Marjorie is resistant to change. Her husband, Eric, wants them to leave New York for Florida – at least for the winter – while Marjorie finds it depressing. She doesn’t want to be away from her grandchildren, but she especially feels down when she thinks about her paternal grandmother’s tiny efficiency apartment in what is now South Beach.
However, now that she’s older, and she wants to make her husband happy, she is considering spending a few months in the Sunshine State. After all, it’s come a long way in the past few decades. And, she had to admit, being on Long Island wasn’t perfect 100% of the time either.
“The supermarkets were different,” she reflects. “Even Trader Joe’s had a different vibe in Florida. Here on Long Island, I feel like the old grandmother shopping in Denny’s for baby gifts. I used to be the young mother when it first opened. In Florida, everyone was the youthful grandma — either by healthy eating, exercise, cosmetic surgery, or attitude.”
Marjorie is one of the central characters in author Meryl Ain’s new collection, “Remember to Eat and Other Stories” (SparkPress). It follows her friends and Jewish family members, including her mother Alice, jumping from before World War II and going to the not-too-distant future. The stories along the way are humorous, heartfelt, and touching, focusing on subjects like the changing role of women, the challenges of raising children, complex family relationships and what it means to be a Jew with both insight and empathy.
Ain, author of “The Takeaway Men,” her award-winning post-Holocaust debut novel, as well as its follow-up, “Shadows We Carry,” said she wanted the challenge of writing a book of short stories.
“I had written just about every other genre but short fiction – two novels, a nonfiction book, essays, poems, op-eds, but not short stories,” Ain said. “I wrote the stories in the book over a period of nine months, but many of them had been brewing in my head for a very long time. I had the idea for the first story, and it just flowed, so then I wrote four more. I sent them to my publisher, and she loved them, so then I knew I had a book.”
The author also realized how powerful short stories can show important moments in one’s life.
“Short stories matter because they remind us that history is personal,” she said. “Social change is experienced not only in headlines, but in families, relationships,and choices made under imperfect conditions. By paying attention to these smaller narratives, we gain a fuller understanding of who we are and how we arrived here.”
Ain – who, like Marjorie, has grandchildren who are the light of her life and spends winters in Florida, giving book talks – wanted to write a book that was poignant and funny for these trying times.
“For Jews, humor has long been an essential survival tool,” she said. “When hatred tries to reduce us to fear or silence, humor restores agency. Laughing does not mean minimizing danger; it means refusing to let antisemitism define Jewish identity solely through victimhood.”
While she is not sure how “Remember to Eat” will be received, she is certain that Jews of all ages will enjoy it – and come away with the most crucial lesson of all.
“I hope that readers laugh, cry, ponder and discuss,” she said. “I hope they see themselves and people they know in some of the situations and stories. I hope they appreciate the time capsule from pre-WWII to the present. I hope they enjoy the book enough to tell their friends and family about it. And, of course, the most important takeaway is that family is forever.”
“Remember to Eat and Other Stories” is available on Amazon
