionally interviewed was very interesting. If the author shared with the reader more insights and perspectives from her grandmother’s ninety years of living life, it would’ve made for a interesting book. The author instead kept shifting the focus back onto herself.
June 1, 2020
I'm severely disappointed. Was this an interview with her grandmother or just the gay girlfriend chronicles? The parts in which her grandmother is speaking are pretty interesting, but those instances are few and far between. For most of it she's just talking about her girlfriend. I'm sorry but I fail to see what the hell that has to do with her grandma and her experiences. I mean, sure I can vaguely see where the connection is made, but I chose this for the title expecting something entirely different from what we get. Did I mention that at one point she's explaining how she and her girlfriend smeared her menstrual blood all over the wall? I wish I was joking. Don't title this an exit interview with your grandma if more than half of it has absolutely nothing to do with her.
I'm starting to wonder if most Audible originals are just inherently garbage. I'm so glad I didn't pay extra for these trash productions.
I'm starting to wonder if most Audible originals are just inherently garbage. I'm so glad I didn't pay extra for these trash productions.
May 22, 2020
The premise of the book is enticing. The portions with the 92 year old grandmother are wonderful. Unfortunately, that is only about 2% of the book. The rest is alot of navel gazing my an immature young woman who thinks she is wise beyond her years. Lots of self centered drivel about her girlfriends and weird ramblings about climate change. Her shallow thoughts on her grandfather and his dementia are off putting.
Her grandmother is wise and endearing. A book about her reflections would have been wonderful. Sadly this is not it.
Her grandmother is wise and endearing. A book about her reflections would have been wonderful. Sadly this is not it.
March 28, 2021
Sounded interesting & meaningful. After 21%, it’s not. And the narrator is hard to listen to. So I’m out.
May 4, 2020
Beautiful story about a young woman's oddyssey into her own life and her family's history, being Jewish in Europe during World War II and what that was like. Short, but very good. The only thing I would have liked to see/hear was more conversations with her grandmother. But, given it is a short book, it's very well done. A very talented writer, indeed!
May 12, 2020
Interesting Premise but let down by Digressions & Robotic Delivery
Review of the Audible Original audiobook (April 30, 2020) based on the writer's original memoir article (March 22, 2019)
Exit Interview has the intriguing starting source of a recorded interview with Meyersohn's very articulate 90+ year old grandmother of which only snippets appear in the final piece. Most of this audio essay consists of digressions about Meyersohn's own past relationship with a now distant lover. The conversations with the grandmother are animated whereas the recitations of the scripted text are often robotic which unfortunately makes your mind start to wander until it is snapped back to attention to hear the grandmother's observations on life. This is not a great promotion for an author reading their own work. Could have been a 4 for the grandmother only, but the rest drags it down to a 2, so it is a 3 rating as a final compromise.
Exit Interview with My Grandmother was one of ten Audible Originals available free for Audible members in May 2020. It is available to everyone for a standard price.
Trivia and Links
You can read the original article version of Exit Interview with My Grandmother which was published in The College Hill Independent March 22, 2019 here.
You can read the article Barbara Hammer's Exit Interview, the inspiration for Meyersohn's title and mentioned in both Meyersohn's article and audiobook, which was published in The New Yorker February 25, 2019 here.
Review of the Audible Original audiobook (April 30, 2020) based on the writer's original memoir article (March 22, 2019)
Exit Interview has the intriguing starting source of a recorded interview with Meyersohn's very articulate 90+ year old grandmother of which only snippets appear in the final piece. Most of this audio essay consists of digressions about Meyersohn's own past relationship with a now distant lover. The conversations with the grandmother are animated whereas the recitations of the scripted text are often robotic which unfortunately makes your mind start to wander until it is snapped back to attention to hear the grandmother's observations on life. This is not a great promotion for an author reading their own work. Could have been a 4 for the grandmother only, but the rest drags it down to a 2, so it is a 3 rating as a final compromise.
Exit Interview with My Grandmother was one of ten Audible Originals available free for Audible members in May 2020. It is available to everyone for a standard price.
Trivia and Links
You can read the original article version of Exit Interview with My Grandmother which was published in The College Hill Independent March 22, 2019 here.
You can read the article Barbara Hammer's Exit Interview, the inspiration for Meyersohn's title and mentioned in both Meyersohn's article and audiobook, which was published in The New Yorker February 25, 2019 here.
