PositiveJewish Book CouncilThe book as a whole is like just such a lesson, in which the feverish, dying Barbara digs her finger into all the ugliest scenes of her life — of being a woman and a Jew in the second half of the twentieth century, of human existence in general. The process of dying is isolating, disgusting, undignified. Yet, judging by Barbara’s recollections, so is the process of living. Rosenberg’s great talent lies in balancing the tender and the repulsive so carefully that all of Barbara’s worst traits feel nothing more than deeply, tragically human.
