Expiration Date - Hardcover

Sherril Jaffe

2.71

58 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1579622151 ISBN 13: 9781579622152

Publisher: Permanent Press, 2011

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In a dream, a vision--or, perhaps, reality--Flora finds herself in the Heavenly Court, where her expiration date is proclaimed: She is to die in twenty-five years. Her parents and in-laws watch from behind a low wooden balustrade, the line dividing here, life, from there, eternity where they all will no doubt be, by the time her expiration date arrives.

And now it is twenty-four years later, the last year of Flora's life, or so she believes. Her father has just died; all those behind the balustrade are, indeed, dead except for Flora's mother, Muriel. However, the Angel of Death seems to be after her, too; she has several brushes with disaster yet miraculously survives. Flora begins to wonder if her mother isn' t valiantly protecting her refusing to cross over to the other side of the balustrade so that the dream/vision won't be true.

Muriel is unaware of all this, however; she is more concerned with what life might hold for her as a newly minted widow in her eighties. She goes off to a bridge tournament where she meets a man who invites her to travel with him on the bridge circuit, and they take off across the Southwest.

Are old age and death what Flora has always thought they were? What are they, really? Is the day of her death really predetermined? Is there anything she can do to appeal the sentence? Can a mother muster supernatural forces to protect her child? If Flora lives to be old, will she be the same person she was when she was young or something new, entirely? Is it common to be in love, to live under the spell of Eros, even into great old age? Every certainty Flora has had about all this is being swept away. And then a stranger comes to her mother's door, changing everything...

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About the Author:

SHERRIL JAFFE is the author of six books of fiction: Scars Make Your Body More Interesting, This Flower Only Blooms Every Hundred Years, The Unexamined Wife, The Faces Reappear, House Tours, and Interior Designs, as well as two memoirs: Ground Rules and One God Clapping, (a collaboration with her late husband, Alan Lew), winner of the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence, a PEN Award. Her short stories appear widely in journals such as Epoch, Alaska Quarterly Review, Zyzzyva, and Volt. A professor of Creative Writing at Sonoma State University, she lives in San Francisco and walks in Golden Gate Park every day.

Review:

While her daughter Flora anxiously awaits her 60th birthday, having dreamt years ago that she would die at that age, 86-year-old Beverly Hills widow Muriel Margolin uncovers surprising, uplifting secrets about old age.

Written with lyrical urgency by a seasoned San Franciscan, this is a rare and much-needed novel that investigates old age without cuteness or sentimentality and with sexual candor. Widowed after a 60-year marriage, the latter fourth of which were spent caring for her ill husband, Muriel is frightened by the prospects of living alone and of "floating free, letting go." Even as widowers circle around her, offering meals for company and affection, she believes no one of any worth would be interested in a woman her age. But along comes a tall, reserved, jumpsuit-wearing Southerner named Wilbur, who whisks her away on a car tour of bridge tournaments, fast-food eateries and Motel 6s. And then, more to her liking, comes Gene, a computer repairman whose boasts of sexual conquests awaken her hidden-away desire. Flora, the more attentive of her two daughters, with whom she now lives in San Francisco, is a liberal, Zen-practicing child of the '60s married to a rabbi with whom she has great sex and goes kayaking. (Jaffe's late husband, Alan Lew, was a rabbi with whom she wrote One God Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi, 2001.) Only after her mother survives two bizarre accidents, and her own "expiration date," does Flora reassess her life expectancy. Written with warmth, humor, wisdom and sublime control, this page-turning novel succeeds as a meditation on aging; as an examination of the impact of life's hourglass on serious decisions; and as a character study. The happy ending is a bit pat but is fully earned.

A funny, sexy look at a woman's emergence in her 80s. --Kirkus Reviews

Jaffe's quirky exploration of motherly love opens with protagonist Flora Rose's dream: nine months pregnant, she sits in the "prisoner's box" of a heavenly court presided over by dead relatives. Their sentence: that she will die, 25 years from now (Flora's mother, Muriel, however, seems to have other plans for her). Flash forward 24 years, and Flora is worried. Her mother, who according to dream logic should have been dead by now, has just been left widowed. She busies herself searching for companionship and playing in bridge tournaments. But lately she seems to almost court danger: sneaker waves ("they come out of nowhere") snare her on the Oregon coast, she's dragged behind a car, and a lump appears on her arm. Knowing that Muriel would likely "lift a Volkswagen" to save her daughters, Flora begins to suspect her mother of literally protecting her from death. Jaffe marries her somber theme with keen observations, making this the rare conceptual book containing characters that readers will root for. --Publishers Weekly

Flora Rose has a dream. She is standing in a courtroom in heaven, with her parents and in-laws seated behind a wooden balustrade. The people behind the railing are deceased. Flora is told she will live for 25 more years. Fast-forward 24 years. Flora is living what could potentially be the last year of her life. She is a busy person, with a teaching job, a husband, two grown children, and a widowed mother, Muriel, whose husband has just died after a long illness. Flora takes stock of all around her, waiting for what the ticking clock will bring while Muriel begins to enjoy an active and companionable single life, playing bridge, traveling, and discovering her independence for the first time. As both women contemplate their places in the world, they discover that predictions and expectations are not what they appear to be. This is a funny, thoughtful examination of the parent-child relationship and the blurring of generational lines. It is also a delightful reminder of the unexpected lives that await us. --Booklist

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