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The title reflects the feeling that often wells up as two daughters observe their aging parents.. The scene: a French farmhouse where mom and dad have retired (neither speak French), surrounded by animals, and increasingly unable to keep it together. One daughter, Miranda, is an actor who lives in England but makes many trips across the channel to do damage control. The other, Charlotte, is well-fixed in LA and has little sympathy for her eccentric progenitors, but the siblings have to put their heads together as chaos increases. One fascinating wrinkle: the mysterious Kitty whom their mother has written to for many years; therein lies the secret that has torqued the parents’ long marriage—the cognitive dissonance we sense from the start. Bittersweet.
This novel takes us to Vienna in the the mid-‘60s. Robert sees an empty storefront next to the market where he’s done odd jobs, and leaps at the chance to open a cafe. It’s a working class neighborhood and this is a place where folks can find refuge or companionship. We get to know their stories, like young Mila’s. She was desperate for a job, Robert takes a chance on her, and she becomes his right hand person. Case in point: the warm drink she proposes that brings in customers during grim winter days. An acerbic solitary patron who frequents the cafe adds her commentary in periodic chapters. Various dramas play out until—well, nothing lasts forever, and Robert’s lease eventually runs out. But there’s a glorious closing party that celebrates how much life this modest enterprise has provided. Atmospheric and a touch melancholy.
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