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26+ Works 1,928 Membros 47 Críticas 3 Favorited

About the Author

Lore Segal is a writer, educator, and reviewer. She was born in Vienna, Austria, on March 8, 1928. Segal earned her B.A. in English from Bedford College, University of London, in 1948. Segal taught writing and English at Columbia University, Princeton University, Sarah Lawrence College, Bennington mostrar mais College, the University of Illinois, and The Ohio State University. She has published short stories, articles, and reviews in such periodicals as Partisan Review, The New Yorker, New Republic, and the New York Times Book Review. Segal also wrote fiction for both children and adults. Segal received grants from the Council of Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was a Guggenheim fellow in 1965-66 and received the Academy of Arts and Letters Award in 1986. Her book, Shakespeare's Kitchen, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2008. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos

Obras por Lore Segal

The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm (1973) — Tradutor — 598 exemplares
Tell Me a Mitzi (1970) 214 exemplares
Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories (2007) 204 exemplares
Other People's Houses (1964) 124 exemplares
Her First American (1985) 101 exemplares
Book of Adam to Moses (1648) 89 exemplares
Half the Kingdom (2013) 75 exemplares
Lucinella (1976) 71 exemplares
Ladies' Lunch and other stories (2023) 63 exemplares
Tell Me a Trudy (1977) 61 exemplares
Morris the Artist (2003) 43 exemplares
All the Way Home (1973) 28 exemplares
The Bear and the Kingbird: A Tale From The Brothers Grimm (1979) — Tradutor — 23 exemplares

Associated Works

The Best American Short Stories 1990 (1990) — Contribuidor — 218 exemplares
The Schocken Book of Contemporary Jewish Fiction (1992) — Contribuidor — 124 exemplares
Scribblers on the Roof: Contemporary Jewish Fiction (2006) — Contribuidor — 30 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome legal
Groszmann, Lore (birth name)
Data de nascimento
1928-03-09
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
Austria
USA
Local de nascimento
Vienna, Austria
Locais de residência
England, UK
Dominican Republic
New York, New York, USA
Educação
University of London (Bedford College)
Ocupações
professor
novelist
translator
children's book author
Holocaust survivor
short story writer (mostrar todos 7)
essayist
Organizações
Columbia University
Prémios e menções honrosas
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature ∙ 1986)
Guggenheim Fellowship (1965-1966)
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center Fellowship

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Lore Segal, née Groszmann, was born in Vienna, Austria, to a middle-class Jewish family. Her parents were Ignatz Groszmann, a bank chief accountant, and his wife Franzi Stern, a homemaker.

After the Nazi Anschluss (annexation) of Austria in 1938, her father lost his job and was threatened. He signed up the family for the USA immigration quota. in December that year, 10-year-old Lore joined other Jewish children on the first wave of the Kindertransport mission to safety in England. Though she knew very little English when she arrived, she became conversant in six weeks.
While staying with her English foster parents, she began writing a novel she would eventually publish as Other People's Houses (1964).
On her 11th birthday, her parents arrived in England. Despite his refugee status, Lore's father was labeled an enemy alien and interned on the Isle of Man, where he suffered a series of strokes. He died a few days before World War II ended. Lore and her mother moved to London, where she won a scholarship to Bedford College of the University of London. She graduated in 1948 with an honors degree in English literature.
In 1951, after spending three years in the Dominican Republic, their American quota number finally came up and they settled in New York City. In 1961, she married David Segal, an editor at Knopf, with whom she had two children. Over the next decades, she published three widely regarded novels, Lucinella (1976), Her First American (1985), and Shakespeare's Kitchen (2007), as well as many short stories, essays, translations, and children's books, including a collection of Grimm fairy tales, The Juniper Tree (1973), illustrated by her friend Maurice Sendak. She taught writing at Columbia University, Princeton University, Bennington College, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Ohio State University. Among the many awards and honors her work has received are the Clifton Fadiman Medal, the O. Henry Prize, and a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Lore and her mother appeared in the film Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, which won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 2000.

Membros

Críticas

A Labor of Lunch

The sentiment behind the short stories that make up. Ladies’ Lunch is best summed up by the author herself in her quote from Proust.
“Old fiends bound by the closest ties of mental sympathy will cease after a certain year to make the necessary journey or even cross the street to see one another.”

This book is the story of close friends who have been meeting together for over 50 years. They are all facing the problems of aging but Segal’s humor shines through and for those of us women who are over 55 or so, there are many scenes that we will find ever so relatable.

I suspect this is a wonderful book. It’s beautifully written, and the human narrator does a pretty good job. But whoever did the audio editing needs to be fired.

A good book spoiled. It’s read as one long chapter with no visible chapter headings (though the chapter names are read) showing on the screen - not even numbered ones. It’s all one long chapter called “Opening”.

