Ron Singer

The seventies remain several years away for me, but I know each and every one of these wonderful folks living in their "Gravy" years. They are in my church, I see them in the grocery store, and "wow!" have I seen each of them in the "gravy boat" of Florida where the snow birds gather. The narrator and threads of the book wander and ramble a lot, but so does my Uncle Charlie. Get Charlie together with his friend Ted -- they would feature prominently in Singer's Gravy.

Some might knock the lack of narrative highs and lows of an adventure novel, but what makes Gravy a gem is the ways it depicts the actual lives of older adults. I want them to be just as they are at the barber shop, in the diner, at the Thanksgiving table, and at the funeral home honoring the lives of others who have tasted the Gravy.… (plus d'informations)

Review for Gravy by Ron Singer
I wanted to like this book, I really did. But I couldn’t decide what kind of book it was: was it autobiographical, as some of it was in first person? A family history, in part? Was it a series of sketches, as all the parts were unrelated? Was it a set of short stories? Each shared sort of a similar background, with a New York City or Brooklyn vibe. And the Jewish slant; I got that.
Somehow I did find Gravy overall unremarkable and most of it easily forgotten, I am sorry to say. A few of the chapters did stand out, e.g., the first one with the two friends of a certain (seasoned) age going to the Coney Island boardwalk, the story of the actuary in the insurance company, the story of the surrogate parents. They were each very original and amusing. But a lot of the remainder left me unengaged. Perhaps it was the e-book format without chapter dividers that confused me, or my unfamiliarity with similar works.

Book was received on the basis of an early review, BTW.… (plus d'informations)