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melaniejayne35's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this story of the Cohen family. I have a feeling a lot of people would think this book is boring. There aren't any climatic scenes in the story, but I don't mind a "quiet" story once in a while if I like the way the author writes. I felt like I got to know the characters pretty well. The ending wasn't "tied up in a neat bow" but that was ok. Sometimes it's ok to imagine where I think the story would go.
ahsimlibrarian's review
3.0
BookList: The bonds of family are like spiderwebs: deceptively delicate but tough beyond all reason should we try to break them. When Goldie Cohen, 33, goes missing following her mother’s death and her father’s hasty attachment to the town vixen, the family begins to unravel. Spanning 21 years, from the late 1920s to the ’50s, Reisman’s debut novel provides a glimpse into a splintered Jewish Russian immigrant family in upstate New York. Told from the alternating perspectives of the various Cohen children, the story reveals the ways in which Goldie’s memory lingers and lays bare the distances deepening between the rest of the family members. Sadie, a young wife and mother, takes on the family burden once managed by her older sister: her reckless brother, imbalanced sister, and recalcitrant father, whose expectations and silences engulf them all. Reminiscent of Julia Glass’ Three Junes (2002), the novel portrays a subtle dance of interdependence and disconnection. In luminous prose that showcases a cacophony of voices, Reisman exposes how our families can be “the most familiar of strangers.” -- MishaStone (BookList, 09-01-2004, p64)
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