Our Short History is one of those books that will break your heart six ways to Sunday. Karen is a single mother who adores her six-year-old son Jake, though he’s expecting a lot from her when he asks to meet his father–the man who dumped her when she told him she was pregnant. Yes, she’s bitter and she has so many reasons to be. But, Jake has a reason for wanting to get to know his father. You see, his mother is dying and although she’s already arranged a safe and secure future for him with her sister, he still wants to know his dad.

We know how much this hurts Karen because she tells us. She tells us everything. That’s the conceit of Our Short History. It is the book Karen writes for Jake to read when he’s old enough to understand, set aside for when he grows up, so he can learn more about his mother.

There is a secondary storyline, Karen is a political consultant and her last client is admirable in many ways, but unfaithful on occasion, seeking excitement with young women. His opponent is a woman with an appealing bootstrap immigrant story. Karen struggles with liking the opponent more than her client.

I cried throughout this book from beginning to end. I guess I am not in a place to be reading about someone dying of cancer so soon after my sister’s death. It’s funny, though, because many of my conversations with my sister while she was dying were focused on how her children and grandchildren would do after her death. She worried about them even though they are adults. She spent a lot of time preparing, wanting to get everything right. How much more, then, would a mother concern herself over taking care of her six-year-old son.

I liked that Karen was not too perfect, that she lost her cool, that she could be petty. There was a lot that was very realistic and natural, though sometimes it felt too natural. She would write advice, random and scattered notions that come to mind just the way they would in reality, but I am someone who prefers Klee and Kandinsky to Rembrandt and Courbet. I would like more art, less naturalism, in particular with the advice.

So this is a decent story and no one can expect to read a story about someone dying of cancer without some tears. However, this book is one that deliberately tries to wring out every possible tear it can. There’s a funeral eulogy for another character that is unusual, perhaps unusually honest, but really, it’s an exercise is pulling your heart strings. So often I felt pushed and shoved into grieving, it made me resentful. All that crying gave me a headache.

Perhaps it is just too soon after losing my sister to be reading such a mournful book, perhaps I cannot be fair. All I know is that while Our Short History was effective in plucking my emotions, playing them for all their worth, the book would have been better if she had focused more on making us think and less on making us cry.

Our Short History will be released March 21st. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

I was a little tentative about the subject matter but had a very hard time putting this one down!

Well written and good character development. This would be a great book for book clubs.

A single mother of a young child is diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer. She writes a short history of their lives to leave for him to read when he is older. The author highlighted this woman's love for her child and family, her joys, pain, fears and anger. Can she really plan completely for her son's future? When her son asks to meet his Dad, things change. I found this a heart-filled and compelling read.

4.5 stars

Our Short History is a beautifully written book that will repeatedly reduce you to tears while at other times making you laugh out loud. Karen Neulander is a single mother raising her 6-year-old son, Jake, completely on her own. Two years previously, she was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer and has recently realized that she is most likely nearing the end of her life. She decides to write a “short history” of their life together for her son to read when he is older (she is worried that he will forget her and their time together). Our Short History covers Karen’s family history, her fears, her frustration with dying so young, her relationship with Jake’s father, and her thoughts on what Jake will be like as he grows up. As her illness progresses, Jake becomes focused on meeting his father which adds another layer to the already sad story. Karen only remembers Dave as the person who abandoned her and must come to terms with letting Dave into Jake’s life.

Our Short History is truly heartbreaking but also beautifully crafted. As a mother myself, I related to her struggle to cede control over what would happen to her child once she is gone and her fear that Jake would not remember her as he got older. Karen tries to leave Jake with the best set-up possible but comes to realize that a lot will be outside of her control when she is gone.

My favorite part of the book was learning more about Karen and Jake’s relationship and the life she created for them together. It was harder to read the sections about her cancer and numerous treatments and setbacks. I was so glad I read Our Short History - it is good to be reminded how much there is to grateful for in life. Thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this beautiful novel in exchange for an honest review.

It may sound strange to say that a book about a single mother dying of cancer is a fantastic book, but let me tell you that it really is. Our Short History is the first book that I've read by this author and I plan to go back and read her previous books after reading this one. Many thanks to BookBrowse for a copy of this book for a review. (All opinions are my own.)

