Tell

Linda I. Meyers was twenty-eight and the mother of three little boys when her mother, after a lifetime of threats, killed herself. Staggered by conflicting feelings of relief and remorse, Linda believed that the best way to give meaning to her mother’s death was to make changes to her own life. Bolstered by the women’s movement of the seventies, she left her marriage, went to college, started a successful family acting business, and established a fulfilling career.Written with irony and humor and sprinkled with Yiddish, The Tell is one woman’s inspirational story of before and after, and ultimately of emancipation and purpose.

“In this vivid and immensely enjoyable memoir, we encounter the lost world of Jewish Brooklyn, crazy parents, a crazy husband, and a protagonist/narrator who can’t help being a good girl. Woody Allen and Ralph Lauren make appearances: somehow it all fits.” —Philip Lopate, essayist and film critic “The Tell is a compelling coming-of-age story told with grit, humor, and a fine sense of atmosphere. From growing up with a mobster father and an unstable mother to waiting in a Catskill bungalow colony for a phone call from the future Ralph Lauren (né Lifshitz), to becoming a psychoanalyst, Meyers covers a lot of ground in this vivid portrait of resilience.” —Mindy Greenstein, PhD, author of The House on Crash Corner and Lighter as We Go “With cutting humor and an ear for dialogue, Linda I. Meyers mines the crevices of family secrets to disclose some glittering gems as the narrator, a single mother of three, struggles to break free from a web of lies, guilt, and betrayal. A gripping read from a damn good writer.” —Mindy Lewis, author of Life Inside: A Memoir "With beautiful observations of human nature, The Tell serves as an appreciation of the complexity of family." —Foreword Reviews

Linda I. Meyers is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in NYC and Princeton, NJ. She has published in professional journals and academic books. In 2016 she published two chapters from The Tell: “The Flowers,” a top five finalist in Alligator Juniper’s annual contest in creative nonfiction, and “The Spring Line” in Post Road. She lives in NYC and writes in a little town upstate New York.