FICTION

We Are Gathered

by Jamie Weisman
Houghton Harcourt. Jun. 2018. 288p. ISBN 9781328793294. $24; ebk. ISBN 9781328793270. F
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Elizabeth Gottlieb is getting married; and although her bridegroom isn't Jewish, the family has invited 150 guests to the celebration. This debut novel by memoirist Weisman (As I Live and Breathe), however, is not about Elizabeth but about several of the guests at the wedding. Elizabeth's grandfather has suffered a stroke yet muses on his past successes as he's pushed around in a wheelchair. A college roommate of Elizabeth's father, now an artist, has an unrequited crush on Elizabeth's mother. There is Carla, a close childhood friend with a disfiguring port wine stain on half of her face, who may never find love; and a great aunt, who is a Holocaust survivor reliving her experiences and searching the woods near the wedding ceremony for her murdered sister and the sister's lover.
VERDICT As the stories of the guests converge, readers are presented with the lives of both successful and unsuccessful but largely unhappy individuals. Weisman's ability to explore these troubled minds creates a multifaceted story of the difficulties people face.
Reviewed by Andrea Kempf, formerly with Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS , May 01, 2018
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