Being Esther - by Miriam Karmel (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From a masterful storyteller, comes a Midwestern epic that illuminates the majestic in the commonplace.

When David Rhodes burst onto the American literary scene in the 1970s, he was hailed as "a brilliant visionary" (John Gardner), and compared to Sherwood Anderson and Marilynne Robinson. In Driftless, his "most accomplished work yet" (Joseph Kanon), Rhodes brought Words, WI, to life in a way that resonated with readers across the country. Now with Jewelweed, this beloved author returns to the same out-of-the-way hamlet and introduces a cast of characters who all find themselves charged with overcoming the burdens left by the past, sometimes with the help of peach preserves or pie.

After serving time for a dubious conviction, Blake Bookchester is paroled and returns home. The story of Blake's hometown is one of challenge, change, and redemption, of outsiders and of limitations, and simultaneously one of supernatural happenings and of great love. Each of Rhodes's characters--flawed, deeply human, and ultimately universal--approach the future with a combination of hope and trepidation, increasingly mindful of the importance of community to their individual lives. Rich with a sense of empathy and wonder, Jewelweed offers a vision in which the ordinary becomes mythical.

Review Quotes

Karmel's novel of womanhood, the love and strife between mothers and daughters, marital dead zones, and the baffling metamorphosis of age is covertly complex, quietly incisive, and stunning in its emotional richness. --Booklist

"Deeply moving.... Being Esther is a spare book with cosmic implications and a huge heart. --Lilith Magazine

A deliciously funny and tender novel. --BookWomen

Full of emotion and wisdom about aging and finding meaning from a well-lived life.... While reading this lovely book, I felt as if I were reconnecting to the women in my life of Esther's generation. I savored it and did not want it to end. --NA'AMAT Women Magazine

Readers of any age will long for more Esther. --ForeWord

A tale worth telling and reading. --Jewish Book Council

[An] accomplished debut --Minneapolis Star Tribune

Being Esther...will linger long in readers' minds and hearts." --St. Paul Pioneer Press

A delight. --The American Jewish World

Being Esther is impossible to put down. -- Margot Livesey

A small masterpiece. -- Faith Sullivan, author of Gardenias

Wryly funny and always (sometimes painfully) honest. --Rosellen Brown

A small gem--a beautiful, funny and sad meditation on life and old age. --Ellen Burns, Books on the Common, Ridgefield, CT

A wonderful portrait of a seemingly simple life. -- Karen Frank, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT

What a delightful book, even if it did end up making me cry. --Jackie Blem, The Tattered Cover Bookstore, Denver CO

The possibilities for inter-generational discussions are limitless. --Nancy Simpson-Brice, Book Vault, Oskaloosa, IA

I was charmed by Esther's wonderful observations of life, her love of literature and clarity of vision.
--Terri Weiner, Village Books, Bellingham, WA

Being Esther should be required reading by all we Baby Boomers as we think about our parents' and our own last years. --Keri Rojas, Cornerstone Cottage Kids, Hampton, IA

Pitch perfect. --Ellen Sandmeyer, Sandmeyer's Bookstore, Chicago, IL

A beautiful, touching novel. --Pierre Camy, Schuler Books, Grand Rapids, MI

A beautiful, touching story filled with humor, compassion. --Anderson McKean, Page & Palette Books, Fairhope, AL

A thoughtful and lively meditation. -- Lisa Boudain, Books & Company, Okonomowoc, WI

Richly complex and loveable. --David Unowsky, SubText Bookstore, St. Paul, MN

A gem. -- Rabbi Stacy Offner, Temple Beth Tikvah, Madison, CT

"Very much like Stewart O'nan's Emily, Alone, Being Esther is a beautiful and finely crafted novel." -- Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, Director, Hillel at Ohio University

"A loving portrayal of a woman's last chapter. --Rabbi Sandy Bogin, Jewish Home Lifecare

About the Author

Miriam Karmel has worked professionally as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor, and most recently as a freelance writer specializing in medicine and health. Her journalism has appeared in AARP magazine and Minnesota Women's Press. Her fiction has won numerous regional prizes, and her stories have been published in Bellevue Literary Review, Minnesota Monthly, and anthologized in Milkweed's Fiction on a Stick. She lives in Minneapolis, MN, and Sandisfield, MA. Being Esther is her first novel.