Living With Thelma

Forty-year-old Louise Berman has been wallowing in self-pity ever since her husband left her for a woman half her age and twice her brassiere size. Her English literature professor daughter, Laurie, has been living with her, all while attempting to keep a relationship with her father and his new wife. But as Laurie grows more exasperated with her mother, it seems inevitable that something needs to changeand fast.

After Louise finally secures a job as a lingerie buyer at Henri Bendel, her ex-husbands wife, Vivian, presents Louise with a strange birthday gifta stuffed gray mouse named Thelma. While Louise treats Thelma like a living family member, she and Vivian grow close, much to the dismay of Laurie. As Louise is led to a new opportunity running a Bergdorfs store, Laurie makes full professor at NYU. But everything is about to change when Louises ex-husband proclaims he wants to reconcile. While Louise decides whether to take him back or keep Thelma as her companion, Laurie is led down her own path where both love and sadness await.

Living with Thelma shares the charming tale of a divorced woman and her grown daughter as they search for love, acceptance, and the magic within a stuffed gray mouse.

Joseph J. Sollish is the author of seven novels, Gates of Horn and Ivory, Guardians of the Dream, Tell Me a Story, No More Tears, Bless the Children, Casey Calhoun, and Family Forever. He has also published Halls of Academe, a collection of thirteen new short stories. Sollish lives in Los Angeles with his wife of fifty years, Claudia.