Alternate Endings
A loving woman squeezed in the sandwich generation between her elderly mother and her young adult son must choose between them. Each has needs that only she can fulfill, but she faces having to sacrifice herself yet again, as she has done her whole life. Who will win? And why is it that a woman can never claim a turn for herself – just herself – without feeling “selfish”?
Based on Greek mythology, this is a story about Calyce Tate, a middle-aged English teacher at a wealthy private high school. Her leeching son refuses to launch, while her frail mother deteriorates. The story speaks to all of us of a certain age, but its ending will shock you.
Cast of Characters
Calyce Tate teaches at an elite private Washington, D.C. high school, where she’s waited for respect her whole long career.
Damion, her handsome late-20’s son, manipulates his mother and everyone else from inside his fine room in his mother’s house, which Calyce pays for.
Effie, her frail mother, who plans to move in for good after Effie’s upcoming open-heart surgery, but Calyce doesn’t know it yet.
Nina, her carefree sister, who assumes Calyce will take sole responsibility for their sick mother. After all, Calyce has always taken care of everyone.
Selene, Damion’s handsy girlfriend, who is trying to slide him into a shared life, only Selene must mow down Calyce in order to do it.
John DeGroot, Calyce’s boss at the high school, who suddenly disagrees that she’s entitled to her long-awaited promotion and pay raise. Someone else also wants the job, which the other teachers will now vote on, and Calyce has never been “Most Popular.”
Roger, whose serious romantic interest in Calyce is obvious to everyone but her. Good-hearted Roger must finally tell her how he feels.
“Readers will savor this ambitious, highly engaging account of a strong older woman on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment.”
— BlueInk Starred Review
Excerpt
She couldn’t catch her breath. She gasped and gulped the air, her chest pumping the dry wind that had robbed the wet from her mouth an hour before and a thousand feet below, where the canyon floor met the first long climb.
Far above her, so high she had to jam her head back onto her sweating shoulders to see it, a red chunky peak scratched the turquoise sky. It topped a peninsula of sheer cliff that rose 1,500 feet in a shark’s fin whose ridge in spots was less than two feet wide. The moody river carving a rusty groove had so far lost to this great stone altar, for the flash floods that routinely killed hikers still swung wide in a respectful bend around its feet.
She saw them ahead of her still, laughing, their voices young like the perfect day. At first they had included her, walking alongside in the freckled morning as they crossed the shady metal footbridge and began what started as a level stroll. Once the trail had steepened to leave the cottonwood trees, though, the pack of happy teenagers had moved ahead in the basking sun. By the time they arrived at the long dusty switchbacks up the bright west wall of the valley, they had stopped calling back to her.
“I’m all right!” she yelled to them anyway. “Go on ahead!”
She was panting now, her chest aching, and her heart beat way too fast. She peered ahead but could only hear them. They had turned a steep corner and were gone. Lightheaded now, with both legs shaking on the sharp incline, she stepped back to the hard wall, her daypack between her spine and the rock. She bent her twitching knees and put her hands on them, then willed her arms to straighten to brace her as she struggled to find her breath.
BlueInk Review
N.E. Lasater’s insightful novel Alternate Endings revolves around a middle-aged woman facing personal and professional challenges.
Calyce Tate, divorced and in her 50s, struggles with meeting family demands while working as a high school English teacher in Washington, D.C. At home, she cleans up for her adult son whom she still subsidizes and allows to live with her. Lacking supportive siblings, she alone tends to her aging mother, who moves in despite their strained relationship. At work, she insists on the primacy of grammar over content in her student’s writing, to the consternation of her class and colleagues.
This strict adherence to rules echoes her own discipline of putting others’ needs first. Although she once dreamed of becoming a writer, she now finds that daily life has vanquished her creativity and concedes, “Grammar I know but imagination eludes me.” When her promotion to department chair appears stymied, she reaches a point amidst increasing demands from her son and mother that tests her limits.
Lasater writes observantly (“1974 fluorescent kitchens whose arched-faced cabinets held crock-pots they still used”) and peppers the text with literary allusions that enrich the story. “There’s no book where I’m the female Odysseus,” Calyce laments. Calyce’s own name references Greek mythology, as Lasater later explains. Although generous in spirit, Calyce is flawed by her own hubris, which makes her more relatable; she’s every woman, not an immortal hero.
Lasater underscores this point by cleverly interspersing a parallel story throughout the book whose protagonist confronts similar dilemmas. As the central plot builds to an exciting climax, this structural device adds another dimension to the narrative and encourages reflection on societal norms and one’s own life choices.
Of particular interest to women, Alternate Endings will appeal to fans of literary fiction and resonate with those familiar with issues facing the “Sandwich Generation.” Such readers will savor this ambitious, highly engaging account of a strong older woman on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment. — BlueInk Review (STARRED Review)
Readers’ Favorite Review
Alternate Endings by N.E. Lasater is a fiction novel set around an average woman’s life. The beauty of Alternate Endings lies in the fact that, although it is the story of an ordinary woman set in contemporary times, it is at the same time the story of women from time immemorial who, when faced with choices, are conditioned to put others first. Alternate Endings starts off with an introduction to Calyce, a woman trying to juggle life with multiple responsibilities. We also meet Catherine in bits and pieces throughout the book, who is a woman in similar circumstances in life. Both of these women have elderly mothers who need to be cared for and are their responsibility in a certain sense. At the same time, we also learn about Calyce’s son who is in need of support from her too. How Calyce and Catherine cope with their lives with the daily round of chores, responsibilities, caring for others, and how and if they make time for themselves form the plot of the novel.
Alternate Endings is a very thought-provoking book. The idea of women being meant to exist first and foremost to nurture and take care of others is the state of society throughout the world even today. This is true, even in the most socially so-called progressive or developed nations of the world. It is almost unthinkable to think of a woman pursuing her own dreams and ambitions unapologetically and without judgement from others in the same way men have enjoyed this privilege. Women who follow their own off-beat path are still condemned and judged, unlike men. Calyce’s life path and decisions show women that it is their right to live life as they see fit and, hopefully, a book like this helps to create awareness in society to be non-judgmental. Good writing and a great plot make this a very worthwhile read.— Readers’ Favorite (5-STAR Review)