Karen is a successful political consultant in NYC with a young son when she finds out that she has stage IV ovarian cancer. When she got pregnant with her son, the father broke up with her and she never told him about the baby. When her son is six, he asks to meet his father. Up until this time, they had been a family of two and Karen is very apprehensive about bringing his father into her son's life. However father and son bond very quickly and despite Karen's anger over including the dad into her son's life, she realizes that time is running out for her. Will she be able to learn to share her son with his father or will she continue to try to keep them apart?

The novel is written as a book that Karen is writing for her son to read when he is grown to explain the life that they had together. I thought she was an extremely fantastic character and the anger that she held against her ex boyfriend, her cancer and life in general is definitely justified. This is a fantastic book -- warning - keep Kleenex close at hand!

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review

Karen Neulander is a 41 year old political consultant who loves her work. But not as much as she adores her six year old son, Jacob. She lives in New York City, on the Upper West Side and is spending the summer with her sister and her sister's family in Washington. Everything would be perfect except for one thing.

Karen has stage IV ovarian cancer. She is writing this book as a legacy for Jacob, a way for him to have access to her after she is gone.

She thought she had a couple of more years but lately things are not looking good. She's in pain and there are some rogue cancer cells appearing.

Also, suddenly appearing (at Jacob's request) is Jacob's father, the man who left her upon learning she was pregnant. And Karen is scared that he'll want to take Jacob away from her.

This book is so well-written, I didn't even have time to cry (well...once or twice). I loved Karen and her relationship with Jacob. I loved her toughness and her smartness. I fell in love with her whole extended family.

Grodstein does a wonderful job creating this life, these lives, and making us care, deeply. Not just to find out what happens but simply to be with these people, this woman, and live her life with her, for as long as she can.

Cancer books always scare me, and this was no exception, but I appreciated the realness of Karen's passion for life as well as her exhaustion from the process of dying. But most of all, I loved her relationship with Jacob.

I want to thank NetGalley, Algonquin Books, and Lauren Grodstein for the opportunity to read this book.

Karen Neulander becomes the sole provider for her son, Nathan, when she chooses to give birth to him even after the birth father informs her he doesn't want children. She is a very successful political consultant and is a partner in her own company and the two of them have a good life. When Karen finds out that she has stage IV ovarian cancer she decides to write a book for her son to read when he turns 18. Through her plight, she documents her thoughts, her dreams, her ups and downs as they occur with her treatment. During this time, her 6-year-old son asks to meet his father. Karen has been struggling with the treatments and their side effects, but her greatest challenge is giving up sole control of Nathan's future. She has carefully planned where he will live, go to school, etc. and the possible introduction of his father threatens to take away the one thing she feels she still controls.

The book is written as if it is the scattered ramblings of someone with attention issues, which is sometimes the case with treatment for cancer. The author goes from remembering, to what her young son is saying at the moment, to her physical issues, etc, with no forewarning to the reader. It is as if you are in her head, seeing the unedited version. The reader is with her on her journey. We share her sadness, her physical pain, her fears, and her hopes that she will be the lucky one and survive.

Very well written, fast paced and never boring.

If you think you can't quite stomach a book about a mom dying of ovarian cancer writing a "memoir" to her young son, think again. OUR SHORT HISTORY blew me away with its humor--yes humor--and poignancy. The narrator drew me in from the start and I especially appreciated the sort of informal confessional tone. Grodstein's writing is superb.

It may sound strange to say that a book about a single mother dying of cancer is a fantastic book, but let me tell you that it really is. Our Short History is the first book that I've read by this author and I plan to go back and read her previous books after reading this one. Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book for a review. (All opinions are my own.)

Karen is a successful political consultant in NYC with a young son when she finds out that she has stage IV ovarian cancer. When she got pregnant with her son, the father broke up with her and she never told him about the baby. When her son is six, he asks to meet his father. Up until this time, they had been a family of two and Karen is very apprehensive about bringing his father into her son's life. However father and son bond very quickly and despite Karen's anger over including the dad into her son's life, she realizes that time is running out for her. Will she be able to learn to share her son with his father or will she continue to try to keep them apart?

The novel is written as a book that Karen is writing for her son to read when he is grown to explain the life that they had together. I thought she was an extremely fantastic character and the anger that she held against her ex boyfriend, her cancer and life in general is definitely justified. This is a fantastic book -- warning - keep Kleenex close at hand!

