Clock Dance

Clock Dance / Anne Tyler 292 pgs.

Willa Drake leads a life that has mostly been laid out by others.  She was not crazy about getting married before finishing college but then when here parents objected, she decided that defying them was more important than sticking to her own ideas.  This book visits Willa as a child, a college girl, a middle aged mom and then a remarried widow.  It is this last time frame that is most interesting.  Her oldest son's ex-girlfriend gets shot in the leg and a neighbor sees her number and thinks she is the grandma.  Willa ends up traveling to take care of Cheryl, a little girl she never actually met but who is happy to adopt her as a grandmother.  Willa has never felt more useful but her husband Peter wants her home.  She bonds with Cheryl and her mom Denise and their neighbors.  All the while, Peter is calling to complain that she isn't there to cook for him, etc.  Willa finally gets a big of a backbone and does something for herself. Tyler is a great writer but this book is not one of my favorites.  It made me sad that it took Willa 60+ years to find her way but better late than never.

The Bible of Dirty Jokes

The Bible of Dirty Jokes by Eileen Pollack, 307 pages.

As we meet Ketzel Weinrach she is a recent initiate to widowhood. She grew up imitating the comedians who performed at her parent's Borscht Belt resort. She could do dead-on imitations of Henny Youngman, Zero Mostel, and all the greats of the 1950s and 60s. As an adult, when she decided to take to the stage these imitations didn't take her very far. Comedy was shifting and Ketzel was being left behind, but then Ketzel met Morty and things were good for a while.
Ketzel has always been a little bit our of sync with the world around her. Her parents and her brothers were always playing a little bit loose with the rules. Grampa was allegedly in the mob's pocket, Leo, the family retainer, had a bit of a gambling problem and maybe left a few bodies at the bottom of a local lake. Brother Ira died during the Six-Day-War, brother Howie became a religious zealot after a stint in prison, and brother Mike died in a helicopter crash after he quit working for the family business and went to work for Donald Trump.
Ketzel has been drawn back into her parents' world now that her last surviving brother, Potzie, has disappeared. As she attempts to track down Potzie and their slimey cousin Perry, Ketzel keeps uncovering family secrets. A good solid mystery.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal  298 pp.

This book could have been titled "Erotic Stories BY Punjabi Widows" since that is what happens in the story. Nikki, the daughter of Indian immigrants, is a modern London girl who tries to distance herself from the traditional Sikh culture of her parents. While performing a favor for her sister who has suddenly decided to seek an arranged marriage, Nikki sees a want ad for a writing teacher. What she ends up with is a group of Sikh widows who are expecting to learn basic English, not how to write short stories. But these women have outlandish imaginations and the stories they begin to tell are racy ones. There is danger in these stories from a Sikh men's group who use threats and violence to keep people on a conservative Sikh path. There is also the mystery surrounding the death of a young woman in the community and Nikki's own love story. There is a lot going on in this novel which is entertaining but briefly bogs down in the middle. The writing class widows are very entertaining and the results of their efforts has a positive ending.

It's Okay To Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too): A Memoir

It's Okay To Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too): A Memoir by Nora McInerny Purmort, 274 pages.

Purmort, who has written for the Huffington Post, Elle.com, and Cosmopolitan.com, among others, tells a devastatingly sad story in a devastatingly funny way. She is hilarious in recounting her life, despite a miscarriage and the loss of both her father and her husband, all within a matter of weeks. She describes her relationship with Aaron, the man she married after he discovered that he had a brain tumor, in very loving terms. They shared an outlook on life that was a bit absurd and they did their best to enjoy the time that had together, all the while hoping that they would catch a few breaks and have a little bit more time. Especially after their son, Ralph, was born. Purmort is seemingly aware of every one of her own flaws, but she does her best to forgive herself for them and use those faults as grist for her humor mill. She takes a perverse pleasure in the skewering of  her problems; with alcohol, with her parents, with every relationship she had before her relationship with Aaron, and with every bit of her tall, self-conscious, gawky self.  This book is a sad sort of joy to read or to listen to. The audiobook is narrated by the author.