Heading Uptown

For Nina Fischman and her mother, Ida, Queens is a foreign country and Long Island a purely mythological concept, like Atlantis with strip malls. But when Helen Hirsch dies, Ida feels obliged to schlep out to her funeral, with Nina alongside to help criticize the clothes. Nina doesn’t mind too much: a few prayers, she reasons, a snack, and back to the city. Escaping Long Island, though, is tougher than expected, in part because Helen’s granddaughter, a pudgy bundle of teenage angst, needs Nina’s help in about 14 different ways. What with a job she sort-of loathes and the always-entertaining fruitless quest for a boyfriend, Nina has plenty to keep her busy in Manhattan. But Helen was Ida’s oldest friend, and the Fischmans take friendship seriously. Nina has no choice: She’s going to be logging some serious time in darkest suburbia.