Cooperative Village

Book excerpt: Having flamed out in her job in the executive offices of Nurses in Neighborhoods NY (NINNY), the fictional Frances is keeping a low and lonely profile while considering how best to rise from her metaphorical ashes. Her hiatus abruptly ends, however, when she discovers Lana Plotsky, her elderly neighbor and fellow Cooperator, dead on the laundry room floor. As Frances can t just leave Mrs. Plotsky there, she improvises a solution, which in short (and outrageous) order subjects her to the purview of the USA Patriot Act! Is her next stop Guantanamo Bay? Will she have to ship out before, or after, the shiva for Mrs. Plotsky? This delightfully over-the-top tale of life, love, and liberty in lower Manhattan spoofs an equal-opportunity cast of unforgettable characters who somehow miraculously manage to make their way, and mostly get along together, in the 21st-century American urban village they proudly call home: Cooperative Village.