The Jewish Lady, The Black Man and the Road Trip
Carol Sue Gershman
carol sue gershman

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“The Black Man The Jewish Lady and the Road Trip” opens with the declaration that the writer has chosen adventure over commitment for most of her life. As such she has traveled a good bit of the world, met a good many men, engaged in a series of romantic encounters, and notes that that she has as a rule preferred an Anglo Saxon man, usually one that is quite handsome and seasoned who really enjoys women. She notes that she has live the single life for almost thirty, uncommitted years and mentions with regret that prejudice in 1979 may have kept her from a rousing relationship. A chance meeting with another black man, Xavier Jackson, set the stage for the present work, "The Black Man The Jewish Lady and the Road Trip".

The memoir begins with the meeting between Xavier, 67, greying, dredlocks, psychiatric nurse and Carol Gershman an attractive, late sixties, property manager who comes across as a somewhat self absorbed woman who admits that in her family beauty was the most important attribute by which they were judged, family members and friends were taught to always look beautiful and was the attribute by which all evaluations were made.

Grand Central Station, property management, the author’s daughter Leslie who designed and imported children’s clothing, photography, art, cats Nikita and Tolstoy, marriage to Norman Gershman and their life together first with Carol living first in Texas as an Air Force wife in 1955, and later in Florida where Carol got a civilian job at the Air Force base where their first child, daughter Leslie was born.

Later the family moved to New Jersey where Norman worked as a stockbroker, and began more involved in his work. Carol recounts loneliness despite the arrival of two sons Eric and Roger and finally the break up of her marriage after twenty one years.

Carol sold the family home, moved to New York City and set out to remake herself as an entrepreneur who turned a chance sublet into a lucrative business buying, subletting and acquiring business acumen along with apartments along the way.

The story of Xavier and Carol begins in earnest with New Year’s Eve 2004 opening Chapter 4, followed quickly by Saturday night dates and courtship, and finally the road trip.

Carol Sue Gershman has written an intense, interesting and seductive work filled with reference to explicit sex, exciting adventure and out of the ordinary people. Relationships, ongoing, past and future are explored on the pages of The Black Man The Jewish Lady and the Road Trip. Racial diversity, self awareness, humor, and pathos are all intertwined in this tale of a spirited woman who has thrown convention to the wind and moved into a nexus of pleasing self and not allowing the thoughts of others shape her thinking. Gershman puts to rest the notion that anyone over 40 is a wrinkled prune, out of shape, out of touch and out of sex.

Gershman’s introspective memoir is at once witty, touching, fast paced and will no doubt to be a work to interest those who may themselves be attracted to relationships once thought by some to be taboo not so many years ago.

While I did find the writer to be a bit overpowering in her self absorption I agree entirely with her thought that dressing according to spirit rather than age is not a bad thing. Detailed description of the characters coupled with the smooth flow of sequence of events result in a fast paced, and an enjoyable read. Happy to recommend. Not for everyone, reference to explicit sex will put off some readers.