Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship

Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship by Isabel Vincent 240 pages

 

For fans of Ruth Reichl and Mitch Albom.

 

One of Isabel Vincent’s oldest and dearest friends, Valerie, mother has recently passed away. Valerie is worried about her father, Edward, who wants to follow her into the grave. Understandably, as Valerie lives in Toronto, her sister in Greece and Edward in New York City. She asks Isabel to check on her father, maybe have dinner. Valerie told her that Edward was a wonderful cook. Isabel was reluctant at first, but eventually she acquiesced. And thus began one a beautiful friendship.

 

Edward is ninety-three and learning to live without the love of his life, Paula. Isabel is much, much younger, with a young daughter, who is terribly unhappy in her marriage. They hit it off spectacularly during that first meal.

 

I liked that Isabel put the menu as each chapter’s heading but disappointed that no recipes were included. But then they were Edward’s recipes, and he never followed a recipe. Still, he wrote out one occasionally if Isabel asked.

 

I also liked that at his advanced age, Edward still traveled the city to get the freshest and best ingredients when he was planning a dinner. No big box grocery store for him! When Isabel arrived for their meal, I swear I could smell the fabulous aromas wafting from Edward’s apartment. Ther was always music playing in the background, usually jazz, and often Ella Fitzgerald, whose voice created a relaxed atmosphere. Perfect for conversation.

 

I also like that Edward wrote poetry and would, on occasion, send some to Isabel through the mail.

 

I read this short book in two evenings. Edward departed his knowledge of the world to Isable in a manner that was subtle and interesting. I hate to entertain but reading this I want to call my friends and have them over for dinner. Knowing me, though, that isn’t likely to happen.

 

Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship received 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic by Darby Penney & Peter Stasny 208 pages

 

In the Acknowledgements of Ellen Marie Wiseman’s “What She Left Behind,” Wiseman gives credit to this book and its authors for bringing that novel to fruition. And because I was also reading “What She Left Behind,” I had to read it.

 

This book tells the heartbreaking stories of ten of the people who were institutionalized in New York’s Willard State Hospital, the setting for Wiseman’s “What She Left Behind.”

 

From Amazon:

“When Willard State Hospital closed its doors in 1995, after operating as one of New York State’s largest mental institutions for over 120 years, a forgotten attic filled with suitcases belonging to former patients was discovered. Using the possessions found in these suitcases along with institutional records and doctors’ notes from patient sessions, Darby Penney, a leading advocate of patients’ rights, and Peter Stastny, a psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker, were able to reconstruct the lives of ten patients who resided at Willard during the first half of the twentieth century.

The Lives They Left Behind tells their story. In addition to these human portraits, the book contains over 100 photographs as well as valuable historical background on how this state-funded institution operated. As it restores the humanity of the individuals it so poignantly evokes, The Lives They Left Behind reveals the vast historical inadequacies of a psychiatric system that has yet to heal itself.”

 

As I was reading the book, I felt as if I was spying on people’s personal lives. It was disconcerting, and sometimes I could not finish the chapter; I could not finish snooping into everyone’s life.

 

Published in 2009, this book is an important one. One that not only gives us a glimpse into others’ troubles but could shine a light on our own life. The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

What She Left Behind

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman 368 pages

 

For fans of Ellen Marie Wiseman’s “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.”

 

After reading “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” I knew I wanted to read all of Wiseman’s novels. This was the first one of the five that preceded Lost Girls. It also centers upon do mental illness and insane asylums.

 

There are two points so view that tell the story. First is Clara Cartwright’s story from the late 1920s through the early 1930s. The other, Isabelle (Izzy) Stone’s story, is from the mid-to-late 1990s.

 

Clara is caught between two men. First, the man, James, her parents (Henry and Ruth) have chosen for her, and whom she finds dull and distasteful. They insist that she marry him, not for love, but because he is mind-boggling wealthy. The second man is an Italian immigrant with whom Clara falls madly in love, and he with her. When she becomes pregnant with Bruno’s baby, she completely rejects James, but her father sends her to a nervous asylum for girls. After the Crash, and Henry and Ruth lose everything, Clara is admitted to a public asylum that is as bad, if not worse, than the private institution.

 

Image what the living conditions were like in an overcrowded, short-staffed institution. Wiseman’s descriptions were enough to make me gag beside Clara.

 

Fast-forward to the 1990s. Izzy Stone is sent to foster care after her mother brutally murders her father with no apparent motive. Her foster parents work for a local museum and have been assigned to catalog the items that had been left behind in the now-shuttered asylum.

 

Izzy is fascinated by the things they find, but what really intrigues her is a stack of unopened letters and a journal. These items send her on a quest to determine her mother’s act of violence.

 

To me, this novel is almost as wonderful as “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” Comparing the two novels, “What She Left Behind” seems a little predictable. But given that “What She Left Behind,” is only Wiseman’s second novel, I will overlook that part. There were parts that me cringe, and parts where I was cheering on both young women.

 

Therefore, “What She Left Behind,” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.