Anna in Chains.

Syracuse, NY Syracuse University Press, 1998. Hardcover First Ed; First Printing indicated. First Ed; First Printing indicated. Fine in Fine DJ: Book shows binding square and secure; text clean. DJ unclipped; mylar-protected. As New. NOT a Remainder. NOT a Book-Club Edition. NOT an Ex-Library copy. 8vo. 139pp. (Library of Modern Jewish Literature). Hardback with DJ. I read the connected stories in one sitting and have already started on the sequel Anna in the Afterlife. Perhaps the stories told by a grumpy, smart, disappointed, often mean-spirited, culturally alive woman as she passes from her 70s into her 90s will only appeal to a small demographic. Anna got me right in the solar plexus. The details of her life were her own story and not mine but her impossible attempts over and over and over again to try and make the world welcoming, appreciative, softer -- that Sisyphean struggle is my struggle, too. She can't abide the lies that are everywhere and on everyone's lips, the greed, the self-serving betrayals. And she is still, after all is said and done to her and to her view of history, she still is surprised and enraged by the lunacy of it all. I am going to read every Gerber book. Cynthia Ozick who is one of my absolute favorite authors among a baseline list of at least 50-60 must-read writers (I guess I need to make a list), heaps praise on Gerber, and Ozick never lies.