I don't know why I continued to read this all the way to the finish. All I can say is that the premise that middle-aged children often find themselves becoming the parent to their parents. In this case, Elizabeth is trying to care for her grandmother Lotte who is suffering from skin cancer. Lotte's own daughter, Greta, wants to care for her own mother; but she too has cancer (colon) and is trying to hide it from Lotte. In the meantime, Elizabeth finds herself stretched thin as she tries to care for the two women in her life, be a mother to her toddler, and find time for her son's father whom she claims to love but refuses to marry.Add to that, Elizabeth has been asked to move to LA to write a quirky, edgy, updated screenplay of Madame Bovary. I read that novel years back in college and remember very little about it except that the main character was an adulteress. Enter adultery in the lives of the main characters.The story could have been very powerful if it had just run with the theme of parenting parents, but it was so tangled with the Madame Bovary references that I became frustrated. That added element was only a distraction and made me gnash my teeth. I didn't like Madame Bovary back in the day and I still don't. Now I don't like Elizabeth or Greta or Lotte. Sadly, the women were selfish and shallow when the main plot could have been a tender story of love, need for mothers and mothering, and the terror of fighting a dreaded disease. It was difficult to keep the three women's identities separate because paragraphs, rather than chapters, bounced around from the thoughts and circumstances of one character to another. I had no connection to the characters and certainly no compassion for them. The ending was a total loss on me and just completed my thought that this particular Schine book was not well-planned nor was it one that the author herself truly believed in.
From a review on Cathleen Schine's website: http://www.cathleenschine.com/books/s...This is the second paragraph of the review:”She Is Me” shouldn’t be any fun at all. But Cathleen Schine is not in the business of being depressing — or boring. Over the last 20 years, she’s perfected the underappreciated art of the domestic comedy. It’s a genre boasting few very skilled practitioners (in America, at least), and Schine has carved out a unique place in their cadre: darker than Elinor Lipman, more intellectual than Stephen McCauley. In her very first novel, ”Alice in Bed,” she managed to siphon fun out of the year a crabby teenager spends flat on her back, suffering from a mysterious joint disease. Clearly, Schine is the woman you want to have around when you’re negotiating the shoals of cancer and family strife.
Do You like book She Is Me (2004)?
I read this book when I was 23 and really coming into my own. This book was about an author who wrote a remake of the classic book Madame Bovary. A movie company wanted to make a film out of it so she moved to California with her mom. Both her and her mom go through major changes in their lives which bring them closer. I've always been close to my mom, but after reading this book I got a better understanding of who my mom was as a woman. I had always seen her as my mom and nothing else. After reading this book I realized my mom was my best friend and not just my mom. This book also got me interested in reading Madame bovary which I read shortly after I finished She Is Me.
—Bethany W
Initially I found this book confusing and had to backtrack a few times to figure out which characters were which. About half way through I was thoroughly involved with the characters and their lives. The grandmother was particularly endearing as was the character of Elizabeth. I definitely enjoyed the read into the lives of the three generations of women and their interactions with the other people in their lives. By the end, I wanted more....so if you have the patience to get through the rather slow and forgettable beginning you may be surprised at how much you get involved and feel a part of the family. If you haven't already, I would read Madame Bovary before this one as the references are easier to follow.
—tracey
