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.
These primary characters in the Archie Comics are best friends in an unbalanced relationship. Blonde, girl-next-door Betty is always there for Veronica. Raven-haired, wealthy Veronica can’t be counted on to reciprocate. They both have crushes on Archie but, reflecting the culture in which the comic strip arose, Veronica is likely to ditch her girlfriend for a boyfriend. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Betty and Veronica: Companionship and competition in one comic strip
Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship
When music clubs blocked Fitzgerald from performing, Monroe persuaded the clubs’ managers to book the singer and came to every show to guarantee press coverage and an audience. Fitzgerald’s career took off; she became “The Queen of Jazz.” Monroe, who called Fitzgerald “my very favorite person,” based her own musical style on Fitzgerald’s singing. Their friendship exemplifies women helping each other achieve their goals. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Ella and Marilyn had each other’s backs
Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship
My Goodreads and Amazon review of The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez (Rating 5) – Pandemic Pals.The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez is a pandemic novel in which the vulnerables are NOT those most likely to succumb to the virus, but physically and financially robust people who were isolated and alienated before the lockdown. The book focuses on three characters who share a sumptuous NYC apartment: a blocked middle-aged novelist (the unnamed narrator who is an undisguised stand-in for the author); a handsome and playful if not very talkative parrot, Eureka, for whom she house-sits; and a privileged college drop-out she calls “Vetch” who’s been kicked out by his parents and struggles with a history of mental illness. Plot-wise, nothing much happens, just as one would expect in an uncrowded space occupied by beings with no emotional connection to one another. In literary-speak, the stakes are low. And yet the unfolding non-drama is thoroughly absorbing. The narrator’s random memories and observations reflect a state of mind that so many of us experienced during the pandemic. As a fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Nunez’s talent for capturing the interior life of a solitary character in such an active and interactive way. Like her, even after the extreme impact of COVID has passed, we’re still left wondering what it meant, how it will continue to dominate our self-worth and world view, and how vulnerable we all are to another major bout of disruption. Nunez offers no answers, but her book provides good company as we muddle through.
Ruminations on the inescapable impact of COVID lockdown
Why writers read: “A good book is an event in my life.” – Stendhal
My new novel The Sister Knot comes out next month (April 2024), but yesterday I signed a contract with Vine Leaves Press to publish the one after that, Who Cares? (to be released December 2025). Here’s a synopsis: Who Cares? is the story of a lively place where old people go to die. Set in 1960, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, this literary novel — whose title could be a cynical dismissal or heartfelt plea — invites readers into Woodruff Home for the Aged, a public facility for the indigent elderly. Faced with a tanking economy, city officials solicit a developer’s proposal to buy and convert the home to a pricey private senior residence. Woodruff’s tenants fret over where they will live; employees worry about losing their jobs. As the clock ticks, the novel tracks the city’s deliberations about the sale, the strategies devised to block it, and the intimacy and intrigue among the book’s many players. With empathy, humor, and memorable characters, the novel is told from multiple perspectives: Miss Mamie Martine, a feisty octogenarian with an encyclopedic knowledge of movies and her political adversary, Mr. J. T. Hillenbrand, a once wealthy nonagenarian wiped out in the Depression; Jilly Duprey, the teenage biracial great-granddaughter of Mr. Hillenbrand who is at odds with Hugh Pepper, the city manager; Laurel Robbins, the home’s reformist director and Rupert Boyle, the anti-authoritarian custodian who defies her; Mamie’s nephew Simon Walpole, an amateur sleuth intent on digging up dirt on Franklin Savoy, the shady developer; and an omniscient narrator who offers a sardonic prologue and epilogue. Zippy as a spry senior citizen, Who Cares? challenges readers to weigh the disposability of the elderly against their dignity. Read more at NOVELS.
Why writers write: “If you’re a writer, you don’t have to retire but can keep on doing the thing you love till you drop off the chair.” – Alex Miller
Angelou and Baldwin met in Paris in the 1954, when she was touring Europe with Porgy and Bess (she played Ruby). Angelou said, “He furnished me with my first limousine ride, set the stage for me to write “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and told me I was intelligent and very brave.” Both were committed to Black rights and culture; the friendship lasted throughout their lives. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Maya Angelou and James Baldwin encouraged each other’s authorship and activism
Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship
My novel The Sister Knot (arrives April 2024) is about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. To mark its publication, I am inaugurating a series of “Famous Friends” posts, presenting friendships, past and present, in real life and in fiction, that inform, entertain, and surprise us about these emotionally charged relationships. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Friendship: Not always easy, but always essential
Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship
An excerpt from my forthcoming novel The Sister Knot is featured in the March 2024 issue of the Washtenaw Jewish News (pp. 1 & 23), a free publication with a readership of 10,000 in Southeast Michigan. Those who subscribe to WJN can read the excerpt in print; the free publication is also available to everyone online. The Sister Knot, which will be released on April 30, 2024, is about two Holocaust orphans who survive on the streets of Berlin before a Jewish refugee agency brings the girls to the U.S. One is adopted and one is sent to a group home, but even as their lives diverge, they maintain a lifelong friendship. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship
Why writers write: “Writing eases my suffering. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.” – Gao Xingjian
