Karen Levi’s stories are as textured and varied as cherries.  Each story is unique and you never quite know what you will find.   In each story—just a sampling— the protagonist has a challenge to confront: 

A young migrant woman, in northern Mexico, south of the border, helps other refugees 

cross over by boat to the U.S. on the other side of the Rio Grande.  She herself awaits a visa and legal passage to Maryland.   She discovers something, a gift of sorts, but doesn’t know what to do.   

A woman starts out going to see her lawyer.  She goes to the wrong building.  Her journey  is a Twilight Zone moment.  

A newly wed is making pumpkin pie for a Thanksgiving dinner while she fantasizes about a love interest who is not her husband.  She wants more.    

A professional and highly educated couple, both immigrants with green cards, want a baby so badly.  Their fertility treatments finally work.  The woman gives birth to a beautiful boy, who has promise and charm.  His life takes an unexpected turn.  

A couple who have two young boys face the challenge of having differently abled children:  one is a prodigy and the other is normal or average.  

A granddaughter is helping her grandmother, a holocaust survivor, who herself is struggling with the memories of past traumas.  A psychiatrist tries to help the grandmother by giving her talking therapy and including her in a study on the effects of the holocaust on survivors.  

In each story, there is yearning and strong need and desire.  At the same time, the stories read like mysteries and are hard to put down.  What will happen?  However, there are no neat and tidy endings.  We are left with ambiguous situations, much like life itself.  Problems such as aging, marital discontent,  finding refuge in the U.S., and facing the the educational and psycho-sociological issues that confront parents whose children are different from each other, are universal; we can relate to them.  The concept of the other, of being different, is strong in Karen’s stories.  No bowl of cherries for sure.  Each character (or characters) is trying to find answers, where there is often darkness and disillusionment.  However, there is always hope to be found, if we look for it and believe it is possible.  

Ms. Levi’s writing is accessible and engaging.  At the end of each story, we want more.

Not unlike those delicious cherries.  Best to savor each one.  Savor each story.

Read Karen’s book and you will find out about those cherries and you will find out even more!!