In Case We're Separated: Connected Stories

by Alice Mattison

Book Overview

A broken kitchen appliance leads Bobbie Kaplowitz -- a single mother of a six-year-old son -- to a new understanding of love and life in the title story of In Case We're Separated, Alice Mattison's family chronicle of interrelated stories. Spanning the twentieth century, In Case We're Separated looks at a family of Jewish immigrants in the 1920s and 1930s, and follows their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren as they all lead urban, emotionally...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0066213770
• ISBN13: 9780066213774
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful read, sticks with you

I read this set of connected stories on the plane on the way to a week long vacation. And then I went back and picked through again, and then I checked the family relationships and re-read a few of my favorites. The characters stuck with me-some appearing several times from youth into old age. Very little actually happens in the course of the stories: the vietnam war and the AIDS epidemic, for instance, are more or less offstage, but the strength and believability of the characters pulled me in and kept my attention.

Alice Mattison Comes out with another Treasure!

If she were here, I would cheer, "Thanks Again, Ms. Mattison!" I have loved all of her wrk. (except for the weird-o Marriage of the Two Headed Woman which was a pain to get through). Alice writes like I think, like a dream world that could come true if you had a bit more luck. It is (and I realize I may be the only person around who thinks this), that these intense, well-written characters, their descriptions, and their relationships to eachother resemble a light magic realism. Reading Mattison is like witnessing: Good stuff on a gray day, Ray Charles in the background,a butterfly flying through an awful urban tenement. Or, maybe an old, but minutley faithful car in your driveway that does not work for a year and then runs like a charm, getting your writer son to and from four years of college. And then you name the car Dickens. I especially love Alice Mattison, not just for this book, but for so many others. And as one of her dedications is authentically to her friend, the late Jane Kenyon (the world's best, best poet). Alice, I am sorry about your friend. The two of you have made my world a better place. Thank you. I definitely, whole-hearted recommend this book to NYC addicts, short story lovers, and all who love the contemporary American writing movement of this very moment. As a post script, I will note that the sibling relationships are what make this book work. The interlocking short stories keep you waiting with baited breath in that same way that you feel when you realize, hey, this friend, this neighbor, this relative, we're all connedcted in this way or that. And thank goodness, this world is not as big and awful as we once thought.

Cover art threw me

This is not so much about the book as it is about its cover. The photo is the exact same one used for the cover of Barbara Trapido's "Travelling Hornplayer" so it was a bit confusing. Hopefully they'll change it for the paperback edition.

Great Short Stories...

Though I'm not a fan of short stories, I really enjoyed this book because all the tales are connected. These stories are about different individuals of the Kaplowitz family. A very large Jewish family who's spread out all over the place. My only issue with the book was just how large the family was. Between kids, and grand kids, husbands, wives...some chapters I had to go back to earlier stories to figure out who I was reading about, and what branch of the family they came from. Other than that, it was a really good book. These stories are of everyday trials that we go through throughout the span of our lives. I absolutely recommend this, and would definitely pick up another of Ms. Mattison's novels.

Don't miss these wonderful stories!

Anyone who cares about good fiction--or basically, anyone who wants that marvelous feeling that you can only get from reading great stories, where you connect with fundamental human emotions and become involved with people you never met but, by the time you're finished, you know better than most of your friends and family--should pick up a copy of this book. I promise, you won't want to put it down!