1989, January 1

Such a weird book, and such a delight. The plot is just a hanger for the interactions between the mother and son, the sisters, the aunts and the nephew. I dearly love these sisters, and their crazy trip to take in the autumn foliage of Vermont.

***

2014, August 26

All these years later I still adore it just as much. Joe's love for these three women is complete and accepting and generous. And the contrast between the middle-class suburban working women and the fantastically wealthy WASPs of Maine slays me.


Personal copy ( )

funny novel @ jewish sister + one son shopping spree to Maine Outlets
Mystique of shopping
Pg 192 - Life most important thing not compare to anyone else's.

They came. They saw. They came and took what they saw.

The Esker sisters are shoppers. Loving, caring, driven, merciless shoppers. Ida never "passes a store without slipping in and buying something to give away." Pola, who only buys in bulk, would have been good in foreign affairs: "If a nation acted up, Aunt Pola would buy it." And Hedy, dearest of them all, proved the whole thing was genetic. Or maybe environmental. Either way, she passed the bug of galloping consumption onto her son.

Her son is Joe Reckler. Twenty-six. Yale grad. No job. No ties. Nothing to keep him from joining Mother and the aunts on a week-long shopping extravaganza disguised as a New England Autumn Leaves Tour that takes them everywhere from Bloomingdale's to L. L. Bean. But soon Joe notices a difference between himself and his mega-shopping mentors. You see, he figures you're supposed to pay.

The Esker sisters, Pola, Ida and Hedy, drive through New England in the fall, accompanied by Hedy's twenty-six year old son, Joe. The trip is supposedly to see the leaves change, but all four know it's really to hit the outlet stores and only Hedy goes on the trip with the intention of robbing the L.L. Bean store in Maine to pay for her new living room. Her two sisters don't know that Hedy is a shoplifter and Joe is a pickpocket, but now Hedy needs $10,000.

This is a story about a sarcastic Queens family who pry into other people's business, argue constantly, bully one another, and constantly ask, "How much?" I'm actually having trouble describing the story, because it is somewhat funny for about the first 3/4 of the book, though the obnoxiousness got on my nerves. The last few chapters had the characters dissolve and change into completely different people who Learn A Valuable Lesson. ( )

To properly appreciate this book, have someone from Long Island (pronounced Lawn Guyland) read it to you.

I'm not a shopper by nature (I wish clothes would appear in my closet magically altered to the right size), but I appreciated this book nonetheless. It's good to have a family philosophy, and if that philosophy is all about outlet shopping, so be it. The narrator makes a convincing case, while he wends through "New England" (primarily Vermont and Maine) with his mother and aunts, that a factory outlet soup tureen could solve any problem.

Note to self: don't read the ending of this book before going to bed. I gave myself an asthma attack I was laughing so hard and then couldn't get to sleep. ( )