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More from the other class

July 12th, 2008 Lisa - Central

I’m from New York, so I love reading about it.  I’ve just finished Anything for Jane, set in Upper West Side Manhattan.  It’s the 3rd book of Cheryl Mendelson’s Morningside Heights trilogy.   (The others were Morningside Heights, and, Love, Work, Children - this one reviewed earlier).  In the trilogy, she’s followed the lives of several couples and their families in a very intimate, sort of Jane Austen (without the romance) way.  Not very much happens in the stories, but you really like these people.  Well, at least I did.

In Jane, Mendelson returns to the Braithwaite family who she featured in the 1st book.  Charles, an opera singer, and Anne, a former concert pianist, now have four children, including Jane, their talented, tempestuous 16-year-old.  They raised her to go to Julliard, expecting that she will have a brilliant singing career.  Jane could care less about Julliard; instead she’s secretly arranging for auditions.

Liberal in their politics and generous in spirit, Anne and Charles allow Gabriela, their sometime maid, to stay in their spare room when Gabriela loses her apartment because of a mysterious illness.  What they don’t know is that Gabriela is in charge of her brilliant 16-year-old nephew, who is left homeless by the eviction.  Andres, who desperately wants to go to college, tries to keep his school work up though he has to work to feed himself, sleep at Gabriela’s boyfriend Juan’s teeny apartment a long subway ride away, and worry about his aunt’s health.  Plus he lost his whole life (school work, poetry, photos and music) when he lost his computer in the eviction.

Jane meets Andres when he visits Gabriela, and soon the kids fall in love.  She lets him use her mom’s computer, he tutors her in math.  Soon Andres is staying at the apartment and slipping into Jane’s room.

Things come to a head when Jane calls Michael, the doctor friend of the family, because she realizes Gabriela is sicker than anyone knows.  It turns out she has leukemia, and is checked into a hospital.  Andres doesn’t want to pull Jane into his messy life, so he feigns indifference and breaks up with her.  But that leads to a mess.   Juan gets busted for selling drugs (he’s desperate for money to get Gabriela an apartment to recuperate in) while Andres is there, and Andres gets scooped up in the raid.

The Braithwaite’s family and friends rally to save Andres, but you wouldn’t believe how it all turns out.  I did expect a happy ending here, which Mendelson delivers, but she went a bit out of her way.  But what the heck, it was fun getting there.  These upper class stuffed shirts are kind of fun to hang out with.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction, Recreational Fiction