2207 South Green Road - Paperback

by Janice C. Spector (Author)

A poignant and humorous story of love despite dysfunction among an assimilating extended Jewish family riddled with secrets in suburban Cleveland during 1961.

While in today's world they would just seem a bit eccentric, in 1961 suburban Cleveland, the Katofskys of 2207 South Green Road might as well be from another planet. Ten-year-old Edna hides in her bedroom closet, avoiding her disdainful father and distracted mother, stuffing herself with cookies and playing with paper dolls. She spends the rest of her time snooping on her downstairs neighbors, who just happen to be her grandparents, Becky and Morris. Grandma Becky is a shrewd woman who manages affable Morris's successful floor-scraping business. Although Becky appears to be in charge, she's consumed by hypochondriacal fantasies, and her secrecy leads her sisters Ceal and Libby to suspect something sinister. After discovering a stash of cash and a bedroom full of state-of-the-art medical equipment, they ultimately uncover her addiction to a cocktail of Percocet, Darvon, and paregoric. Everyone in this family has a secret, Ceal and Libby included. Even great-grandpa has something to hide. But when people start dropping dead for no apparent reason, things take a darker turn. Morris's brother flees town to escape the mob, Becky goes missing, and even Edna tries her hand at crime. Just when the whole family seems like it's about to go tumbling off a cliff, a shocking event changes everything.

By turns funny, tender, and sad, 2207 South Green Road is a heartfelt story of a quirky Jewish family glued together by love, habit, secrets, and lies during the forgotten years at the start of the Kennedy era.