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• Title: The Empress of Weehawken
• Author: Irene Dische
• Publisher: Picador
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Pages: 307

This novel is written in the style of a memoir, but the narrator is the author’s grandmother, Elisabeth Rother. Before the story begins, the author’s note reads: “Certain events and characters in this novel were inspired by real people and events. But the actual events, characters, and dialogue depicted are fictional.” The story spans the majority of the narrator’s life, including many details about her granddaughter, Irene Dische, which may or may not be true.

Right from the first sentence, I was hooked. Within Part One (out of five), I found the narrator’s cynicism and complexity of her character endearing. I knew I would enjoy the novel from that point, and I was right. It begins by explaining that the story really is about Irene, the granddaughter: “the hows and whys of her, a kind of True Confession I have decided to write for her since she has just reached a spot that is as lonely as a vacuum” (p. 5). Despite her goal, the story is really about the narrator, and what she did and why she did it. She is flawed by her own ignorance and manipulative personality, yet she is easily lovable in her own way.

The narrator often explains that the men in her life are weak, and that the women are the real backbone of the family. Evidence to that statement is presented time and time again, and it becomes apparent that the narrator, her daughter Renate, and her granddaughter Irene are the strongest people in the family.

I enjoyed Dische’s narration through her grandmother. The story took on a conversational tone, referring briefly to episodes that would happen eventually, and then explaining, “I’ll get to that later.”

The author succeeded wonderfully with her character development, plot, and tone. This was really one of the best novels I have read in a while. (5/5)

Thank you, LibraryThing Early Reviewers and Picador, for this free copy of The Empress of Weehawken by Irene Dische!