Our histories are defined by how much time we have, or so we're led to believe. My history with my son? Eleven years. My history with my friends? Going on twenty-five or so for the closest--twenty-eight for the shoe-ins, my cousins. My history with my parents? Thirty. (Not counting what I'm sure were their terribly boring first four years of marriage all alone without children. How did they ever survive?!)

Our histories are as long as we are allowed to make them.

Karen Neulander's history with her son, Jake? Six years. So very short, indeed. Diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer in her early forties, the campaign manager no one wants to tousle with is now facing the toughest of all opponents: impending death. Grodstein offers a glimpse into Karen's fictive experience of an all-too-real ordeal in her novel, which is set to be Karen's book to her grown-up, future Jake; throughout the book itself, Karen details her current cancer updates, advice for her son, and family stories which she'll not be around to tell.

I have not read a book that has so aptly encapsulated my feelings as a single parent; not only that, but also a single parent with family that doesn't always see things the same way I do. Often emotions can go from disappointed to angry and irrational to humble in less than five minutes, sometimes during even one phone call.

Of course, I'm not dying. Not like Karen.

The three parts of the book Our Short History make up a left behind manifesto for her son Jake. Part one is mostly in Seattle where Karen is preparing for the rest of her life. She is thrown off when Jake wants to meet her father, Dave, a man that turned cold upon hearing he'd be a father.

Part two continues in Manhattan as her illness and procedures continue, Dave seeks more time with Jake, Karen's paranoia at having her son taken from her enhances both her need for control over her life and her realization that she has none--she is dying. As her health worsens, so does her ability to rationalize her role. She wants control over her son because she feels as if she's always had to be in control. Dave initially told her he never wanted kids and she left, the break up trailing behind like a hole in her back. Dave assumed she'd gotten an abortion; Karen assumed Dave would want nothing to do with her or their child. And so life went on for six years until Jake asked if he could meet his father.

Assumptions. Killers, amiright?

Throughout all of this personal front plot, there is a sub plot detailing Karen's career. She works for a Clinton-esque councilman who cannot quit scheming on his wife. It is interesting how his narrative interplays with the lessons Karen learns, even though they're different journeys.

And so the story goes. The narrative showcases exactly how one's mental state would be reeling--not only from the buzzer alarm of cancer, but also from a relationship one never planned on ricocheting, the sting and simultaneous stab of former love.

The overall theme is that time is relative. We all think we know that, but when it's time what will we leave behind for our loved ones? Money? A famed career? A novel? While some parts of the narrative seem naive for a character with Karen's background (two solid decades in political campaign management--cur throat business), it is also prove of just how drastically one's life can be altered by terminal illness, turned into a reflection of the life one used to lead. I recommend this book to anyone with a penchant for reflection, unsettled memories of terminal illness, or a reason to feel thankful.

★★★★✮ 4.5 stars

Question. Can books about single-motherhood, cancer and even mortality be funny? Enjoyable?

Answer. Dang, YES.

So with that said, you might have a better idea already about how I felt about this book.
This review is featured on my blog, check it out for more reviews.

Let’s start with what it’s about. Our Short History is about Karen, a single mother, who is (unfortunately) dying of cancer, but despite that, trying to build the best possible future for her kid, Jakey, as well as trying not to lose hope during this last span of time she still has with him. But, although she seems to be handling everything quite well, even the terrible physical ordeal she has to endure constantly, there’s just this one thing that won’t leave her alone. It’s the fact that Jake wants to know his father. Because Jake’s father was a stupid ass, pardon me, who said he didn’t want the baby and then never contacted Karen again. And Jake thinks he loves him. You can’t blame the boy – he’s only 6. Every little boy wants a father.

So Karen is faced with the decision to either let it happen, or not. The whole book is about this decision, although it’s also about Karen’s battle with her health problems, her own ego, as well as her job and how important working can be to a sick individual. It’s about all those things, but still, mostly – it’s about giving her son up. Knowing she will leave him. Knowing his growing up will be out of her control. And also letting go and forgiving that damn ass for being an ass in the first place (sorry again, I might be biased here). And no – this is no romantic story. There will be no happy reunion or sappy love stuff (thank goodness). This is about human relationships, parents and children, about realizing what’s best for your child.

And – despite the sad topic – this is not a sad book. It’s not a depressing one either. You will find everything in this book – from joy to laughter, to plain humor, as well as heartbreak, pain and anger. It’s so all over the scale, it ends up making you feel like you’re seeing it live, or at least a movie. Such a lifelike book! Which is possibly why I enjoyed it so much.

