Girls [Hardcover]

Helen Yglesias (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 1999

An exquisite gem of a novel about the last American taboo, old age, by the extraordinary Helen Yglesias, herself 84 now and going strong. At once very funny and immensely moving, The Girls "is an absolutely beautiful novel. The truest report from the real war zone I ever read," writes Ursula Le Guin in a letter to the publisher. "Please tell Helen Yglesias that she broke my heart and scared me stiff and I love her. Everything in it works together--the more I think about it the more I see that. Oh, what a beauty!"

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In such works as her classic novel of family interaction, How She Died, and her graphic depiction of working-class families in Sweetsir, Yglesias has never pulled her punches, writing with unsparing candor about the ways people in intimate relationships can hurt each other. She does so again in this little book, which describes, with unconstrained frankness and gallows humor, the pitiable conditions afflicting those in the anteroom of death. Narrator Jenny Witkovsky (aka Jane Witter, the name she uses as writer, critic, professor and lecturer) is even at 80 the "baby" of the four Witkovsky sisters. Two of the siblings are slowly dying, and Jenny comes to Miami Beach to help ease their last days. Eva, the eldest, is 95, and quietly failing. Naomi, at 90, is riddled with cancer. In recent years, they have depended on the third sister, 85-year-old Flora, a flamboyant geriatric sexpot who egotistically manipulates her siblings' lives. Now Jenny's arrival causes combustion. Yglesias eschews plot in favor of character portrayals, sketchily delineating the sisters' upbringing as the offspring of Jewish immigrants, and filling in their numerous marriages and lovers, careers and children, and the origins of their sibling rivalry. Meanwhile, she presents a social and cultural travelogue of Miami Beach's various districts and neighborhoodsAsweeping from the gaudy vulgarity of opulent hotels to down-at-the-heels elderly residences and nursing homes; capturing the Jewish population's prejudices against Cubans and Haitians, and vice versa; and drawing, without a veil of tact, an accurate picture of the geriatric community, most of whom are torn between the will to live and the wish to get dying over with. Detailed descriptions of the outfits each sister wears daily are intended as an indication of character but become jarringly intrusive in so slight a story. Yet some things are eerily accurate: the Yiddish-flavored, go-for-the-jugular dialogue; the ubiquity of infirm bodies using wheelchairs and walkers, the loud chatter of Spanish on buses and other public conveyances. And when, after a series of confrontations, recriminations, tears and reconciliations, the sisters finally agree on terminal care, they are all clear-eyed about the "unspeakable reality" of death. The audience for this book is anyone who is watching people they love grow old. Agents, Frances Goldin and Sydelle Kramer. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

I am not an 80-year-old Jewish woman. Nor have I been to Miami, with its gaudy colors, hot wind, and aging population. But from this novel, the fifth by Helen Yglesias (The Saviors), I can vividly imagine what it would be like. The "girls" are the four Witkovsky sisters: Eva, 95, debilitated by carelessly monitored drugs; Naomi, 90, fighting cancer but maintaining a crown of naturally black hair; Flora, 85, dressed in garish outfits as she does her standup routine on the senior circuit; and Jenny, the youngest, who comes south from New York to care for the others. Through her we meet the sisters, celebrate Eva's birthday, meet Flora's latest date, and settle Naomi into a nursing home. The sisters quarrel about men and money, rage and forgive, review the past and wonder why they can't live forever in this brisk, affecting novel. Recommended for public libraries.AYvette Weller Olson, City Univ. Lib., Renton, WA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Delphinium; 1st edition (August 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188328516X
• ISBN-13: 978-1883285166
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,311,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A poignant, tender story, January 14, 2001

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Girls (Hardcover)

I have been a fan of this talented writer since 1972, when I purchased her first novel, HOW SHE DIED. I fell in love with her writing style and time has not diminished her ability to fold words together, creating a feast of images. THE GIRLS is a small but important novel of four elderly sisters, two of whom are dying. The two youngest sisters, Jenny, 80, and Flora, 85, could hardly be so dissimilar, yet so alike. The older sisters, Naomi, 90, and Eva, 95, reside in Miami, as does Flora. We meet them all when Jenny, the baby, travels to Florida from Maine at Flora's request. The older sisters need more intensive care and must be tenderly transitioned into the last place they will ever call home. Each with her own unique personality, the sisters expose their fears and concerns as time moves them all inexorably toward the end. Thanks to the skillful writing of Yglesias, we are able to know these old women not just as they are, but as they used to be, young and full of life. They open to the reader like a photograph album, wrinkles, warts and all. We are reminded that behind each ancient face lurks a childlike spirit, and that family, in the end, is often the only remaining buffer against an uncertain final journey.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reminded me of my mother and aunts, May 5, 2000

By 

Nancy R. Katz "NancyK18" (NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Girls (Hardcover)

Anybody who has watched their mothers and maternal aunts agewill relate well to this book. This was certainly the case for me asHelen Yglesias delves into the lives of four sisters aged 80 to 95. And what characters these women are - from the youngest to the oldest. And while some may find this book depressing, I found parts of it quite humorous. And if you read this book you will never forget the last scene of the four sisters riding off to deposit two sisters to a nursing home.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HEARTWARMING, February 19, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girls (Hardcover)

I found this book very engaging. A look at family relationships, old age and immortality, retirement communities, and even discrimination. I truly adored the book, the realistic sisterly relationships and personalities, and the reality of aging. I plan to share this book with sisters and best friends.