Amazon.com Review
Destined to be a sure-fire weeper,
All that Matters by Jan Goldstein is, nonetheless, a good story about a lost young woman and her aged grandmother, both of whom have scores to settle with life, and a great deal to offer each other.
Jennifer Stempler has taken herself to Venice Beach to get lost in the crowd, ingest enough Xanax and tequila to do herself in, and simply lie down and die. Instead, the metal-combed beach sweeper stops just short of her inert form and her plan is foiled. Jennifer has, in her opinion, plenty of reasons to exit the planet. Her mother was killed while walking when she would have been driving if Jennifer hadn't taken the car--at her mother's insistence; her father, having left her and her mother years before, is now remarried to Ms. Beverly Hills Aerobics and the proud father of a baby girl; her long-time lover, her this-is-forever guy, ups and leaves. Everybody seems to be leaving, so why not her, reasons Jennifer.
Enter the quintessential Jewish grandmother, Gittel "Gabby" Zuckerman, Holocaust survivor and fearless old lady. She convinces Jennifer's pompous father and her Doctor to let Jennifer go to New York with her, instead of being locked up someplace, drugged senseless and asked to talk herself to pieces. One of the best parts of the book is the sendup Goldstein does of shrinks and their various party lines.
At the beginning of the book, Jennifer carries a camcorder everywhere: "It wasn't just about focus, Jennifer told herself. Recording events meant time could be stopped, played back, even erased." This metaphor is, unfortunately, never followed up, and it's a good one for what happens to Jennifer. The relationship between the two women, one with a life ahead of her, if she will only claim it, and the other with a life she will soon leave, flourishes as they learn from each other that what really matters is offering the gift of love. --Valerie Ryan
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
In this sentimental, uplifting first novel by rabbi and self-help author Goldstein (
Sacred Wounds;
Life Can Be This Good), a suicidal young woman finds her bliss with the help of her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. At 23, Jennifer thinks there's little to live for: her mother is dead, her Hollywood-producer father is busy with his picturesque new family, and her boyfriend has given her the boot. ("Phillip had been the white knight of her childhood fairy tales, the prince she long dreamed would rescue her from a life she had no wish to live.") Enter Gittel "Gabby" Zuckerman, to take Jennifer back with her to New York and make everything all right. Jennifer may not be particularly sympathetic or convincing as a depressive, but Gabby, for all her familiarity (twinkly eyes, "floating halo of white hair," indomitable spirit) is hard not to love. When she reveals to Jennifer how she met her husband and escaped the Nazis in Poland, the story (though often told in fiction) transcends cliché and takes on some urgency. Elsewhere, there are clichés aplenty, but Goldstein unabashedly, effectively yanks readers' heartstrings—and some of them will love it.
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--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
