I really enjoyed reading Florence
Gordon by Brian Morton. The story begins
with Florence setting out to write her memoirs, at the age of seventy-five, in
New York City where she has lived all her life.
Her daughter-in-law, Janine, and her granddaughter, Emily, have been in
NYC for several months. Her son, Daniel,
a Seattle policeman joins his family for a vacation.
Florence is a published essayist and
has been a force in the feminist movement for years. The character of Florence Gordon is
outspoken, opinionated and brusque. I
really enjoyed her. She decides at one
point that she needs an assistant and employs Emily to do her research for her. This interaction gives us a chance to learn
more about each of these characters and what limits they will enforce in
relationships.
Emily has a needy and troubled
boyfriend, named Justin and Janine starts a flirtation with a fellow researcher
named Lev. All the characters are well developed
and the writing is excellent. As I said
earlier, I enjoyed this book but I had some problems with the ending.
What did Janine decide? What about Daniel? What happened to Justin? We do learn what
becomes of Florence but I still had questions as to the details of her fate.
I would still recommend this book,
regardless of the questions I had at the end.
I think it would be a good book club book.
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