May 15, 2020
I really enjoyed listening to her grandmother and wished there had been much more content with her; the “author”?, not so much.
May 18, 2020
I enjoyed this but would have loved more from the Grandmother.
May 27, 2020
A bunch of well wrapped goobledeegook about lesbianism. It was my first I admit and I hope last but I heard the book all the way through to try understand their world. The grandma was quite pathetic herself admitting to abortions in her youth and do forth. All topics that I'm not really want to listen to.
June 12, 2020
It was a toss up between giving the book a 2 or a 3 so I settled on a 3 because I think there is something very brave and commendable about a 20-something woman deciding to write a memoir about her grandparents. I thought the parts of the audio recording where her grandmother was speaking were wonderful, they actually saved the book. Actually, her grandmother should have been the one to write the book as she had such a deep, wise view of life. In contrast, Lily comes across as an observer to life, a self-centered one at that. She describes her affairs in such a detached way--"the woman from Maine," or "Sophie-who-goes-to-Berlin"--that I didn't get a feeling that she had ever truly loved them. The frustrating part is that Meyersohn has it in her to write/tell a wonderful story--there are signs of that throughout the recording--but she tamps any real energy down and resumes her monotonic, factual reporting of events.
Yes, I had a problem with her narration throughout the book. She recorded it as a news reader rather than a true narrator. No inflection, no feeling. After awhile, I found myself wanting to shake her and say "But what do you FEEL about this? You can't write words that have feeling and then not express those feelings vocally."
There is an irony, too, to listening to this on a day in mid June 2020 where she expresses such deep worry about climate change as being the most cataclysmic event the world is facing. Oh yeah? How about updating that in light of COVID, economic implosions and the demonstrations against racial violence. She would have a lot of grist for her thesis about living and recording the intimacies of a life that can change in an instant. She describes a few hours in Berlin, walking the streets with her girlfriend, being queer AND Jewish, thinking about which she would have been annihilated for under the Nazis, that could really have been developed into a longer part. About living in danger because of one's sexual orientation or religion. And, in today's time, one's race. Maybe she will in future, she has the insight. She just needs to develop the word smithing and depth.
Yes, I had a problem with her narration throughout the book. She recorded it as a news reader rather than a true narrator. No inflection, no feeling. After awhile, I found myself wanting to shake her and say "But what do you FEEL about this? You can't write words that have feeling and then not express those feelings vocally."
There is an irony, too, to listening to this on a day in mid June 2020 where she expresses such deep worry about climate change as being the most cataclysmic event the world is facing. Oh yeah? How about updating that in light of COVID, economic implosions and the demonstrations against racial violence. She would have a lot of grist for her thesis about living and recording the intimacies of a life that can change in an instant. She describes a few hours in Berlin, walking the streets with her girlfriend, being queer AND Jewish, thinking about which she would have been annihilated for under the Nazis, that could really have been developed into a longer part. About living in danger because of one's sexual orientation or religion. And, in today's time, one's race. Maybe she will in future, she has the insight. She just needs to develop the word smithing and depth.
July 19, 2020
The title of this book is misleading. A very small portion of this is an interview with her grandmother. That small portion is far and away the best part. The rest of it is either her ageist musings on whether people in their 90's have lives worth living at all (spoiler: she doesn't think so), whining about how her life hasn't fallen into place yet (and then you discover she's still in college), or her being sad about the end of a relationship that she knows will end from the beginning (and, frankly, doesn't seem at all worth continuing anyway). The worst thing I've spent time on in a long time. I am flabbergasted that this was chosen to be produced by Audible -- at least it was free.
May 20, 2020
I expected more information about and the perspective of her grandmother. Especially with the stated title. I enjoyed the parts of her grandmother, which were too little and far apart. Her talking about pining after her girlfriend didn't seem to fit with her book premise, and this took up a majority of the book.
May 23, 2020
Kudos to the author,
Perhaps one of the hardest things to research, write, and put logically down without constantly going off on a tangent elsewhere and keeping the book from becoming a long series and excessively boring. I wish everyone would take the chance to talk/interview their loved ones and really spend quality time getting to know them and their history. Too often culture is gone and family tradition and stories are lost because people always feel there will be more time and are too "busy with life" yet can always find time to make it to Starbucks or something unnecessary like this. We are never guaranteed time. Love your family while you have them and go one step further,... write it down for your loved ones that follow to cherish and and they can add to it.
