From Amazon.com
Cathleen Schine, the author of
The Love Letter, takes on the "sandwich generation" in her tale of three mothers,
She Is Me. Regal, cranky Lotte is the matriarch of the trio, mother to Greta and grandmother to Elizabeth (who also has a child of her own). All three points of view are presented in the novel, as each of the women struggles with her personal demons: Lotte has a quickly spreading skin cancer, Greta also has cancer and is beginning to question her heterosexuality, and Elizabeth has uprooted her life to write a doomed screenplay based on
Madame Bovary. While the trepidations they face are daunting, Schine keeps the tone light and humorous throughout, capturing the complicated nature of mother/daughter relationships--specifically the peculiar way in which they can loathe and love each other at the exact same moment.
Though the alternating perspectives are ostensibly meant to bring depth to the story, in this case it most often results in confusion. Segments shift from one woman's view to another's all too quickly, forcing readers to spend the first several sentences of each section figuring out whose mind we are in. This choppy style also makes it difficult to care about any one woman in particular. Also distracting from what could otherwise be a compelling story are the external characters, which are either superfluous or underdeveloped. Much like Elizabeth's screenplay, this tale doesn't represent the writer's best work. --Brangien Davis
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Set in L.A., this entertaining and intelligent examination of three generations of women easily transitions to audio thanks to Shine's (Alice in Bed) witty dialogue and the narration of stage and screen actress Kalember, who expertly personifies the three very different female characters. Chic, cynical Elizabeth Bernard was recently "plucked from the toilers of the academic field" to write a movie about a modern-day Madame Bovary; her mother, Greta, has colon cancer, a surprising lesbian interest and a kind but detached doctor husband; and Elizabeth's feisty, demanding grandmother, Lotte, a former Broadway dancer, suffers from a disfiguring and possible fatal facial cancer. Read with insight and emotion, this audio book offers each woman's perspectives on the universal issues of love, aging, family and fidelity and will draw a wide range of female listeners who will no doubt find themselves identifying with at least one of the protagonists. Two of Schine's novels (The Love Letter and Rameau's Niece) have already been transformed into feature films, and this touching, satirical and funny tale is poised to make a similar leap.
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--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
