In Their Ruin - by Joyce Goldenstern (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"In Their Ruin" opens in the colorful, parochial Chicago suburb of Cicero, beginning in the late 1940's when the remnants of the gang once led by Al Capone still existed and ethnic prejudices colored people's opinions. Chester, the Stone family's troubled father, is a bookie as well as a mathematical savant, and his brother is a hitman. Gladys, the mother, is from South Dakota and her family is equally influential in the development of the three children--brothers-- teaching them folk tales and family legends and how to hunt and fish during long summer vacations. As time passes, street gangs exert their power over the brothers' activities, and Gladys worries about her sons' safety as well as her husband's deteriorating mental health and the family's growing financial instability. It all becomes too much for her and ultimately the brothers are left to raise themselves in both conventional and unconventional ways. Their diverging paths and lingering psychic wounds lead to mutual estrangement, setting each brother on an individual journey to redemption. This novel does a brilliant job of presenting Chicago's working class as it was 75 years ago and as it has changed.,

Review Quotes

In Their Ruin is the winner of the Black Heron Press Award for Social Fiction

"Readers seeking astute literary and psychological works that bring family history to the forefront of discussion will find In Their Ruin's contrast of past and present to be especially thought-provoking... strongly recommended for book clubs [interested in] family legacy." -- Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Joyce Goldenstern writes and lives by fiction, often inspired by folk tales, visual art and other literature as well as her own experiences. She has published a collection of short stories ("The Story Ends-- The Story Never Ends") and two chapbooks ("Way Stops Americana" and "Old Woman and Eel"). She has been awarded two Illinois Arts Council grants, a Chicago Council of Fine Arts Neighborhood Workshop grant, and a Quarterly West Novella Contest award. She lives in Chicago. Her website is https: //thestoryendsthestorynever ends.wordpress.com/. "In Their Ruin" is her first novel.