Rosalind

the long version

In this rich, enchanting impressionist portrait of family life in the lavish early eighties, high-handed Rosalind, mother and family therapist, faces death and limitation after the ordeal of open heart surgery. All of her finely drawn family members are changed too: impractical architect husband, quixotic radio talk show host brother, overprivileged children, critical mother. At the end of the novel, the characters move from their accustomed places in the family dance through their familiar landscapes: Boston, New York, San Francisco to gather around Rosalind in the Adirondack Forest of Arden, complete with picnics, theatricals, pine trees and a bear.