The gift shop at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton where I go for most of my cancer care sells gently-used books. From time to time, they hold a giant book sale in the main lobby where the books sell for $1 each. When we arrived for my last appointment with time to spare, such a sale was underway, and that’s where I found this month’s book.

Not Our Kind

Kitty Zeldis

Not Our Kind is the story of two very different women whose lives intersect on a rainy morning in June, two years after the end of World War II. A minor traffic accident in New York City brings together Eleanor Moskowitz, a bright young teacher on her way to a job interview, and Patricia Bellamy, a socialite whose difficult thirteen-year-old daughter, Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a private tutor. When Eleanor goes to work for the Bellamys, she forms an immediate bond with Margaux, but because they live in a restricted building, she has to conceal her Jewish identity.

Patricia’s boorish husband, her charming bohemian brother, the all-knowing housekeeper, and Eleanor’s hat maker mother round out a cast of interesting characters.

The story raises a number of issues including class distinctions, marital discord, sexual assault, and body image but deals with them somewhat superficially. We do get a sense of the anti-Semitism that pervaded post war America and I can’t help wondering how much that has really changed.

I would classify this novel as a light historical read with an added element of romance; not a deep read, but an enjoyable one.