REVIEW: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
It’s never too late for new beginnings.
On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs—an active senior community in southern Florida—she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy—and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier.
As a teenager growing up in 1920’s Brooklyn, Augusta’s role model was her father, Solomon Stern, the trusted owner of the local pharmacy and the neighborhood expert on every ailment. But when Augusta’s mother dies and Great Aunt Esther moves in, Augusta can’t help but be drawn to Esther’s curious methods. As a healer herself, Esther offers Solomon’s customers her own advice—unconventional remedies ranging from homemade chicken soup to a mysterious array of powders and potions.
As Augusta prepares for pharmacy college, she is torn between loyalty to her father and fascination with her great aunt, all while navigating a budding but complicated relationship with Irving. Desperate for clarity, she impulsively uses Esther’s most potent elixir with disastrous consequences. Disillusioned and alone, Augusta vows to reject Esther’s enchantments forever.
Sixty years later, confronted with Irving, Augusta is still haunted by the mistakes of her past. What happened all those years ago and how did her plan go so spectacularly wrong? Did Irving ever truly love her or was he simply playing a part? And can Augusta reclaim the magic of her youth before it’s too late?
Dear Lynda Cohen Loigman,
I seem to finally be making my peace with dual-timeline books especially as this one involves (mainly) the same characters in both time periods. I enjoyed the fact that Augusta is a professional woman who began her career in a time when this was not common or commonly accepted and that she was ferocious about it. But I have issues with a lot of other things in this story and, for readers’ information, there is no magical realism at all.
In 1920s New York City, Augusta is the daughter of the beloved neighborhood pharmacist. It’s there that she meets Irving, a poor teen hired as the story delivery boy. Augusta finally feels “seen” when Irving tells her that he loves watching her do homework as, since she loves learning so much, she shines then. But something ultimately pulls them apart and sixty-two years go by before they meet again in a Florida retirement community. Is it too late for a second chance after the pain and mystery that separated them?
Augusta is a fierce young woman. Even when she’s eighty years old in 1987 she’s still fierce. Growing up, she is fascinated by her father’s profession, his love and care for his patients, and the idea of using her brain to learn how to help people. Reasons in her past drive her to study hard, ignore the people who frown on women professionals, and excel in her studies. The sections set in the 1920s are my favorite part as the little details ground the story. I also love Great-Aunt Esther whose cooking sounds scrumptious and who has her own story of not being able to follow her own dreams due to her gender and losing the man she loved due to his inability to accept her homeopathic talents.
I mostly like 1920s Irving. He’s a devoted son to his single mother, defends people against bullies, works hard to help support her and his older brother in college, and he loves Augusta and that she’s smart. He has plans for their future but his trepidation and some bad timing end up causing the delay that then leads to Something (that I am not quite sold on) that ultimately separates Irving from the woman he loves.
Finally driven to retire entirely due to her age, Augusta isn’t looking forward to sitting around and, urged by her niece, she moves to a retirement community in Florida. Then she discovers her long lost love at the pool. She and Irving were in love. Or at least Augusta thought they were before Irving suddenly marries another neighborhood woman and moves with his in-laws to Chicago. Older Augusta has little desire to reconnect with Irving now despite how interested he seems to be and she’s vocal enough that everyone at the pool can hear it.
I can understand Augusta’s resentment that after dropping her like a hot potato and sixty years of silence suddenly Irving wants to start something up again. So yay that Augusta shuts him down the first time she sees him but I got a little annoyed that she keeps loudly and publicly snapping at him. However Irving has some antics up his sleeve and at times annoys me as much as Augusta’s continued peevishness does. Honestly at times they act more like toddlers having tantrums or sulky teens. These people are in their eighties and it’s not mentioned that they’re suffering from any dementia. Eventually this section gets tedious and just drags.
There’s also something about the homeopathy that Esther teaches Augusta which gets perverted by Augusta. Esther is very specific about not treating anyone without that person’s permission and knowledge. Esther herself once did this and bitterly regretted what she lost so she makes sure to tell Augusta this more than once. So what did Augusta do in the 20s and then again (although someone else also has a hand in it) in 1987? Also when the truth is revealed about their 1920s separation, it’s dropped on the reader at the end of the book very suddenly and is convoluted.
I enjoyed the historical sections and how strong Augusta was and hardworking Irving was. I liked the idea of an older couple “second chance at love” but was somewhat underwhelmed at the actual execution of that and how the characters act. There is a lot of miscommunication and plain no communication in the 1920s time period, though. So many times I wanted to yell at Irving to just get on with it but his menschness didn’t allow for that. This is one that ends up as a book I wanted to like more than I actually did. C
~Jayne
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