The bridge ladies by betsy lerner wikipedia biography

A fifty-year-old Bridge game provides an unexpected way to cross the generational divide between a daughter and her mother. Betsy Lerner takes us on a powerfully personal literary journey, where we learn a little about Bridge and a lot about life. After a lifetime defining herself in contrast to her mother's "don't ask, don't tell" generation, Lerner finds herself back in her childhood home, not five miles from the mother she spent decades avoiding.

When Roz needs help after surgery, it falls to Betsy to take care of her. She expected a week of tense civility; what she got instead were the Bridge Ladies. Impressed by their loyalty, she saw something her generation lacked. Facebook was great, but it wouldn't deliver a pot roast. Tentatively at first, Betsy becomes a regular at her mother's Monday Bridge club.

Through her friendships with the ladies, she is finally able to face years of misunderstandings and family tragedy, the Bridge table becoming the common ground she and Roz never had. By turns darkly funny and deeply moving, The Bridge Ladies is the unforgettable story of a hard-won - but never-too-late - bond between mother and daughter.

This beautifully written, bittersweet story of ladies of a certain age and era will have wide appeal.

Betsy Lerner started out

A poignant, humorous and often painful struggle through the pageantry of playing cards; a woman's face on every one. I devoured it in one greedy sitting, and started re-reading as soon as I finished. In her book, Lerner takes us back to their tables, capturing her own complicated relationship with her mom and a group of wonderful American women with sweetness, humor and sharp perceptiveness.

This is a book with heart and feeling. It's about mother-daughter conflict, the desire to love and be loved, aging and loss, discovery and renewal.