I had bookmarked regularly so I’d find my place in the audiobook, should I be distracted or fall asleep if reading at night. Still audio readers rely on chapter headings showing on the screen. I know there were physical chapters as I heard the reader say them, but in the same tone as the surrounding text so that they were mostly missed. Or if heard, disappeared immediately.

I was losing track of the characters, as there were many flashbacks both in time and place. Even now, I don’t even know if I actually heard all the stories.

Segal is brilliant. Take this description of Hope, one of the women who goes to the bathroom at the Hotel Provence where the ladies choose to lunch as the bathroom is on the same floor as the restaurant - thus no stairs,

When Hope sees in the bathroom of the Hotel Provence that her hair has come out of its pins. She took thee pins out and stood gazing at the crone with the gray shoulder-length hair girlishly loosened.

Or this, on language.

“Light tingled among the trees and thee grasses gleamed swordlike says my story. Curious how our language asks for similes. What is something like? ‘The sky is, like liquid light ‘ I wrote. Liquid is close but it’s not quite the right word.”

I’m quoting a lot because there’s no other way for me to describe the mangled version of the book that I actually had my brain process. Just imagine it in print!

I close with a conversation between two divorced people. With such sleight of hand Segal has us imagine the married couple during their marriage. We women will take Lilly’s side.

“She called Henry and said can you remember exactly why we got divorced?
You always think things can be explained exactly, said Henry.
Oh really she said. Is this one of those things I always think?
If you want to argue you’ll have to call back after I’ve had my coffee, said Henry.
Anything else I have to do? she said and hung up.”

Recommended in print version only.
… (mais)
½
 
Assinalado
kjuliff | 4 outras críticas | Dec 27, 2023 |
“We need a moral: let us be patient with each other and with ourselves, and suffer the diverse paces at which we move through one another’s time and space.”

Ladies' Lunch and Other Stories by Lore Segal revolves around a group of friends in their 80s and 90s. While many of the stories have been previously published throughout the author’s illustrious career, a few are relatively newer. Through the course of ten of the sixteen short stories, we follow Ruth, Bridget, Farah, Lotte, and Bessie, friends for over four decades who have a lifetime of memories they share over their luncheons, as they also confront the challenges of aging, loneliness, loss of friends and family, the COVID lockdown and much more. Though the ladies’ luncheons and their discussions form the larger part of the collection, we also get a handful of “other” stories ranging from themes of childhood memories, the Holocaust, age related ailments, and nostalgia.

Insightful, heartfelt and bittersweet, I enjoyed the author’s sharp writing, sparse prose (occasionally, a tad abrupt) and realistic characters. The tone of these stories does tend toward sad and melancholic, but the author injects a steady dose of witty observation to balance the sadness. My rating reflects my opinion of the collection as a whole. While some stories were more impactful than others, overall, I found this collection to be a thought-provoking read. My favorites among the stories were The Arbus Factor, Dandelion, Making Good and Ladies' Zoom.

Many thanks to Melville House Publishing and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this book. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book was published on September 26, 2023.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
srms.reads | 4 outras críticas | Dec 1, 2023 |
Pulitzer Prize finalist, and beloved New York writer, Lore Segal pens a short story collection about five female friends who have been lunching together for over forty years. As they enter their ninth decade of life, they find that things that were important in their youth don't matter so much anymore. They limit their talk on aches and pains and try to focus on friendship, family, the future, and of course aging. Over the course of sixteen stories listeners are treated to humor, heartbreak, resourcefulness, and grim determination as these women try to avoid assisted living, figure out how to travel, and brainstorm ways to keep the whole gang together. Ladies' Lunch is narrated by Callie Beaulieu, who effuses the ladies' advanced ages and voices with wisdom, humor, and grace. Segal brilliantly showcases both incredible sharpness and wisdom in characters that sometimes forget names and misplace medications; with a perspective that younger writers can't easily imitate. Some stories shine much more than others, but seniors especially will relate and identify with the struggles of aging gracefully.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
ecataldi | 4 outras críticas | Nov 27, 2023 |
This is the first I have read of Lore Segal’s writing, but it will not be the last. Her prose is deceptively simple but shows intricate emotions and subtle humor. Ladies’ Lunch is a group of short stories about a small group of elderly women who meet regularly for lunch, rotating between their homes. Their physical and emotional difficulties are frequent fodder, but also discussed are their personal histories, entwined in surprising ways, and gossip about other people and situations. Lore Segal is a magnificent writer, master of minimalist prose with shrouded sophisticated content. The artful humor woven through her words is inspired. At 95 years old, her art form is stunning. What will she gift us with next?
Thank you to NetGalley and Melville House for this ARC.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Shookie | 4 outras críticas | Nov 15, 2023 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
26
Also by
4
Membros
1,928
Popularidade
#13,357
Avaliação
½ 3.6
Críticas
47
ISBN
89
Línguas
6
Marcado como favorito
3

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