Feeding Mrs. Moskowitz and the Caregiver: Two Stories [Paperback]

Barbara Pokras (Author), Fran Pokras Yariv (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2010

In this pair of moving, gracefully poignant novellas, sisters Pokras and Yariv explore the world of the elderly with deft humor and heart-wrenching detail. Pokras Feeding Mrs. Moskowitz introduces us to the remarkable Golde Moskowitz, an elderly Russian widow living alone with her memories. In Golde's world, "signs" are everywhere, the dead converse with the living and dreams are real. Natalie Holtzman, a thirty-six-yearold graphic artist longing for connection, fills her world with work and with Artie, her commitment-wary boyfriend. One sweltering summer morning, Golde decides to do some grocery shopping. Natalie, on her way to work, quite "literally runs" into her and the lives of both women are forever changed.

Yariv's The Caregiver unfolds in a series of stories, revealing the inner workings of Sunset Hills, a fictional upscale assisted-living facility in Hollywood. Narrated by Ofelia Hernandez, a young Latina caregiver, the stories capture both the mundane routines and the absurdities of the residents lives. With deep empathy and subtle humor, Yariv crafts intimate portraits of characters whose passion, intensity, and intelligence are only magnified with age.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Caring for aging parents is one of the most common experiences sisters share, but few can transform their responsibility into bittersweet words of wisdom the way the Pokras sisters, Fran and Barbara, have done. This book, with its tender, funny, and revealing insights into the world of the elderly, is a must-read for every caretaker. --Carol Saline, author of the New York Times best seller Sisters

Feeding Mrs. Moskowitz is an engaging story.... The story, with a fairy tale ending, is easy to read and funny. The Caregiver tells the story of a young Hispanic woman who takes care of an elderly resident at the Sunset Hills Retirement Community, a fancy assisted living facility in Hollywood. Each chapter tells the story of one of the residents
of the facility. The stories are interrelated, absorbing and
powerful....The book is highly recommended for fiction collections in
Jewish community center and public libraries. --Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

About the Author

Barbara Pokras is an Emmy award winning film editor and a member of American Cinema Editors, Inc. and of the Motion Pictures Editors Guild. She taught in the Cinema Department of the University of Southern California. She lives in upstate New York.

Fran Pokras Yariv is the author of two screenplays and five novels, including Last Exit and Safe Haven. She was awarded a Writers Guild of America, East, Foundation Fellowship in screenwriting. She lives in Pasadena, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press; 1 edition (April 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815609787
• ISBN-13: 978-0815609780
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,624,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful "read", March 31, 2010

By 

Laura Claridge Oppenheimer (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feeding Mrs. Moskowitz and the Caregiver: Two Stories (Paperback)

Amazonreview

This delightful double, a set of two short novels by middle-aged sisters, is impressively executed, the characters full-bodied. I actually looked up the authors to see what else they're written, and it turns out that much of their work has been done in Hollywood. So that's why their prose is so vivid and their stories beautifully wrought: though the subjects (the trials of the aging) in lesser hands could fall flat or cause us to wince, here the main players make us laugh and even rejoice rather than lament their growing old. From the literary and cinema awards the authors have won, they clearly know how to create a good plot--a talent I've found missing of late in too many best-selling novels.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting old doesn't sound so bad, July 19, 2010

By 

judy wilson - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Feeding Mrs. Moskowitz and the Caregiver: Two Stories (Paperback)

I have just spent several delightful hours immersed in the lives of the elderly and their caretakers, courtesy of two inspired novellas, Feeding Mrs. Moskowitz and The Caregiver. These stories take place not in some alternate universe but in our own, partially populated by the aging and the aged, characters so real they could be us - and with some luck, they will be. I was alternately amused, irate, sympathetic, impatient, admiring and totally captivated. Who knew the lives of the 65-plus cohort could be so filled with drama, suspense, pathos, humor, and even romance? Clearly authors Barbara Pokras and Fran Yariv knew, writing with an insight born of personal experience about people who are seldom given star turns like this.

Elderly Mrs. Moskowitz, for instance, is a woman we recognize. Living alone, she is careful to lock her door and check it twice, wrap her pocketbook strap around her wrist three times so no one can grab it, and head off to the market taking a couple of empty tin cans with her to remind herself of what to buy. With all this caution, who can blame her for being outraged when she is knocked over by Natalie Holzman's red Toyota at a stoplight, so outraged that she climbs up on the bumper to berate the passing world. That fateful meeting of Mrs. Moskowitz and Natalie, both alone and in need of a life change, alters their futures: after a series of adventures, each of them will get that life change, along with - would you believe - just the right sort of man for their new circumstances. It's never over till it's over.

Also in need of a new future is Ofelia Hernandez, the caretaker in Yariv's novella and the unofficial conscience of Sunset Hills Retirement Community. The residents might be old but they're feisty, and they're past masters of passive resistance. Ranged against them, as seen through Ofelia's shrewd eyes, are the self-serving management at the Hills, the careless incompetence of nurses and aides, and a host of well-meaning but clueless family members who exercise control over elderly relatives "for their own good." When the elegant, silver-haired Louise Draper moves into the Hills, Ofelia "knew she would be one of the `in crowd'" and she is not surprised to see her seated for meals with the popular residents, including the Captain, and the first to notice the brewing romance. When family members intervene to separate the two, the residents' once mild protests and mini-rebellions over meals and movies become a force to be reckoned with, reaching dangerous proportions. And yes, Yariv assures us, the elderly are not too old for love, or sex, or standing up for themselves. Can we say the same for Ofelia?

I hope someone's bought the film rights.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a double literary gift from loving sisters about their mother, April 6, 2010

By 

Dr. Adele M. Scheele "career/life coach" (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Feeding Mrs. Moskowitz and the Caregiver: Two Stories (Paperback)

Feeding Mrs. Moscowitz is a literary treasure. Each of the two stories is so different, one a lyrical art piece, one ready for a tv sitcom on assisted living, characteristic of each sister.Their love for their mother in her late life is luminous and inspiring. I read the Pokras sisters' unique and loving stories all night through with my own mother's story in assisted care resonating. Brava!