Bitter Moon over Brooklyn

Life in the Mediterranean Arms, a luxury apartment building in Brooklyn, is at times like living in a soap opera. It’s the 1970s–women were still called ‘girls’, and many filled their days gossiping about their neighbors. When a beautiful young widow, Marion Davis, is attracted to dashing Neil Kramer, the attraction seems mutual. Marion believes Neil will make her life exciting again.In true daytime soap mode, there’s just one problem. Neil is married to Sandra, her best friend and neighbor. Then there’s Eddie Berg, Sandra Kramer’s brother, who tries desperately to make Marion realize the difference between illusion and reality, between the superficial and the genuine. The yentas of the Mediterranean Arms focus on Marion, betting how long it will take her to ‘get’ Neil? But is he worth it? And will Marion’s awakening come too late to avoid disaster? Renee Horowitz creates a dead-on portrait of an insular, Mad Men-era world in which women define themselves by their success at marriage…a world in which small acts of malice reverberate. Bitter, indeed, and gripping. -Janice Steinberg, bestselling author of The Tin Horse. The story transported me back to the Brooklyn I remember, and I felt as though I knew the characters personally. The kind of book that keeps you thinking about the characters and the story long after you finish reading the last page. -Barbara Meyerson, literary critic and Brooklyn native.