I Admired It, But I Did Not Like It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               In the course of writing this post, girls, I discovered that, 19--almost 20!!!!!!!!!!!--years ago, I had read another book by Leah Hager Cohen, which I liked.  That was "The Grief Of Others," but when I picked up "Strangers And Cousins" I made no connection with either that author, or her previous book.

                                               I was hoping for something with period charm, like "Bowlaway," by Elizabeth McCracken.  While Cohen's book gets a little whimsical at times, it bogs down into pretension by trying to connect a beloved matriarch, a pageant fire that happened back in 1967, with the aunt's great niece, Clem (for Clementine) Bloomenthal, who is having a lesbian wedding on her house, and much to her mother, Bennie's, consternation, plans to do it non-traditionally, as some sort of performance art piece, officiated by her former college Theater professor, supposedly some sort of ordained minister.

                                                Cohen spends too much time laying out extraneous details, although I did love the scene with the fighting cousins, and the contents of the refrigerator spilling all over the floor, or family members sitting with the ailing spinster, Aunt Glad, playing Parcheesi.  Moments like these make the effort worth it, but they are few and far between, until the final section where the structural circularity of Cohen's piece culminates in an alliance between the Bloomenthals and the Haredi Jews, an ultra-Orthodox community, moving into their area, which the family dislikes, even though they are Jewish, themselves.

                                                The author covers a lot of territory, sometimes too much, but she manages to bring it all together and closes it brilliantly.  The last sentence alone makes reading the previous 300 pages worth it.

                                                 But, girls, I would say skip this one.  We have enough troubles planning our own weddings, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                   Not to mention some of our relations may be strangers, as well!!!!!!!!!!!!