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LUCKY US is an engaging, fast-paced novel about an unlikely romance between an older
man and a younger woman. Gabe is a stoical 50-year-old ex-convict who works as a salesman
in a New York City camera store. Elisa is an often-reckless 20-something painter who meets
Gabe when she works at the very same camera store. Elisa, although she's just broken up
with her abusive boyfriend Jason, pursues Gabe romantically, much to his surprise. The two
become lovers and end up living together in Gabe's apartment. After a few months, they
begin to discuss marriage.
Much of the novel is spent on the "back-story" of the two lovers. We learn about
Gabe's former life as a small time drug dealer, about how he is betrayed by a
"friend" and then busted by an undercover cop. Gabe spends a formative few
months in prison, where he reads and tries not to think about the future. We see how
Gabe's life develops after he gets out of prison --- how he gives up selling drugs and
becomes involved with a series of women, none of them quite right for him. Before meeting
Elisa, Gabe has almost resigned himself to living a solitary, monastic existence of
working at the camera store and reading deeply (appropriately, he's a big fan of Franz
Kafka).
Elisa has a much shorter history, but it's marked by a reckless approach to life. As a
teenager, she does a lot of drugs --- from smoking weed to injecting heroin. At 17 she
nearly runs off to get married with her high school sweetheart. Elisa follows her every
whim. She's the embodiment of Oscar Wilde's famous dictum: "The only way to resist
temptation is to yield to it." We learn about her series of boyfriends and all the
unprotected sex she's engaged in. This history of reckless behavior helps explain Elisa's
attraction to the solid, almost zen-like Gabe. She sees him as a stabilizing influence on
her reckless impulses.
Although both Gabe and Elisa share a reckless youth, Elisa is the one who pays the
heaviest price. She takes a blood test in preparation for marrying Gabe, and when she gets
the test results, her life changes forever: she's contracted the AIDS virus. Gabe does not
have AIDS but he does all he can to provide Elisa with emotional support. At this most
vulnerable time of her life, Elisa inexplicably chooses to cheat on Gabe with her
ex-boyfriend Jason, an artist who also has AIDS.
Needless to say, Gabe finds out. Gabe and Elisa fight, and Elisa leaves him for Jason. She
soon tires of Jason and discovers just how deeply she loves Gabe. For his part, Gabe is
hopelessly lost without Elisa. She's brought hope back into his life, and he finds that he
can't live without her. At novel's end, Elisa asks Gabe if they can try to get back
together. The final pages depict the tender reconciliation between Gabe and Elisa and
their determination to fight Elisa's condition together. Perhaps Gabe needs Elisa too
much, but she needs him as well. The two seem strangely yet almost perfectly matched.
Silber's narrative is thoroughly absorbing, and her prose is clean and lucid. Silber
explores the Gabe-Elisa relationship from the perspective of both characters; she delves
into their histories and allows us to understand why they become so devoted to one
another. It's an emotionally mature and complex novel about the vagaries of the human
heart. LUCKY US is the kind of book that will keep you up late into the night reading,
turning page after page until the end. Certainly a satisfying read.
--- Reviewed by Chuck Leddy
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