美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Our Short History,' A Dying Single Mom Pens A Letter To Her Son

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Karen Neulander's a political consultant 1 who is brilliant, determined 2 and tough, but then she's diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. That's a crisis that this capable professional who usually smoothes the path for others can't fix. What Karen Neulander determines to do with whatever time she has left is to pour her life and lessons into her 6-year-old son, Jacob. "Our Short History" is a story within a novel by Lauren Grodstein in which Karen leaves the chronicle of her life for her son to read when he turns 18 and to try to introduce him to the father he has never known but must try to love for the rest of his life.

Lauren Grodstein, the best-selling novelist and short story writer, who also directs the creative writing MFA program at Rutgers-Camden, joins us from the studios of KUOW in Seattle. Thanks so much for being with us.

LAUREN GRODSTEIN, BYLINE 3: It's a pleasure to be here.

SIMON: There are lots of tough details to read in here about cancer and cancer treatments. How do you know them?

GRODSTEIN: Well, whenever I start a novel, I do a lot of reading. But the most immediate 4 source of information was actually my sister-in-law and her family. My sister-in-law's mother passed away from ovarian cancer. Her sister was diagnosed with it and was cured, thank goodness. But through their experiences, I was really able to see on the ground what ovarian cancer looks like. And I was also able to see how women who were struck by it aren't just about their cancer. They're also living their lives and making plans and seeing friends and raising families, and that was important for me to see as well.

SIMON: Jacob's father - Jacob, her son - Jacob's father, Dave, was the love of her life.

GRODSTEIN: Yeah.

SIMON: So what happened?

GRODSTEIN: Karen fell in love with Dave and had imagined a future with him, complete with a center hall colonial, maybe a two-car garage and babies. And even though Dave said, no, I never want children, she was really reluctant to believe that. And then she found out she was pregnant and planned an announcement, you know, I'm pregnant. And instead of him saying let's get married, he said, I don't want a baby. I told you I don't want a baby. And Karen, being feisty and determined and perhaps more angry than wise, she packed up and left and had the baby on her own and never told Dave and never planned to see him again and probably by some magical thinking thought that perhaps he would divine that she'd had the baby and apologize and come running back. But instead, he married someone else. He moved on with his life, and she raised Jacob as a single mom.

SIMON: Yeah. And then six years later, they meet, Dave and Jacob. And what happens?

GRODSTEIN: And Jacob, who looks like Dave, who has the same half curly hair, who loves LEGOs, who loves "Star Wars" just like his dad, both he and his dad have a thing for plastic figurines, they fall in love, and they can't get enough of each other. And that is not what Karen expected. Karen expected to see the same man who told her he never wanted kids. But in the intervening six years, it turns out that he changed his mind. And now what does she do? Because of all of the things she planned for for the end of her life, handing her son over to the man who abandoned them, that was not in the cards.

SIMON: I mean, you get the impression that hurts her in a way that I almost said cancer doesn't, and I'll - maybe I'll stick by that. Yeah.

GRODSTEIN: I think that that sounds right. I mean, cancer is uncontrollable, but it's not as uncontrollable as the love of a 6-year-old boy. And it's not as uncontrollable as the desire to give your kid anything that you want or that he wants. And so while facing the end of her life, there's all this language around that - right? - end-of-life plans and end-of-life organization. And that's not entirely 5 true. The end of your life is wild and uncontrollable, and this idea that she might lose her son or lose the plan she had for her son is, in some ways, even more brutal 6 than losing what she expected of the rest of her life.

SIMON: Yeah. Karen's a political consultant, and her - the client we hear the most about is Ace 7, who wants to be mayor of New York.

GRODSTEIN: (Laughter) Yeah.

SIMON: Maybe superfluous 8 to add, he's a Democrat 9. He also disappoints her at just about the worst time, doesn't he?

GRODSTEIN: He does. He does. Ace is a philanderer 10 of a very generic 11 kind, you know, young women on the campaign, young women he works with. And he sees himself as, you know, he's not really hurting anyone. No one has to know. But his ability to be honest with himself or the people around him, you know, it fails and it torpedoes 12 not only his personal life but his work life, too. And he disappoints Karen, which, from the reader's point of view, is far worse.

SIMON: Yeah. Well, that's all you care about at that point.

GRODSTEIN: Right.

SIMON: And then she meets his opponent for the city council, Beverly Hernandez. And, boy, I wasn't expecting that.

GRODSTEIN: Yeah. Karen is - so Karen's kind of salty, and she's a hard-left Democrat, and she's not above dirty tricks, and she never expects to fall in love with Bev, who is a Republican. And she adheres to a sort of Republican standard talking points. She's pro-life. She's reduced regulations. She wants lower taxes, and Karen thinks all that's nonsense. But then she meets Bev, and it turns out that Bev is a recovering cancer patient as well. And not only that, she's the daughter of immigrants. She's tough. She's smart. She has a sense of humor. So in many ways, she reminds Karen of herself, and she survived. And so for Karen to see that this woman who's been through so much came out a winner on the other side is really profound for her.

SIMON: A particularly heart-stopping line, without giving anything away - towards the end of the book, somebody says to her, in a sense to excuse themselves, I'm old. And Karen says, do you know how lucky you are to get old?

GRODSTEIN: I think about that all the time. My grandparents lived sort of the American century. They were born in the early 1900s and died in the early 2000s. And they lived these rich, full lives. And even at the end of their lives, they were still really living. And I remember thinking that weirdly 13 like, well, I know it's hard to be old, but look at how much you've gotten to live.

SIMON: Yeah.

GRODSTEIN: And I still feel that way when I meet people who've lived long, rich lives, what a blessing 14 and it's a blessing that's not guaranteed to any of us.

SIMON: Lauren Grodstein - her novel, "Our Short History." Thanks so much for being with us.

GRODSTEIN: What a pleasure, thank you.