The book itself wasn't all that fantastic. It did however hold some compelling questions and the answers were thought provoking. My favorite part of the story remains to be the voice recordings of her grandmother. I would have loved to have visited with her and known her in real life. What a character and bundle of energy! She comes across as an amazing spark of energy, wisdom, & spirit. Her analogy on anxiety was perfect but it blew me away what she used along with several other eye popping revelations she shared.
Judge for yourself. Above all, if you are fortunate to have older loved one's still,... give them a call today. 💕
Perhaps one of the hardest things to research, write, and put logically down without constantly going off on a tangent elsewhere and keeping the book from becoming a long series and excessively boring. I wish everyone would take the chance to talk/interview their loved ones and really spend quality time getting to know them and their history. Too often culture is gone and family tradition and stories are lost because people always feel there will be more time and are too "busy with life" yet can always find time to make it to Starbucks or something unnecessary like this. We are never guaranteed time. Love your family while you have them and go one step further,... write it down for your loved ones that follow to cherish and and they can add to it.
The book itself wasn't all that fantastic. It did however hold some compelling questions and the answers were thought provoking. My favorite part of the story remains to be the voice recordings of her grandmother. I would have loved to have visited with her and known her in real life. What a character and bundle of energy! She comes across as an amazing spark of energy, wisdom, & spirit. Her analogy on anxiety was perfect but it blew me away what she used along with several other eye popping revelations she shared.
Judge for yourself. Above all, if you are fortunate to have older loved one's still,... give them a call today. 💕
October 10, 2020
Lily Meyersohn is a young, Jewish, gay woman working through her grandparents' relationships, her own queer relationships, her family's Jewish history, and life in a world of endless uncertainty.
For her, one way of doing that is an "exit interview" with her grandmother. It's an intimate, personal conversation, about their family history, the slow loss of Lily's grandfather to the ravages of Alzheimers, and the depth and complexity their marriage had developed before that. Lily also talks about her own relationships, one with a woman who is never identified except as "the woman from Maine," but who was clearly important to her. Another relationship is with Sophie, which is, as this memoir begins, current, but in various ways clearly moving toward its natural end.
What Meyersohn has to tell us includes not just these relationships, not just her grandparents' relationship, but the stories of how both sides of the family came from Germany to the US not long ahead of the Holocaust, and her own visit to Germany, to places important to her family history.
It's intimate and moving, and revealing and enlightening. A very good listen. Recommended.
I got this audiobook as part of the Audible Originals program, and am revieiwng it voluntarily.
For her, one way of doing that is an "exit interview" with her grandmother. It's an intimate, personal conversation, about their family history, the slow loss of Lily's grandfather to the ravages of Alzheimers, and the depth and complexity their marriage had developed before that. Lily also talks about her own relationships, one with a woman who is never identified except as "the woman from Maine," but who was clearly important to her. Another relationship is with Sophie, which is, as this memoir begins, current, but in various ways clearly moving toward its natural end.
What Meyersohn has to tell us includes not just these relationships, not just her grandparents' relationship, but the stories of how both sides of the family came from Germany to the US not long ahead of the Holocaust, and her own visit to Germany, to places important to her family history.
It's intimate and moving, and revealing and enlightening. A very good listen. Recommended.
I got this audiobook as part of the Audible Originals program, and am revieiwng it voluntarily.
May 30, 2021
This is one part exit interview with grandma and three parts twenty-something fretting about the uncertainties in her life, particularly revolving around her girlfriend, Sophie. I wish I knew more about grandma and less about Sophie.
The grandmother's oral history was sprinkled throughout the book and in her own voice, and the subject matter was very interesting. Subjects included growing up Jewish, fleeing wartime Europe, the benefits of a long marriage, all kinds of little life lessons learned over 90+ years. She was well spoken.
But that was just maybe a quarter of this. Most of was just about the author's own issues in life, particularly uninteresting relationship drama, even to the point of worrying over her and Sophie's future offspring as it would certainly be a boy due to global warming, right?
I would've enjoyed this had it been only an exit interview with grandma. I grabbed his as a freebee as I had already used my Audible credit this month. I guess you never know what you are going to get, despite what the title states.
The grandmother's oral history was sprinkled throughout the book and in her own voice, and the subject matter was very interesting. Subjects included growing up Jewish, fleeing wartime Europe, the benefits of a long marriage, all kinds of little life lessons learned over 90+ years. She was well spoken.
