Customer Reviews

Lucky Us

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Any book by Joan Silber is one that a reader can plunge into without the slightest hesitation, as opposed to those books a reader doesn't quite trust to be the real thing. This is a tale told with easy authority requiring nothing from the reader but attention. This is a wondrful novel, as are Ms. Silber's other books. She has her own particular voice, which is recognizable anywhere, but it is never a distraction; it's just one more element that makes her work so singular. Pay no attention to the jacket flap, which is glib and cute--the book is often funny, but it's never cute. This is a love story, I suppose, but that's too simplistic a definition. Lucky Us is a reflection of life as we live now, made utterly compelling by the depth of Ms. Silber's fully imagined characters. It is imppossible to put it down after the first sentence! Enjoy it!

"Lucky Us" is a great contemporary love story. I randomly selected this novel from the library, and I found myself unable to put it
down. The story was intriguing and exceptionally touching. Gabe and Elisa are an incrediably mismatched couple that face the pressures and problems of modern day relationships. You'll find yourself curious to know the outcome of Elisa's attitude towards life after being infected with HIV. Along with how this issue will affect their future as a couple. Also, will their past burdens affect their personalities, decisions, and roles in life? Joan Silber's lively characters and lovely prose make every page of this book a pleasure to read.

"Lucky Us" is told in alternating sections by a midddle-aged man who works in a fictional yet recognizable camera store in New York City and a young graduate of the city's School of Visual Arts who begins working there part-time. It is a modern love story: The painful side is told as beautifully as the ecstatic side.
Gabe is in his late forties in 2002 and Eliza in her early to mid-twenties. Upon extricating herself from a physically abusive relationship with an artist about her age, she sees self-contained, calm, intelligent Gabe as "glamorous." It intrigues her the way he spends his lunch hour reading Kafka in the nearby park (also recognizable--I live in the neighborhood.)
He's aware of her as brisk and leggy and more than capable and when she invites him out for a drink, he supposes she wants advice on how to win back her old boyfriend. To his surprise and delight, she's interested in him.
After initiating a sexual relationship with him, Eliza learns he went to prison in the 1970s for selling marijuana. Although he doesn't think of his sentence as harrowing and has no interest in discussing the scary but sad and dull eight months, his time in jail has irrevocably affected his personality.
Early on he lost the vanity and vaster scope of a young man's dreams and has lived quietly, contented to read and listen to jazz. He's sensible and secure and is determined not to be rendered "pathetic by hope." His self-awareness extends further--he's refuses to succumb to sour disappointment. For a man in later middle age, these are admirable goals. His perception of himself in the world, what's happened and what hasn't, are realistic and unassuming. He's had his fun but doesn't expect much more.
Eliza doesn't change him as much as she might like: she knows she's not this great gift that's fallen into his half-finished life, but she enjoys being sexy and flirty and delighting him. She has interesting friends, no family to speak of, and after the camera shop, begins working in an art gallery for even less money.
A cautionary note here: I find Joan Silber's musical prose so fascinating that I read everything I can find she's written repeatedly. I rank her novel "Ideas of Heaven" as her best, and among the best novels I know, but I've only read it a few times. "Lucky Us," even though it lacks the breadth and range of her novels written as linking novellas, was so irresistible and somehow comforting to me that I read it ten times in succession--more or less, but close to ten times.
Eliza's voice is different than Gabe's but both are identifiable as Joan Silber's fiction. She's bratty and clever, inconsiderate, brave, and reckless. The differences between her generation and Gabe's are there, but not especially marked. It's probably better to understate this than overdo, but I thought Eliza might have had an a more enthusiastic attachment to the cultural headliners of her coming-of-age. That may have distracted, however, from the major factor affecting her generation, which is HIV. The drugs to maintain and contain the disease are available. But she's astounded and terrified to learn she's positive while preparing to marry Gabe. Before long she becomes so desperate and defiant that she returns to her old boyfriend Jason, who's glad to have her and not abusive this time around--he's also positive, quite likely from her influence. Unlike Eliza, he acts undaunted. She cheats for a brief phase but soon leaves Gabe to live with Jason. Eliza explains that she and Jason share one thing: their sexual abandon and interest in heightened sensation. They already know each other and are not in love. They're more, Eliza says, like roommates with a common hobby, although that hobby takes almost all their time.
Joan Silber describes the sex between Eliza and Gabe as physically tamer but still erotic and--most of all--loving.
Eliza does love Gabe, who understandably suffers and survives a long, painful summer knowing she's nearby, risking her life and making him miserable after many quiet and not unhappy years.
The story is clear and interesting and the two characters both (obviously) fascinated me.
My assessment may not be all that helpful to the majority of readers because it's so passionate. But Joan Silber's fiction lifts my spirits every time.

