Ladies’ Lunch

Ladies’ Lunch and Other Stories by Lore Segal

Some people are truly impressive with their devotion to their vocation. Henri Matisse continued to make art even as he was going blind, moving to larger shapes and collage. Roger Ebert, a hero of mine for many years, continued to write about movies even after he had his jaw removed and he was unable to speak. In fact, rogerebert.com continues to this day with a cast of writers. I am sure you can think of someone who impressed you with their work despite ageing or health issues. Lore Segal was one of those people. At the age 95 she published her final book with the last story published in the New Yorker just a week before she died.

As a general principle, I do not have much confidence in my ability to review a short story collection. I feel strongly that such collections should be read slowly, just one, possibly two, stories per day. And each story should be able to stand on its own. So, here I limit myself to discussing just one story.

The story I decided to talk about is “Pneumonia Chronicles” which is just eleven pages long. Like the other stories in the collection, it is a deceptively simple autobiographical story about Segal’s time in a hospital. Somehow, Segal manages to work in a description of her stay, her roommates, and her opinions of the hospital and the staff working there. In addition, Segal works in a conversation she had with a nurse about Chekhov, Robert Alter and the Hebrew Bible, and Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich. I challenge anyone to pull out their notebook and write a story about their last stay in a hospital and produce an entertaining and insightful story.

You may not have heard of Lore Segal, but she was one of the great writers to have survived the Holocaust and to join the canon of Jewish American writers worth reading. This was my second time reading this book.

QOTD: When did you last have a conversation with someone at least 80 years old?

Kindle and Libro.fm audiobook. 138 pgs. 3 June 2025.