Checking in with Elyssa Friedland...plus a book giveaway

Photo by Brian Marcus

We're pleased to welcome Elyssa Friedland back to CLC today, to celebrate the publication of Last Summer at the Golden Hotel. Two years ago, Elyssa took us on a cruise with The Floating Feldmans. Now she's taking us to the Catskills with her latest novel. She's here to share a fun and entertaining background story and thanks to Get Red PR, we have one copy to give away!

The author of four novels, Elyssa Friedland attended Yale University, where she currently teaches creative  writing, and is a graduate of Columbia Law School. Her work has been published in The  Washington Post, McSweeney’s, POPSUGAR, RealSimple.com, Bustle, Modern Bride, New  York magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, CBS MarketWatch.com, Yale Alumni Magazine, and Your Prom. Her previous novels have been praised by People, “SkimmReads,”  Cosmopolitan, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, National Geographic, Woman’s Day, Woman’s  World, Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, and more.

Visit Elyssa online:

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Pinterest

Synopsis:

A family reunion for the ages when two clans convene for the summer at their beloved getaway in the Catskills—perfect for fans of Dirty Dancing and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—from the acclaimed author of The Floating Feldmans.

In its heyday, The Golden Hotel was the crown jewel of the hotter-than-hot Catskills vacation scene. For more than sixty years, the Goldman and Weingold families – best friends and business partners – have presided over this glamorous resort which served as a second home for well-heeled guests and celebrities. But the Catskills are not what they used to be – and neither is the relationship between the Goldmans and the Weingolds. As the facilities and management begin to fall apart, a tempting offer to sell forces the two families together again to make a heart-wrenching decision. Can they save their beloved Golden or is it too late?

Long-buried secrets emerge, new dramas and financial scandal erupt, and everyone from the traditional grandparents to the millennial grandchildren wants a say in the hotel’s future. Business and pleasure clash in this fast-paced, hilarious, nostalgia-filled story, where the hotel owners rediscover the magic of a bygone era of nonstop fun even as they grapple with what may be their last resort. (Courtesy of Amazon.)

“Chock full of charm and wit, Elyssa Friedland’s Last Summer at the Golden Hotel is the  only family drama you need this year! Set in a ramshackle Catskills hotel and featuring a  vibrant cast of characters, it’s a laugh out loud funny novel with a heart of gold.” 
—Karma Brown, bestselling author of Recipe for a Perfect Wife 

“You will laugh out loud at the antics of the delightfully dysfunctional Goldman and  Weingold families as they fight, share secrets, and fall in love in the once-prosperous  Catskills hotel that they own. Once again, Friedland brilliantly wields her rapier wit – if  Dorothy Parker and Joan Rivers wrote a book, this would be it!” 
—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue 

“Prepare to laugh. Take a trip to the Catskills with Last Summer at the Golden Hotel and  bask in the hilarity and chaos that make Elyssa Friedland the queen of the family drama.”  
—Jane L. Rosen, author of Eliza Starts a Rumor 

Research on the Reformer 

By Elyssa Friedland

I’ve been a devoted Pilates fan for the past ten years, holding onto a precious Thursday at ten am session for dear life. As a writer, I spend a lot of time sitting on my a**, which leads to a creaky and stiff lower back. Stretching and strengthening my limbs on the Pilates equipment, which eerily resembles medieval torture devices, has saved me from walking with a stoop and needing to unfold my back like origami when I climb out of bed. 

In the pre-Covid world, every week when I met with my trainer at her small studio on the Upper East Side, there was an elderly lady with the same session time as me. She would arrive escorted by the same younger woman every time, who would sometimes join in on the sessions or otherwise wait out the hour on the side. 

I’m not sure exactly why, but I found myself drawn to this older woman who shared my time slot. She always wore her hair arranged in a short bob with neat bangs, trailed in with a heavy scent of perfume, and wore track suits that made me want to hug her and watch a Golden Girls marathon together. One time I showed up for my training session and she wasn’t there. I found myself nervous. Had something happened? But this was also my opportunity to find out about her. 

“Everything okay with the older lady who’s usually here?” I asked my trainer, Jen. 

Jen looked thrilled by my question, as if she’d been dying to talk about her all along. 

“Yes! She had a doctor’s appointment. Do you know who she is?”

I flipped on my side, nearly forgetting my feet were suspended in leather loops securing my body to the mat. “No, who?”

“That’s Bunny Grossinger. Of Grossinger’s! It’s this…” 

I cut my trainer off. 

“I know Grossinger’s. I know the Catskills. I’m writing a novel about the Borscht Belt at this very moment.” I couldn’t believe it. For research, I had read several rather dry non-fiction books about the region and watched Dirty Dancing and A Walk on the Moon half a dozen times each. To think I had the living embodiment of the Catskills next to me every week and I didn’t know it.

“Do you think she’d be willing to talk to me?” I asked. It turned out she was. Bunny stopped being able to come into the studio for sessions shortly after I found out who she was, but she continued her Pilates in home. I visited her there, where she welcomed me with a hug and more stories about the Catskills than I could have ever hoped her. Bunny is the daughter-in-law of the famous Jennie Grossinger, who was the public face and the chief operator of the once-reigning (but now-defunct) resort in the Catskills. Jennie hosted all manner of celebrities and politicians and athletes at the hotel, and Bunny was more than happy to share stories with me. 

It turned out that the young woman who brought her to Pilates was one of her grandchildren. On one of my visits, I befriended her grandson Brandon, who runs in charity named Bunny’s Flowers in her honor. I had never been around a woman as beloved as Mrs. Grossinger. Her phone rang off the hook each time we were together – at least three times the volume of texts I was receiving. It was always a friend or another grandchild calling to check on her. She exhibited warmth and love to everyone who called, echoing the spirit of the hotel whose name she bears. I could see why people returned to Grossinger’s year after year. Like being with Bunny, the hotel made people feel at home. Bunny’s charm, kindness and warmth came to represent the Catskills to me, and I tried to put as much of that spirit into my novel. 

I owe a lot to Bunny Grossinger. Her real-life experience of spending every summer at the hotel, with her behind-the-scenes look at management and intimate knowledge of the staff and guests, made my novel richer and truer. I’ve dropped off a signed copy of my book at her apartment. Hopefully she will have time to read it in between phone calls from her fans. In the meantime, I will think of her every time I perform a teaser. Those in the Pilates-world know what that is. It’s a difficult move, but if Bunny Grossinger – nearly sixty years my senior – can get herself to work out, I can too. 

Please join me “in the Catskills” today with Last Summer at the Golden Hotel. And please toast Bunny with a glass of Manischewitz while you read. 

Thanks to Elyssa for sharing this post with us and to Get Red PR for sharing her book with our readers.

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Giveaway ends May 23rd at midnight EST.