Yona Zeldis McDonough

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the author of the novels Two of a Kind, A Wedding in Great Neck, Breaking the Bank, In Dahlia's Wake, and The Four Temperaments, as well as many books for children.

Her new novel is You Were Meant For Me.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I just finished re-reading The Great Gatsby, which of course I read while I was in high school, when it flew right over my head. Not so this time around.

I found that I loved it right from the measured, ruminative start (In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘When ever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had) to the gorgeous futility of its lyrical end (So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past) and I loved pretty much everything in between too.

I was struck by how modern it all seemed: the passionate desire for reinvention of self, the thirst for money and power, the belief that with the acquisition of that money and power, all obstacles could be overcome. It’s a novel for our times, but for all times too.

Visit Yona Zeldis McDonough's website.

My Book, The Movie: Two of a Kind.

The Page 69 Test: Two of a Kind.

Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Queenie, Willa and Holden (October 2012).

Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Willa and Holden (September 2013).

The Page 69 Test: You Were Meant For Me.

--Marshal Zeringue