The Part of Fortune (Review Copy)

The women of an old age home in the South tell the stories of their men, children, hopes, disappointments, jobs, lovers, and betrayals to Clara, a middle-aged woman who works as a storyteller

Goldman's second novel is a somewhat sobering tale of the young and the old, of dreams and reality. The author weaves together present and past as she describes the relationship between the storyteller, Clara; the inmates of Green Mansions, a nursing home where she tells tales based on the lives of the elderly residents; and Honora, the home's director. Clara and Johanna, a younger woman who makes daily pilgrimages to visit her beloved but ailing grandmother, are alike in their inability to share their inner selves. Goldman's writing is sometimes disjointed, switching between the inmates' recollections, Honora's narration of her life and lost loves, Clara's childhood remembrances, and the tales being told, but ultimately it is a work of imagination. Kimberly G. Allen, Supreme Court Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.