KESSLER WOMEN

In this novel about a Jewish American family, a multigenerational history unfolds through the eyes of an immigrant who follows her husband to his home in New York state.

When Ada Kessler arrives in the United States from Scotland in 1937, she is determined to start a new and gracious life with Douglas, her doctor husband and “knight in shining armor.” Her resolve is dampened when she realizes that the newlyweds will not immediately have the grand home she imagined but will live with Douglas’ family in its crowded, slightly run-down home, where she is expected to share a room with her 9-year-old sister-in-law, Lillian. With her ambitions of refinement offended by the loud brashness of the Kessler family, especially Douglas’ mother, Clara, Ada holds herself carefully apart as she plots to create the sophisticated life of her dreams. The one exception in Douglas’ big brood of noisy relations appears to be his father, Max, a charming and dapper man who courts Ada’s favor in secret, then turns dangerous when she sets limits on their relationship. As Ada matures and Douglas’ medical career advances, she attains the cultivated life she once aspired to but seems unable to relax and enjoy its fruits. She finds her twin girls, Margaret and Melissa, an irritation rather than a joy, as she raises them on the rigid schedule deemed correct for the modern mother of the ’40s. Ada later has a third daughter, Phoebe. Decades pass, and Ada finds herself more and more on the outside of her children’s lives as they grow and start their own journeys. It is not until Clara dies and long-buried secrets are revealed that Ada begins to understand what it means to be a Kessler woman. King’s absorbing narrative spans six decades and introduces several memorable characters, such as the kindly matriarch Clara, who is wiser than anyone realizes, and Anshel, the gentle Holocaust survivor who marries Lillian. But Ada comes across too often as a stereotypical selfish woman, making her an unsympathetic protagonist. While she has one or two epiphanies, she remains basically unchanged through the book’s trajectory. Nonetheless, the enjoyable story does a good job of presenting an individual Jewish family’s identity and experiences without othering, categorizing, or giving excessive explanations.

An engaging tale of a middle-class woman’s attempt to achieve the American dream.