Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
Peanut butter became an American kitchen staple during World War I when people were encouraged to substitute peanuts for beef and pork so that meat could instead be sent to the troops fighting overseas. When the war ended, people gladly crossed peanut loaf and peanut soup off the menu, but peanut butter has remained a favorite for over a century. Read more about what people ate during WWI, including a teenager who lies about his name and age to escape his immigrant Jewish family and join the navy in On the Shore. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
This spreadable plant protein first became popular as a meat substitute during WWIAn immigrant boy lies about his name and age to fight in WWI
Molly Brodak’s memoir Bandit describes a father who was a bank robber, gambler, and gaslighter. Brodak grew up not trusting the truth of memoirs, making readers suspicious of hers. Is this a baffling or an effective literary device? You judge. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
A trustworthy book about an untrustworthy fatherToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
Eugene, the father in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, a story about post-colonial Nigeria, is a respected Catholic businessman, praised for his big heart and community activism, who beats his family mercilessly. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual 1926 Toronto contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Purple Hibiscus is a Nigerian novel about post-colonial politics and paternal crueltyToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
On January 20, 1942, 15 Nazi officials met in a villa on Lake Wannsee on the western edge of Berlin. They nibbled snacks and drank cognac. According to minutes taken by Adolf Eichmann, the agenda contained one item: “The organizational, logistical and material steps for a final solution of the Jewish question in Europe.” Planning the Holocaust took them only 90 minutes. All told, they planned to kill eleven million Jews, not only in Europe, but also the Soviet Union, England, Ireland, and Switzerland. Learn more in my forthcoming novel, One Person’s Loss (Vine Leaves Press, September 2022), about a young Jewish couple who flee from Germany to the U.S. just before the Holocaust, but during the war, the husband returns to Berlin as a spy for the OSS and hides a transmitter inside the handle of a water pitcher used to eavesdrop at Wannsee. Read more about One Person’s Loss and my other historical fiction in NOVELS.
The villa at Lake Wannsee where the Nazis devised the “final solution” to kill Europe’s JewsThe entrance to Auschwitz: Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes You Free)
Shakespeare’s King Lear, who prefers flattery to love, rewards his scheming daughters Regan and Goneril and disowns the faithful Cordelia. Lear goes mad; suicide and deaths ensue. Not one of The Bard’s comedies. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Shakespeare’s men plagued by female threesomes: Lear’s daughters and Macbeth’s witchesToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
My Goodreads and Amazon review of Aviary by Deirdre McNamer (Rating 3) – Caged Characters. When Aviary by Deirdre McNamer was published, about a developer’s scheme to take over a retirement residence in pre-COVID Montana, I was already well into well into my novel-in-progress about a similar venture at an old age home, albeit set in 1960s Michigan. Hence, I read this book with curiosity about how the subject was treated, and dismay that another writer had beaten me to it. I was relieved to discover that while McNamer and I both tell our stories from multiple viewpoints, including seniors and other community members, our tales are otherwise quite different. Aviary is in many ways a mystery: Who is behind a fire in the building? Why have the manager and an elderly tenant disappeared? Is a troubled teenager connected to these events? I found the loose ends and far-fetched plot elements unsatisfying. Aviary is also meant to explore how the elderly come to terms with life’s disappointments and losses as they weigh how, or even whether, to go on living. However, among McNamer’s quirky and stereotypical characters, I was invested in the fate of only one, Cassie McMackin, whose portrait is itself sketchy. Ultimately, the varied cast is an aviary of caged birds, desperate to be freed by the author. As a fiction writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I don’t limit myself to likable protagonists. But they should be complex enough to make readers reflect on their motivations and assess the “fitness” of their actions. In the end, McNamer prizes the mysteries of plot rather than those of character.
Aviary fails to free its caged charactersWhy writers read: “When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.” – Maya Angelou
In Alison Bechdel’s award-winning graphic memoir Fun Home, she describes her emotionally abusive dad as “an alchemist of appearance, a savant of surface, a Daedalus of decor” given his knack for home restoration and leading a double life as a gay man fixated on in teenage boys. No wonder the book is subtitled “A Family Tragicomic.” For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Alison Bechdel’s dad in her graphic memoir was a “big sissy”Toronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
Culla Holme, the father in Cormac McCarthy’s novel Outer Dark, impregnates his sister Rinthy. After she gives birth, he leaves the infant in the woods to die, lying to Rinthy that the baby died of natural causes and was buried. Then Culla skips town. Bad dad. Bad bro. Bad guy. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Inner dark in Cormac McCarthy’s novel Outer DarkToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
In Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Humbert Humbert can’t be anything but a terrible stepfather with a name that suggests humbug and fake humility. Although books about pedophiles are now common, Nabokov’s 1955 novel broke new ground by exposing how Humbert justified his vile acts by blaming his twelve-year-old victim for seducing him. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert and Lolita in the 1962 movieToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
Ivan the Terrible, who ruled Russia from 1533 to 1584, beat his pregnant daughter-in-law for wearing revealing clothes. She miscarried. When her husband (also named Ivan) protested, the czar beat his heir on the head with a scepter. His son died a few days later, while Ivan the Terrible prayed at his bedside for a miracle. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Ivan the Terrible was a terrible fatherToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
