By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
When is a rom-com not a rom-com? When I’ve mistakenly thought a work’s major focus would be on humor and romance. While it was fairly clear from the beginning that “Real Life and Other Fictions” by Susan Coll (Harper Muse) was not a rom-com, I originally thought that “The Goldie Standard” by Simi Monheit (Sibylline Press) leaned in that direction. However, both novels include far more than romance since their characters are forced to make serious decisions about the course of their lives.

Coll, the author of “Bookish People,” has written another novel about a complex, interesting woman. (To read The Reporter’s review of “Bookish People,” visit www.thereportergroup.org/book-reviews/celebrating-jewish-literature-work-family-comedy-and-deep-feelings?entry=432557.) Cassie Kline thinks about her life while driving to visit her Aunt Olivia and Uncle Harry, who became surrogate parents after her real parents died in a freak bridge collapse when she was a baby. Her husband, Richard, is not with her, partly because Cassie has discovered he’s had an affair with a family friend. Their college-aged daughter is in Europe with friends, something that feels both a relief and a loss. Cassie’s main companion, Luna, a rescue puppy, still needs a great deal of training. She’s also come to realize her marriage to Richard is lopsided: she’s helped him with his weather forecasting career, but he’s always expressed little to no interest in her thoughts or career.

The question of why her parents were on that bridge in West Virginia has always bothered Cassie. Her aunt and uncle refuse to talk about it. Although serving as loving parents, they are generally unable to discuss anything dealing with emotions. Cassie feels the need to find out more and fakes having a job interview in order to leave their beach house in Delaware, where she is visiting them for the holiday, to travel to Point Pleasant, WV, where the collapse occurred. She also wants to deal with the obsession that ended her journalism career: that, before the collapse, people where warned by a mothman that something was going to occur. Cassie wants to know if that man was real and if others have encountered him or moths before a disaster. 

As a writer, Cassie is looking for closure, something she realizes doesn’t always happen in real life. However, in Point Pleasant, she is not only made welcome, but learns that the members of the town are also fascinated with the mothman to the point that you can buy mothman merchandise. Cassie does find answers to some of her questions, which not only helps her understand herself better, but also allows her make better decisions about her future.
While Cassie is middle aged, in “The Goldie Standard,” Goldie is in the twilight years of her life. She lives in an assisted living facility, but is still relatively alert. Her local daughter visits her on a regular basis and her granddaughter, Maxie, by her daughter living in California, has moved to New York City to work on her Ph.D. Maxie also visits regularly. Unfortunately, Maxie’s boyfriend has broken up with her, leaving Goldie with a mission: find a nice Jewish doctor for her granddaughter. After wondering the best way to handle this, Goldie decides to fake medical issues so Maxie can accompany her on doctor visits. Of course, things don’t go the way Goldie expects.
While Goldie thinks her own romantic life is over, she is wooed by Harry, a newcomer to the facility who refuses to take no for an answer. Goldie had a wonderful, loving relationship with her late husband, but finds herself charmed by Harry. His efforts, though, make her think about her life, causing her to tell stories of her past of which her family is unaware.

The novel also includes Maxie’s thoughts. After her breakup, she decided to concentrate on her work and forget about romance. But she worries about her grandmother as she takes her on her rounds to visit doctors. They are driven by T-Jam Bin Naumaan, a respected artist who makes ends meet as a chauffeur. However, this non-Jewish charming man is not whom Goldie wants for her granddaughter, although Maxie finds him very interesting and attractive. But, in some ways, his story mirrors that of Goldie, who survived World War II in Germany and married another Holocaust survivor. How this can or cannot be resolved is among the topics the novel discusses.
“Real Life and Other Fictions” and “The Goldie Standard” offer extremely poignant moments. At first, Goldie felt like a bit of a stereotype, but soon became a three-dimensional character. Parts of the story made me feel extremely sentimental. Cassie’s story offers a moving, heart-breaking version of what happened to her parents and explains a great deal about her life. Yes, both novels ultimately have some romantic elements, but they offer far more depth than one might expect.