In Brooklyn, in the Age of Disco, Valentine Kessler -- a sweet Jewish girl who bears a remarkable resemblance to the Virgin Mary of Lourdes -- has an unerring gift for shattering the dreams and hopes of those who love her. Miriam, her long-suffering mother, betrayed and anguished by the husband she adores, seeks solace in daily games of mah-jongg with The Girls, a cross between a Greek Chorus and Brooklyn's rendition of the Three Wise Men, who dispense advice, predictions, and care in the form of poppy-seed cake and apple strudels. When her greatest fear for Valentine is realized, Miriam takes comfort in the thought that it couldn't get any worse. And then it does. Sagacious, sorrowful, and hilarious, An Almost Perfect Moment is a novel about mothers and daughters, star-crossed lovers, doctrines of the divine, and a colorful Jewish community that once defined Brooklyn. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more. “Lays bare [a] collection of Brooklyn souls in the... style of short story masters Raymond Carver and Ann Beattie.” - Boston Herald “Engrossing…. Cinematic, effortlessly beautiful descriptions will spark the reader’s imagination, and myriad plot twists and turns will keep you guessing.” - Chicago Tribune “Kirshenbaum lays bare [a] collection of Brooklyn souls in the detached, supremely observational style of short story masters Raymond Carver and Ann Beattie.” - Boston Herald “Funny and compassionate.” - Washington Post Book World “[A] zany, irreverent, cheerful novel…. Bristles with energy and sharpness.” - Boston Globe “Ironic and mystical, tender and edgy, and downright subversive.” - Booklist (starred review) “A quicksilver fable... at once ironic and mystical, tender and edgy, loaded with shtick and downright subversive.” - Booklist (Starred review) “Kirshenbaum...has an original voice and, even better, an original sensibility.” - Los Angeles Times In Brooklyn, in the Age of Disco, Valentine Kessler -- a sweet Jewish girl who bears a remarkable resemblance to the Virgin Mary of Lourdes -- has an unerring gift for shattering the dreams and hopes of those who love her. Miriam, her long-suffering mother, betrayed and anguished by the husband she adores, seeks solace in daily games of mah-jongg with The Girls, a cross between a Greek Chorus and Brooklyn's rendition of the Three Wise Men, who dispense advice, predictions, and care in the form of poppy-seed cake and apple strudels. When her greatest fear for Valentine is realized, Miriam takes comfort in the thought that it couldn't get any worse. And then it does. Sagacious, sorrowful, and hilarious, An Almost Perfect Moment is a novel about mothers and daughters, star-crossed lovers, doctrines of the divine, and a colorful Jewish community that once defined Brooklyn. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more. Binnie Kirshenbaum is the author of An Almost Perfect Moment, On Mermaid Avenue, A Disturbance in One Place, Pure Poetry, Hester Among the Ruins, and History on a Personal Note. She is a professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she is chair of the Graduate Writing Program. An Almost Perfect Moment By Kirshenbaum, Binnie Ecco ISBN: 0060520876 Chapter One In Brooklyn, in a part of Brooklyn that was the last stop on the LL train and a million miles away from Manhattan, a part of Brooklyn -- an enclave, almost -- composed of modest homes and two-family houses set on lawns the size of postage stamps, out front theoccasional plaster-of-paris saint or a birdbath, a short bus rideaway from the new paradise known as the Kings County Mall, apart of Brooklyn where the turbulent sixties never quite toucheddown, but at this point in time, on the cusp of the great age ofdisco, when this part of Brooklyn would come into its own, as ifduring the years before it had been aestivating like a mud fish, lyingin wait for the blast, for the glitter, the platform shoes, GloriaGaynor, for doing the hustle, for its day in the sun, this part ofBrooklyn was home to Miriam Kessler and her daughter Valentine, who was fifteen and three-quarter years old, which is to be neitherhere nor yet there as far as life is concerned. Therefore, on this Tuesday afternoon, mid-November, it was in a way both figurative and literal that Valentine stood at the threshold between the foyer and the living room, observing Miriam andher three girlfriends -- she, Miriam, called them that, despite theirmiddling years, my girlfriends , or simply, The Girls -- who were seatedaround the card table, attending closely to their game. Four Bam against Six Crack, the mah-jongg tiles clacking intoone another sounded like typewriter keys or fingernails tapping ona tabletop, something like anticipation, as if like Morse code, a message would be revealed, the inside track to t