Oradell at Sea

Oradell Greengold, the brassy narrator of Meredith Sue Willis' Oradell at Sea, spends her days and her deceased husband's fortune cruising on first-class luxury liners where young Greek deckhands wait on her hand and foot-rub. Oradell is a modern-day Mae West who unapologetically enjoys her wealth, yet still has a soft spot for her mine organizer first love. Novelist Meredith Sue Willis charts the psychological course of this elderly woman facing the end of her life with unfinished business. An entertaining, fast-paced book, it pulls the reader in as Oradell is quickly established as a likable, if all too human, character ("although she did not consider herself particularly good, she did consider herself lucky"). The novel also personifies issues of class and may serve to bring an understanding of Appalachian economic issues to a wider audience