ASINB004FGMT4U transferred to more recent edition. When young, brainy Bernie Cooper escapes the Nazis and ends up in New Orleans, he thinks at first that he’s landed softly, almost immediately finding love with Letty, not only a nice Jewish girl, but fifth-generation Southern upper crust. But suddenly, snobberies he couldn’t even have guessed at are set in motion. It seems Letty’s prominent Jewish parents hate him for being…too Jewish! At first this strikes him only as petty and small-minded, but he has no idea how much hatred his scheming mother-in-law can wring from the situation. She knows, for instance, that he had to leave behind his beloved mother, and she uses his mother’s life and memory as a lever against him, eventually causing him physical and mental problems that threaten his family’s well-being in every possible way and thwart him at every turn. Thus, Bernie and Letty’s daughter Darby is born into the strangest of mixed marriages, torn, as her mother is, between loyalty to her grandparents and to her father. Even she, at her tender age, wonders whether Letty’s love—and her own–can save Bernie from the secret pain and guilt of surviving the Holocaust. And from the machinations of his cruel mother-in-law. This bittersweet love story is told in three novellas, each from the point of view of one member of the Cooper family. From Bernie we learn the immigrant’s story, of a young Jew making it out of Germany just as Hitler invades Poland and Europe shuts down. Speaking little English, he makes his way across America, and he finds Letty in New Orleans. In the second novella, Letty picks up where Bernie leaves off, and we see this is no ordinary rich girl, but rather an unspoiled, curious, generous-spirited young woman who sees Bernie for who he is and falls in love despite all the obstacles thrown up by her parents. When Darby picks up the story in the third novella, everything is in place for a comfortable ending–or a tragedy Darby bears the legacy of her father’s deep sadness and her mother’s need to fit into New Orleans’s peculiar social structure.

You just know a book titled green eyes delivers all the good stuff—seduction, envy, Southern charm with all the accompanying treachery (Scarlett O’Hara had them); and shopping. You heard right—we did say shopping—in Darby Cooper’s case, for the perfect human studhorse, a man who can pass along the gene that gets you into grad school along with the prettiest emerald orbs in Louisiana. Who wouldn’t want that for her kid? If you're a fan of Too Jewish, you’ll remember Darby as the smart, sad kid from the royally messed-up Cooper family, the only daughter of a Holocaust escaper. Now that it's the 70’s, she’s grown up to be a hoot—still shy and depressed, still baffled and reclusive, in truth still pretty much a trainwreck, but for all that, a woman who knows her way around a sardonic turn of phrase and who dares to become a single mom before it's cool. The good news? Meet Darby’s precious baby daughter, precocious, green-eyed Honor. And the bad? Oy vey! That’s in the book too. It’s the perfect read for any woman who’s ever felt ignored, rebellious, under-appreciated, and a little bit green-eyed—hmmm, shall we just say any contemporary woman? Who in particular will like it: Those who enjoyed the movie “Trainwreck” and perhaps identify a bit too much; fans of Lena Dunham and other screwed-up outsider heroines; everyone who loves New Orleans! And women (men too) partial to dark humor, Jewish fiction, family dramas, and slyly humorous literary fiction.

The world turns upside down when Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, blasting apart three generations of women in the final installment of the The Cooper Family Saga. Darby Cooper, the daughter of Bernie and Letty whom we met in Too Jewish and came of age with in Too Jewish: The Next Generation, has become a bestselling New Orleans author, drawing on the tragedy of her father’s life. But despite her success, family, as always, is complex and problematic. Letty, so loving in Too Jewish, has morphed into a self-centered and willful woman—far from the kind of wise bubbeh Darby expected for her daughter Honor. But it turns out Honor is very much Letty’s girl. However, Letty’s gone missing after the storm, leaving her daughter perplexed and ambivalent. Although not yet sad. Because Letty's pretty indomitable—your classic Tough Old Babe in designer clothes and teetering heels, Still the traumatic search for Letty would be Darby's main post-storm event if Honor hadn’t come back from evacuating to Florida with the boyfriend from hell. Sciutto claims he's a mobster and, in all other ways (let's start with crude and intolerant), is a betrayal of every core value Darby has rescued from her tragic and treacherous family history. Furthermore, as she struggles in temporary quarters in shattered post-Katrina New Orleans, Darby also has to confront the same long-lost high-school classmates whose cruelty played a nasty role in her father’s death decades before. Fortunately for the reader, her grief and bewilderment are tempered by her quick wit and humorous take at even the darkest moments. Fans of the trilogy will eat this one up, as the Cooper women, so often so far from each other emotionally, draw ever closer, finding just how strong the bonds of family and love can be. Having followed them this far, we know and love all their quirks, all their neuroses, almost all their jokes (but there are so many!). But here’s what we don't know—will they manage to overcome their differences and finally pull together? We’re betting on them! Who will like it: Fans of Jewish fiction, especially quirky family life fiction, like The Royal Tenenbaums, the works of Jonathan Tropper, early Philip Roth (Good-bye Columbus), and those who appreciate humorous fiction and a witty turn of phrase in women’s fiction. The Cooper women are nothing if not sharp—and capable of trading the kind of barb that’s so true-to-life you almost don’t laugh. As always, Patty Friedmann’s sly, dark humor and knowing take on families—especially distressed ones—combine with her smooth, quirky writing for a witty and satisfying read.