Ladies’ Lunch and Other Stories

Segal brings her rapier wit to this intelligent collection of mostly recent work, some of which appeared in the anthology The Journal I Did Not Keep. The bulk is comprised of the linked “Ladies Lunch” stories, which feature five elderly friends who gather regularly at each other’s homes in Manhattan. In “Sans Teeth, Sans Taste,” they discuss the “aches, pains, meds, etc.” of aging. In the title story, Lotte’s well-meaning sons place her in a Hudson Valley assisted living facility, far from the friends she loves. All the women are widowed except Bessie, whose rich and stuffy husband Colin, the butt of their jokes, is said in “Days of Martini and Forgetting” to be “dying of something slow and ravaging.” Among the other stories is “Making Good,” about a Jewish former concert pianist who takes part in a community group led by a progressive rabbi and a Catholic priest that is designed to spark dialogue between gentiles from Vienna and Jewish Viennese refugees from the Holocaust. “Ladies’ Zoom,” a companion piece to the title sequence, finds the women gathering virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic, where they reckon with their fading memories. 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. Agent: Jeff Gerecke, G Agency. (Oct.)