Reasons why I recommend this book:

✮ The reality of suffering cancer in a non-scary, approachable, humane way;
✮ Issue of broken families, written about without taking sides – very objectively;
✮ Showing how people with terminal illness can be and are still a valid, working part of society;
✮ It’s quite emotional, but not in a sappy way at all;
✮ I absolutely loved the narrator! (Karen herself). She’s an extremely reliable narrator, honest, never hides anything from the reader;
✮ Point one was about the reality of a cancer sufferer, but I can not stress this enough how we should read more books about people like this and learn more about their lives.

So that’s my opinion. I truly do recommend it. It’s really worth your time – I know it was worth mine.

I'd rate this about 3.5 stars.

If it has been said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, well then, I'm (more than) a touch insane. Because I keep reading books that are tearjerkers despite the fact that television commercials make me tear up, and yet I'm surprised that these books leave me a sniffling mess nearly Every. Single. Time. And so it is with Lauren Grodstein's newest novel, Our Short History.

Karen Neulander has made a name for herself as one of New York's top political consultants. She's not afraid to leak things to the press about her clients' opponents, or do everything she needs to in order to help them gain advantage and, of course, votes. She's equally protective of her six-year-old son, Jake, whom she has raised alone since before he was born. When she found out she was pregnant, her boyfriend at the time told her he didn't want to have kids, so she left and never spoke to him again.

Now Karen is facing an even tougher opponent. Two years ago she was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer, and given approximately four years to live. While she has fought as hard as she could, with surgery and chemotherapy, she knows there will come a time that she won't be around any longer, no matter how much she hopes a miracle might come her way. But she has everything all planned out—when she feels that she's ready, she and Jake will move to Seattle to live with her younger sister Allie and her family, so Jake will be cared for when it's time.

While Jake understands—as much as a young child can—what is happening to his mother, he has one request: he wants her to get in touch with his father. After dragging her feet for a while in the hopes that he will forget what he asked, Karen relents. She's not too surprised to find out that Dave Kersey is still living in the same expensive condo in New Jersey. But she is thrown for a loop when he's excited to meet Jake.

Despite how happy Dave makes Jake (and vice-versa), Karen is adamant about allowing him to become too large a part of her son's life. She can't reconcile this man who is head over heels for his son when he didn't want her to have the baby in the first place, and as the two grow closer, she becomes frightened that Dave may try to take Jake away from her, or at the very least, upset the plans she has made for his future. And she can't seem to accept that perhaps what Jake needs most of all is his father, at a time when all she wants to do is cling as closely to her son as possible.

Our Short History is written as Karen's "memoir," ostensibly to be read by Jake when he is older. She provides glimpses of her childhood and her relationships with her own parents and grandparents, as well as her time with Dave, and what it has been like raising Jake. It also includes "advice" and her hopes for her son, so he knows how much she has always thought, and feels, about him.

Well, as you can imagine, this packs an emotional punch. But despite its ability to generate tears, this is a book about the fierceness of a mother's love, and the need to hold on to her son as tightly as she can for as long as she can, as if that can make up for the time she won't have with him. It's also a story about how we can be short-sighted and let our own hurts take precedence over doing what is right.

As I remember from her previous books, A Friend of the Family and The Explanation for Everything, Grodstein is a talented writer and knows how to tell a story. I thought this was a little predictable, and while I completely understood the emotions, fears, and anxieties Karen was experiencing given everything happening in her life, I found her to be a little more unlikable for a little longer than I expected.

This book definitely makes you count your blessings as well as wonder how you might act if faced with similar circumstances. It takes you on an emotional journey and gives you a touching picture of everything a mother would do for her child.

NetGalley and Algonquin Books provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

'Our Short History' is a compelling read. It has a unique format: it is written as a book that Karen, who has ovarian cancer, is writing for her son Jacob to read in the future when she is no longer there. At first I wasn't sure if this format would work, but it does. Karen is unflinchingly honest about what she is thinking, feeling, and experiencing as she struggles to come to terms with her illness, the reappearance of Jacob's father in their lives, her work and her relationships. This book is heart-wrenching and really made me think about what is important in life and what we give our time and energy to. A heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful, book. Recommended.