Rachel in the WorldAvailable Now
What happens when love is no longer enough? Jane Bernstein thought that learning to accept her daughter’s disabilities meant her struggles were over. But as Rachel grew up and needed more than a parent’s devotion, both mother and daughter were confronted with formidable obstacles. Rachel in the World, which begins in Rachel’s fifth year and ends when she turns twenty two, tells of their barriers and successes with the same honesty and humor that made Loving Rachel, Bernstein’s first memoir, a classic in its field. The linked accounts in part 1 center on family issues, socialservices, experiences with caregivers, and Rachel herself — difficult ,charming, hard to fathom, eager for her own independence.
The second part of the book chronicles Bernstein’s attempt to find Rachel housing at a time when over 200,000 Americans with mental retardation were on waiting lists for residential services. As Rachel prepares to leave her mother’s constant protection, Bernstein invites the reader to share the frustrations and unexpected pleasures of finding a place for her daughter, first in her family, and then in the world.
Rachel in the World – A Memoir. University of Illinois Press. 2007.
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Loving RachelAvailable Now
In 1983, Jane Bernstein had everything she ever wanted: a healthy four year old daughter, Charlotte; a happy marriage; a highly praised first novel; and a brand new baby, Rachel. But by the time Rachel was six weeks old, a neuro-ophthalmologist told Jane and her husband that their baby was blind. Although there was some hope that Rachel might gain partial vision as she grew, her condition was one that often resulted in seizure disorders and intellectual impairment. So began a series of medical and emotional setbacks that were to plague Rachel and her parents and strain their marriage to the breaking point. Spanning the first four years of Rachel’s life, Loving Rachel is a heartbreaking chronicle of a marriage and a compelling story of parental love told with searing honesty and surprising humor.
Loving Rachel. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, MA, 1988 | Paperback edition, New American Library, New York, NY, 1989 | Literary Guild alternate selection, 1989 | Doubleday Book Club alternate selection1989 | Translated into German as Die Welt mit der Seele Sehen, Knauer, Berlin. 1989
Reissued by Chenoweth and Coyne, Pittsburgh, PA. 1994
New edition, with a foreward by Stefi Rubin, PhD, University of Illinois Press, 2007
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Bereft - A Sister's StoryJane Bernstein was seventeen in the summer of 1966 when her adored older sister, Laura, was stabbed to death by a stranger, for no apparent reason. More than two decades later, Bernstein found her thoughts and fantasies returning insistently to the sister she never allowed herself to mourn. Gradually she immersed herself in the long-buried tragedy, obsessively reviewing articles and transcripts, and, like a detective herself, interviewing detectives, attorneys, and others who’d been close to her sister or involved in the case. What was she trying to solve? We come to see that the actual object of her search is her own identity, sucked under in a wake of denial after Laura’s murder. Reclaiming who she was - and what Laura was to her - meant questioning every aspect of her carefully constructed adult sense of self: as a writer, a daughter, a mother, and the wife of a charismatic but unpredictable man. Passionate and disquieting, Bereft is a testament to the silent depredations of unacknowledged loss, and a tribute to our power to reclaim ourselves.
Bereft – A Sister’s Story. North Point Press/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Paperback edition, North Point Press, 2001. Translated into German as Erstarrte Gefuhle, Bastei Lubbe Taschenbucher., 2001
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Seven Minutes in HeavenPolly is always terrific fun to have around. Plenty of guys in her class would love to go out with her, but Polly’s got her head in the clouds. She’s in the throes of an enormous crush on someone older, more mature, or someone, anyone - well - unattainable. Natalie has concentrated on two things since her mom died: taking care of her father and doing really well in school. Her ambition is to be President of the United States, and this takes all her concentration. But then one day Polly’s friend Jeff shows up at her doorstep, wanting to move in.
Life at home is hard for Jeff. He doesn’t get along with his stepfather at all. So when he hears Natalie’s dad is out of town he tries to move in with her. Finally there’s someone he can talk to about the one girl he really likes. Polly, of course! But living away from home isn’t easy either, as his mother has him kicked off the football team in an attempt to get him home, and Polly falls in love with everyone but him, until...
Seven Minutes in Heaven. Fawcett, New York, NY, 1986.
Translated into Japanese, Kindaieigasha, Ltd, Tokyo, 1986.
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DeparturesDepartures is the astonishingly accomplished debut of a major new talent. It is the story of Lydia, a young woman living in Greenwhich Village, on her way to becoming the scientist she dreamed of being as a child. She is self-sufficient, remarkably self-contained until she meets Kramer. Kramer is a would-be film-maker, basketball ace, movie buff, who opens up a world of possibilities beyond Lydia’s solitary life. But their happy-ever-after romance - complete with walks in the rain, double features and raisinets - ends when Kramer leaves. Now Lydia is alone again and at the same timemust face long-postponed grief for her father’s death. Her delicately built world in pieces, she starts over. Traveling west, she visits her difficult , newly remarried mother in California, then goes on to London, where her married sister has made a conventional life of the kind Lydia has always scorned. But, finally, through love, work and her own inner strength, Lydia comes home - to herself.
Very limited quantities available!
Departures. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, NY, 1979. English edition published by Allen Lane, Ltd., London. 1980. Avon paperback, Hearst Publications, New York, NY. 1981. Translated into Dutch as Opde Lange Baan and serialized in six issues of Viva, Amsterdam, 1980
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