Among Us Women: A Novel by Joan Lerner

Among Us Women: A Novel by Joan Lerner. Book Surge Publication. April 2009. ISBN #: 9781439228807

Fine intentions propel three modern women into choices with some disastrous consequences. The need to be accepted and loved has driven many a person down unexpected roads, some which one can embrace and some which defy the attempt to escape the resulting dilemmas. This is the journey Rose, Jane and Eva thoughtfully yet naively follow throughout their immersion into new experiences.

The plot in this issue-laden novel is taut with different points of view about AIDS, suicide, abortion, right-to-life programs, fidelity and betrayal. Here we meet Rose, a parent and grandmother mourning and hating the memory of her husband whose final act of rage was to take his own life. Rose joins a Pentecostal church, the pastor's anti-abortion cause and briefly goes farther than she should have with this highly questionable minister. The reader knows more is going to happen as the foreshadowing scenes make one want to pull Rose out of her newly liberated status about to fall into the heat of the frying pan, so to speak. Then you will meet Jane, who is celebrating her long-awaited pregnancy and at the same time reeling from shock as her husband decides to leave her for a male lover. And there's Eva who shifts positions from totally supporting a women's right to choose birth or abortion to a costly, extremist position.

Each of these women is a highly accomplished, successful business woman with fascinating worlds you will love to explore as each shares creative and visionary moments; this author knows how to instill vibrancy into every issue and craft so deftly portrayed within this tapestry of scenes that coalesce into a wonderful portrait of interior design, antiques and miniature furniture.

Among Us Women: A Novel is a novel that invites its readers to contemplate different ways of thinking, feeling and acting on issues that may or may not ever touch one's personal life. While some transitions may seem contrived and some feelings rationalized more than felt, the bulk of this story will touch everyone in some very large and small ways. A relevant work for the times and nicely done, Ms. Lerner!