As you can see, this book got nothing less than 4 and 5 star reviews and for good reason. Aside from the excellent writing style, which doesn't insult your intelligence like Sarah's Key, Joan Silber is one astute author and does not disappoint (Olive Kitteridge and Household Words are also excellent reads). The characters and story in Lucky Us were believable and interesting. Here's a book you look forward to picking up again. And when you remember it's waiting for you on the nightstand, you quicken your step to retire. I also appreciate books that don't introduce a surplus of characters who could have been left out. This book focused mainly on two. Although, when I finished the book I felt a bit let down. In retrospect I realize I was just plain sorry it ended. Yeah, it's one of those rare books you didn't waste your money on.

I have little doubt that if Joan Silber were a man, her name would be a household word.

Ironically, her first book is actually called Household Words and won a Hemingway Award. Amazingly, but not surprisingly, the first story she submitted for publication was accepted by the New Yorker, yet few people are familiar with her work. I had loved Household Words when I read it in 1980 and thought to look if she had written anything since. That's the only way I would have ever known about her.

I brought Lucky Us and Size of the World home from the library and practically read both of them in one sitting. Such vivid writing. Such great characters. She captures the subtleties of everyday life with such understated drama -- the quality of darkness when one is lonely, for example, or the tricks people use to fend off despair.

I hope she gets more airplay soon and plan to recommend her to all my friends.

My wife brought this book home and I happened to read the first page. Could
not put this book down. Very simple story about two very mismatched people
and what happens when they start to live their lives together. It is a very
quirky love story and not something I'd normally even pick up , but I kept turning the pages to find out what happens
next to Gabe and Eliza. At first I thought the power of the writing was
because the author didn't use adjectives but she does use adjectives. She
just writes in a very spare manner and nothing you could imagine her
characters saying is ever said because the author knows we have already imagined
the words they should say so why say them. And then the characters say and do something we never
could have dreamed they would do.

Loved the book.

Elisa is such a interesting character that i read this cover to cover. Gabe could have used a little excitement however, but reading his point really evolved Elisa in my mind. She handles her disease a little too lightly, maybe making it less scary that it really is. I really did enjoy this book, constantly waiting to see what Elisa would do next.

"Lucky Us" is a very slow, careful exploration of a relationship that, by all accounts, shouldn't succeed. To start, this is a vast difference in age between Gabe and Elisa and ultimately, there is the decidely immature way in which Elisa behaves after she discovers that she has a serious disease.

Pairing these two individuals, Joan Silber skillfully constructs a story that acknowledges the gaps, but emphasizes the shaky platforms that bridge the differences. This is a love story that contains some hard truths; I appreciate how Silber conveys how people can act hurtfully even when they love someone dearly.

Elisa's behavior is often sour; Gabe is the character who imbues the novel with its sweetness. His maturity is stronger and steadier than Elisa's foolishness, and will anchor them through the deepest waters.

My hesitation with the book, however, is that Gabe is so unwavering that he almost seems like one of those perfect Ayn Rand characters! I realize novels are not held up to any literary requirements as far as truthfulness, but I think Silber would have delivered a stronger story had Gabe wrestled with some doubts before he embraced Elisa and her complicated demands on his love.

"Lucky Us" is a great contemporary love story. I randomly selected this novel from the library, and I found myself unable to put it
down. The story was intriguing and exceptionally touching. Gabe and Elisa are an incrediably mismatched couple that face the pressures and problems of modern day relationships. You'll find yourself curious to know the outcome of Elisa's attitude towards life after being infected with HIV. Along with how this issue will affect their future as a couple. Also, will their past burdens affect their personalities, decisions, and roles in life? Joan Silber's lively characters and lovely prose make every page of this book a pleasure to read.