There Was An Old Woman

  Evie has cut her mother out of her life–tired of the older woman’s drunkenness and general bad parenting. But when her  sister calls with the news that her mother has been taken to hospital, she agrees that it’s her turn. Although it’s only been a few months, she is surprised at the change in her mother’s house. Her mother was never a perfect housekeeper, but neither was she a hoarder, nor did she keep cats. Now the house is filled with trash, including bags overflowing with empty tins of cat food piled haphazardly in the hallway.

Evie reconnects with her mother’s neighbour, another elderly women named Mina. Mina is experiencing her own confusion. That is, she’s sure of what she knows and has seen, but things change unexpectedly. Mina is sure she’s not losing her mind, but her nephew and others are determined to convince her she is. They want to move her into a nursing home, and her nephew kindly offers to take control of her old house.

The two live in a pristine, undeveloped old neighbourhood very close to New York, an area where houses are worth far more than their inhabitants paid for them many decades ago. One day when Mina goes for a walk, she finds a house where an old friend lived demolished almost overnight. In the meantime, Evie is settling in a bit, staying away from her job to care for her mother, looking into her affairs, making friends with a young man who works at the local grocery store.

There Was an Old Woman is billed as suspenseful and it really is, but perhaps not exactly in the way most people think. The suspense and terror come into play with Mina’s fears, that perhaps people can’t be trusted, or perhaps her mind really is going. I actually loved this book. It’s not full of dead bodies or international spies, but instead filled with the type of people you might actually know and the type of problems they might actually face. I also loved having an elderly main character, and the fears she deals with are all too real for many people. Throughout the novel, the reader is never sure who to trust, and clues shift back and forth. What is really going on in the neighbourhood?

There Was an Old Woman is a thoroughly enjoyable book, especially for being somewhat out of the mainstream as far as character and plot goes. Hallie Ephron’s writing flows easily, and although there are many stories, it’s easy to keep track of them all. I highly recommend it.