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Wise, funny, and deeply felt, Waiting for Next Week is a love story, a story about growing up, a story of confronting death.
Three years ago when her mother was diagnosed as having cancer, Beth Asher started mentally preparing for her mother’s death. She and her younger brother, Billy, dutifully traveled home on weekends only to be subjected to their mother’s criticisms and their father’s complaints–until it became hard for them to believe she was really going to die. But suddenly the end is imminent.
Beth and Billy are the imperfect children; their older siblings are the ones their parents always favored, the ones who cannot now be bothered with their parents’ demands. Both Sharon, the hectoring perfectionist older sister, and Grim, the golden boy and ideal eldest son are married with children, while Beth and Billy have spent the years dodging relationships that offer a chance of happiness. Beth has been living alone since she walked out on Michael, a man she loved but whose love she felt unsure of. As she takes care of her mother, she longs for someone to take care of her; as she comes to accept her mother’s impending death, she must also learn to accept herself.
When the Asher family comes together for the first time in years, the old ways and the old wounds pick up where they left off–despite marriages, divorces, and changes in fortune. Some understandings will be reached, others thwarted, before Beth and Billy finally find the possibility of happiness for themselves.
Michele Orwin unravels the intricacies of these intimate relationships with deft humor and profound compassion, creating an often hilarious yet deeply resonant family portrait.