But that was just maybe a quarter of this. Most of was just about the author's own issues in life, particularly uninteresting relationship drama, even to the point of worrying over her and Sophie's future offspring as it would certainly be a boy due to global warming, right?
I would've enjoyed this had it been only an exit interview with grandma. I grabbed his as a freebee as I had already used my Audible credit this month. I guess you never know what you are going to get, despite what the title states.
May 31, 2020
Only detraction for me was author continually throwing in her own failed relationships. Or if not failed, exactly, just young love. It was an odd contrast to a grandmother's perspective looking back at a long life, and maybe that was the point. It just felt jarring to me. Maybe just because I'm older myself and the drama of youth in love and/or breaking up is not particularly compelling at my age.
July 30, 2020
This book only has maybe 2% to do with her grandmother. The parts with her grandmother were pretty good. The majority of the book is Lily Meyersohn trying to sound profound while discussing her relationships with various women. I made myself listen to the entire story before rating it. When she chose to talk about her girlfriend smearing her menstrual blood on the wall the rating went from a very generous 🌟 🌟 rating to 🌟 and wishing I could give it a negative rating.
May 16, 2020
When you read the description/synopsis it sounds so intriguing and I quite enjoyed the parts when the grandmother was actually being interviewed but there wasn’t enough of that to warrant the title or the synopsis. A “new adult” version of a Dear Diary. Musings and existential theories peppered with the really interesting conversations with her grandmother.
June 3, 2020
This is a good book that feels very personal and intimate, as if I’m reading something that was intended for the authors eyes only. It definitely Spurs one on to respect and love and cherish one’s elders.
September 22, 2021
Not for me. Not enough grandma in this book.
June 14, 2020
I really enjoyed listening to this story. To hear her grandmothers voice and words were so touching. It was two stories really - the interview and the authors own life. Rich nuggets of insight. Free original on audiobooks. ♥️
May 8, 2020
This was not at all what I expected- I thought there would be a lot more of her grandmother's perspectives and reflections. There were little pieces, which were the only interesting things about this book and the only reason I gave it 2 stars. Most of it seemed to be the author talking about her relationship with her girlfriend and I tuned out most of that. This was a free book from Audible, thankful I didn't pay for it!
May 12, 2020
Disconnected ramblings with a *tiny* bit of interview with Grandma. Disappointing.
May 25, 2020
I really liked this book. Grandma had so much spunk.
I like that she tried to connect with her past by being with her grandma.
The parts where she was searching the graves and wondering if it was the Jewish or the Queer in the family that killed them during the holocost was a deep thought.
She is definitely headed in the right direction to remember her past but I feel like if there were more moments with grandma it would be better.
I like that she tried to connect with her past by being with her grandma.
The parts where she was searching the graves and wondering if it was the Jewish or the Queer in the family that killed them during the holocost was a deep thought.
She is definitely headed in the right direction to remember her past but I feel like if there were more moments with grandma it would be better.
January 27, 2021
Delivery was good. My favorite parts were the snippets of her grandmother speaking. For a 92-year-old woman, she was really aware and spoke eloquently. I do admit that I had to remove a star because this story, while interesting, lack a bit of cohesion. Some parts fit well together, but there was quite a bit of meandering.
February 4, 2021
This was a short, free Audible original. I don’t gave much to add other than to echo what others said. I expected something different and wished there was more of the grandmother; she was what kept me listening.
May 3, 2020
Loved the narration but wanted more history in there!
September 19, 2022
Not enough content about her grandmother as the book suggested.
October 24, 2020
At the risk of sounding like the boomer that I am (technically), I am astounded that a 23 year old woman waxing philosophical about her life actually garnered a spot in the Audible originals line up. Audible Originals are seldom great literary achievements, but this is just absurd. Grandma was quite interesting, but we heard precious little from her. Everything, was about how the author felt about her grandmother's end of life, or how she felt about how other people felt about it. Ok, maybe not everything. A significant portion was about her romantic relationships, and how she felt about them and how she thought others felt about her relationships. Even her trip to Germany and Austria, countries some of her grandparents had fled prior to World War II, had a very narcissistic flavor. She spent more time speculating about what her ancestors would have thought about her being there than her wondering about their lives and struggles. Had the book been titled, A Young Woman Looks at Her Life, I probably would have given it a 3. To try to pass this off as a book about her grandmother is a bit tacky.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 220 reviews