The Bridge Ladies

The game of bridge provides a colorful backdrop to agent and author Lerner's (Food and Loathing) moving story of unspoken drama and reconciliation. As caretaker for her ailing mother, the author has experienced typical mother/daughter estrangements, mental health issues, and childhood tragedies. She connects with players of the Ladies Bridge Club, of which her mother was a member for over 50 years, and begins to interview informally the other participants. Chapters covering her progress as a student of the game are interspersed with emotional portraits of the women, including themes of youthful disillusionment, infertility, generational conflict, and death in the family. The Bridge Club appears to have been their support system. Though rooted in a Jewish background, the book is not parochial in the issues it raises. Well paced and engaging, the narrative occasionally relies on stereotypical generalizations about women of a certain age in its pursuit of humor.