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The TwoFamily House A Novel Lynda Cohen Loigman Books

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The TwoFamily House A Novel Lynda Cohen Loigman Books

A serious and thought provoking look at the complexity of families and the individuals that make up the family unit.
Thoughts like, how often does someone look the other way when being treated horrendously so often they begin to see the way they are treated as a normal life?
How often do we expect others to think and act as we do thereby unable to understand someone else's anger and hatred?
How far would we go not "tip the proverbial cart" in our family or to give a family member their dream? Worse, how often do we choose an action unable to see the consequences it may have on our very own being?
These are just a few of the questions this book will make you ponder.
Lest I have made this book sound dark and ominous, let me be clear, it is anything but dark. It is filled with joy and love. Hopeful and joyous characters and loving relationships among family members that the author writes so eloquently. You will absolutely love some of these characters and be sad to say goodbye to them when you finish the book.
Two brothers, running a business together, one out-going and openly loving, the other seeing even the most modicum of pleasantries as a waste of time, living in a duplex style home with their wives and children. Everyone's life so intertwined with each other, it is almost as though it is one big family at times. None more than the two wives that stay at home ( it is the 1950's) and do the cooking, cleaning and raising of children.
Two pregnancies and deliveries, change everything and what should have been a time of joy and a continuation of joyous extended family becomes anything but...
The author has such a gift of writing and the characters will draw you in before you even know it...
this is a definite MUST read!


Tags : Amazon.com: The Two-Family House: A Novel (9781250076922): Lynda Cohen Loigman: Books,Lynda Cohen Loigman,The Two-Family House: A Novel,St. Martin's Press,1250076927,Historical,Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) - Social life and customs - 20th century,Domestic fiction,Domestic fiction.,FICTION Historical,Jewish fiction,Jewish fiction.,Sisters,Sisters;Fiction.,060101 St Martins Trade Fiction,AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Jewish,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction-Historical,FictionJewish,GENERAL,General Adult,Historical - General,Historical fiction,Jewish,New York,United States,historical fiction; jewish historical fiction; 1950s america; new york city; family life; multigenerational; jewish authors; jewish novels; literary fiction; womens fiction

The TwoFamily House A Novel Lynda Cohen Loigman Books Reviews

Those of us raised mid century well remember how families kept secrets. Small ones, big ones and even life changing ones so well chronicled in this family novel.
I, for one couldn't put this book down. Each of the main characters was so well fleshed out I could truly see them and yet, I felt there was still room to draw some of my own conclusions about their inner selves.
Like so many families of the times, we watch these families migrate, (with some trepidation) from the city where they feel safe to the suburbs taking the darkest of secrets with them
Even the early lives of the family patriarchs was not without sadness, stories we have heard in so many of our own. Family businesses have enriched and in some cases ruined lives and many times in secrecy.
I had heard so many wonderful reviews about this book, all well deserved.
Not to be missed.
Spoiler Alert the primary plot point is inferred in this review, but given that every reader will soon discover it anyway, I thought it made it easier to describe the novel. First, the author is a wonderful writer, and this is an impressive debut novel. She has the innate ability to write characters that you can immediately relate to and, though each may have their own frailties, you will end up either liking or at least understanding them. This is a rollicking family novel. It focuses entirely on the two families of the brothers Abe and Mort Berman who share a 'two family house', where one family lives upstairs and the other downstairs. Their wives Helen (married to Abe) and Rose (married to Mort) are almost like sisters in the beginning. They spend abundant time together, share meals, share holidays, and do almost everything else together to the point that it's essentially one large extended family. The brothers own and run a box factory. Abe, the older outgoing gregarious brother, runs the "people side" of the business while Mort, the standoffish, taciturn brother, handles the "numbers" side of the business. Where Abe is everyone's friend, Mort is distant, unsociable, and the sort of husband and father that runs the family by fear rather than love. In the beginning, Mort is wholly unlikable. And therein lies the plot basis for the story. Each family has multiple children; Abe and Helen have all boys, and Mort and Rose have all girls. Both fathers, but especially Mort, want a child of the opposite sex. Mort even blames Rose for the fact he doesn't have a son, and Rose feels permanent guilt at not giving him a son and thinks if only she could have one their marriage, which is not the happiest, could be saved. Both Helen and Rose become pregnant, and Mort puts even more pressure on Rose by calling the unborn child "he" and letting her know he clearly is expecting a son. Both children are born at home on the same eventful night due to a terrible storm preventing them from going to the Hospital. That night, and the decision Helen and Rose make, lays the foundation for what will ultimately change both of their lives, and their families lives, for years afterward. As the story unfolds over a 20+ year period following that night, we see how false expectations, deception, and holding on to anger (or letting it go) can have lasting impact on both families. The story jumps forward several years in each major part as the children grow older, the families evolve, and the subtle yet telling consequences of that fateful night affect all of them in tangible ways. While Abe remains pretty much in character, Rose, Mort, and Helen evolve in different ways, and at the end you will feel you have been witness to some happiness, some sadness, and some of life's realities. You will likely learn something from this book as well. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and think you will too. Highly recommend.
This book absolutely transported me back to the 1950s, when two brothers, Abe and Mort, share a two-family house with their own families. Their wives, Helen and Rose, are close friends until the night they both give birth to their youngest children. Helen had four sons and desperately wanted a daughter. Rose, with three daughters, hoped to give Mort the son he longed for. After they give birth at home in the midst of a blizzard, nothing is the same for them.

Loigman is masterful in her character development, and those who initially appear unlikable truly develop into people for whom I have great affection and sympathy. I found my own allegiances shifting as I read, and I was surprised that who I was cheering for changed as I went.

The chapters are told from various perspectives, the husbands and wives as well as a couple of the children, and with each new voice, a little more about the family is revealed. Each voice is distinct and well defined and I loved how everyone viewed the family so differently, creating a robust picture.

A beautiful read that's both sad and up lifting. Definitely recommend.
A serious and thought provoking look at the complexity of families and the individuals that make up the family unit.
Thoughts like, how often does someone look the other way when being treated horrendously so often they begin to see the way they are treated as a normal life?
How often do we expect others to think and act as we do thereby unable to understand someone else's anger and hatred?
How far would we go not "tip the proverbial cart" in our family or to give a family member their dream? Worse, how often do we choose an action unable to see the consequences it may have on our very own being?
These are just a few of the questions this book will make you ponder.
Lest I have made this book sound dark and ominous, let me be clear, it is anything but dark. It is filled with joy and love. Hopeful and joyous characters and loving relationships among family members that the author writes so eloquently. You will absolutely love some of these characters and be sad to say goodbye to them when you finish the book.
Two brothers, running a business together, one out-going and openly loving, the other seeing even the most modicum of pleasantries as a waste of time, living in a duplex style home with their wives and children. Everyone's life so intertwined with each other, it is almost as though it is one big family at times. None more than the two wives that stay at home ( it is the 1950's) and do the cooking, cleaning and raising of children.
Two pregnancies and deliveries, change everything and what should have been a time of joy and a continuation of joyous extended family becomes anything but...
The author has such a gift of writing and the characters will draw you in before you even know it...
this is a definite MUST read!