Synopses & Reviews
Beloved New Yorker writer Lore Segal, at 95-years-old, is a national treasure. Working at the height of her powers, in this story collection she turns her gimlet eye and compassionate humor on aging and life in the slow lane.
From the master of the short short comes a collection of 16 new stories featuring old friends who have loved and lunched together for over 40 years. These erudite, sharp-minded nonagenarians offer startling insights into friendship, family and aging.
Can the group organize a visit to one of their number in her new, and detested, assisted living situation? Is this a fabulous party with old friends, or a funeral reception? And does who was sleeping with whom, way back when, still matter?
In story after story, Segal's voice is always hilarious and urbane, heartbreaking and profound, keen and utterly unsentimental, as she tackles aging's affronts.
Review
"Gemlike stories from a master of the form." Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Review
"Segal brings her rapier wit to this intelligent collection... Segal’s unfailing ear and light comedic touch belie the momentous, existential nature of her subject matter. This is funny and moving in equal measure." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Reading Ladies’ Lunch, one can only be thankful that Segal has not 'thrown away' her people or her memories, which have given us this indispensable road map of our final journey." Ann Levin, The Forward
Review
"These witty, sparky tales of ninetysomething Manhattanite ladies who lunch capture the everyday stuff of ageing." The Times
About the Author
Lore Segal is the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Shakespeare's Kitchen, as well as the novels Half the Kingdom, Lucinella, Other People's Houses, Her First American, and the collection The Journal I Did Not Keep. She is the recipient of the American Academy Arts and Letters Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The O'Henry Prize and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize. She has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, The New Republic, and numerous other publications. In 2023, Segal was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives and works in New York City.