What You Need to Know

Short Story Collection

I am in the process of finishing a group of interconnected stories—entitled What You Need to Know— that follows members of the Cantor family as they confront the changes that swept through American life over the last half century.  It begins in 1951 when Sy Cantor brings his wife and two young children back to his home in Vermont, where they are one of only a handful of Jewish families.  As the stories progress, each character has to deal with how his or her life is affected by everything else that is happening in the world around them.  A boy struggles when he sees his father lose his job after the local dress factory closes.  A young wife and mother takes a job so the family will have money to fix their wet basement.  A father is forced to move his family to a new city on the same day John Kennedy is shot.  A daughter who has become a successful business executive still struggles to put on a party for her mother’s 80th birthday.  And a son learns to live openly as a gay man, only to be shattered by a new and deadly disease. These stories remind us of how our lives and relationships are shaped by the events happening all around us, even when we think we are merely bystanders.