Florence Gordon, written by Brian Morton is a story of family dynamics and relationships. I looked back a few times while reading this book to make sure I was really reading a novel about so many female characters and their relationships really written by man. It is interesting how easily Brian Morton seems to have been able to enter the minds of Florence, the feminist icon and matriarch of the family, Janine her fawning, insecure daughter in law and Emily, her granddaughter.
Florence Gordon has reached the pinnacle of her career and is beginning to face old age. She has put aside personal relationships to further her life dream as a feminist leader. She has a hard cantankerous shell, but is finding herself a bit lonely and unsure of the choices she has made over the years. Her granddaughter has come to New York from Seattle for the summer. They are coming together over the writing of Florence's memoir. Emily is doing research for her grandmother and learning how passionate and successful she has been over the years.
All the members of this family have so much trouble communicating with each other. Daniel cannot talk to his mother and really tell her how he feels. He and his wife, Janine are having trouble talking to each other, as their marriage flounders. Emily is going through the emotional roller coaster of young adulthood without anyone to confide in. They are all frustrated, angry and scared and don't know how to reach out to each other.
Emily and her father, Daniel are walking to the train station where Emily travel onto Boston to meet up with an old boyfriend. She wants to talk to her father and cannot start the conversation. Daniel wants to connect with his daughter and walks her to the train and buys her ticket, but cannot start a conversation that will give her the space to talk to him. She asks if he has any life lessons he wants to share, he replies that he cannot think of any he needs to teach her at this point. Emily thinks, "When she came back she'd be someone different from who she was now. And he would be someone different too. He wouldn't be the father of the same girl he was the father of now. he would be the father of a girl who was older and more worldly and sneakier and more cynical, and he wouldn't even know."
As a reader you are thinking just talk, just say what you are thinking, you can work this out. Each of the characters is this novel are flawed. Each of the characters need help and want to work together but just don't know who to reach out and ask for what they need. It can be aggravating as an outsider looking in to see how dysfunctional this family is. It is sad also that they are having so much trouble. It is a chance for the reader to look at themselves and see if they can learn to be more open with the people around them, so as not to fall into similar traps.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Thursday, May 26, 2016
The Dead Key
A complex exciting mystery novel. The Dead Key, by author, D.M. Pulley has a complicated plot that spans twenty years, traveling back and forth between 1978 and 1998. In 1978 two women from the secretary pool at the large Cleveland bank are trying to bring down a scam being implemented by the leaders of the bank. Beatrice Baker is a young woman, new to the big city and assigned as a secretary to one of the bank managers. As she makes friends with the other "girls" she becomes involved in a mystery. Beatrice and her friend are risking their lives when everything is closed down.
Twenty years later Iris is assigned to create blue prints for an engineering company that wants to buy the building and renovate it for its new owner. As she starts to measure the rooms and layout the floor plan, she finds a questionable situation. Her investigation brings her into dangerous, scary circumstances. A well woven story line that ties up all the loose ends neatly at the end.
Using the modern day company coming in to clean out a long deserted building as the background for this story of intrigue and adding in a new young girl fresh out of school at her first job, along with a bit of possible romance with a few young fellas and you have the right amount of suspense that keeps you reading to the end. As Iris Latch is making her blue prints she starts investigating some of the unusual things she is finding in the building. The descriptions of the bank, both past and present, are haunting. You feel like you are in the building exploring with Iris and like you are there back in the secretarial pool with Beatrice Baker as she is trying to save herself and reveal the secrets and dishonesty that is being carried out at the bank. There are some interesting twists along the way and also the possibility that there could be a sequel.
Twenty years later Iris is assigned to create blue prints for an engineering company that wants to buy the building and renovate it for its new owner. As she starts to measure the rooms and layout the floor plan, she finds a questionable situation. Her investigation brings her into dangerous, scary circumstances. A well woven story line that ties up all the loose ends neatly at the end.
Using the modern day company coming in to clean out a long deserted building as the background for this story of intrigue and adding in a new young girl fresh out of school at her first job, along with a bit of possible romance with a few young fellas and you have the right amount of suspense that keeps you reading to the end. As Iris Latch is making her blue prints she starts investigating some of the unusual things she is finding in the building. The descriptions of the bank, both past and present, are haunting. You feel like you are in the building exploring with Iris and like you are there back in the secretarial pool with Beatrice Baker as she is trying to save herself and reveal the secrets and dishonesty that is being carried out at the bank. There are some interesting twists along the way and also the possibility that there could be a sequel.
The Dream Lover
The subject matter is very interesting and that kept me reading through till the end. I always love learning something while reading historical fiction. This is the story of George Sand, the how and whys of her life as a writer and a woman. She was a modern, liberated woman before society was ready to accept a liberated woman. She defied society's conventions and lived her life the way she wanted. She socialized with some many of the writers, composers and poets that today are thought of as famous classical masters. She led quite a fascinating life.
The reader will recognize many of the names of characters in this story from history. It keeps a steady pace through the book. It is really a character study and explanation of Sand's life and not a plot driven story. The author , Elizabeth Berg does a good job of recreating the world that Sand was living in and making the facts readable. This novel seems like it could almost be a memoir.
Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant, née Dupin, grew up the daughter of an aristocratic father who also defied convention and married a courtesan. Aurore Dupin later givers up a life of wealth and certainty, a unsupportive husband and her children for a life in Paris surrounded by artists and writers. She changes her name to George Sands and dresses as man both professionally and personally. Sands though possibly the most famous writer of her day, never quite escapes the stereotype of the female role in society. She takes a lover, who in the beginning is supportive of her choices. As she becomes well known and published, his masculinity is threatened and he also deserts her.
George Sand was a woman who created her own rules to live by despite her personal risks and loses that accompanied the choices she made.
The reader will recognize many of the names of characters in this story from history. It keeps a steady pace through the book. It is really a character study and explanation of Sand's life and not a plot driven story. The author , Elizabeth Berg does a good job of recreating the world that Sand was living in and making the facts readable. This novel seems like it could almost be a memoir.
Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant, née Dupin, grew up the daughter of an aristocratic father who also defied convention and married a courtesan. Aurore Dupin later givers up a life of wealth and certainty, a unsupportive husband and her children for a life in Paris surrounded by artists and writers. She changes her name to George Sands and dresses as man both professionally and personally. Sands though possibly the most famous writer of her day, never quite escapes the stereotype of the female role in society. She takes a lover, who in the beginning is supportive of her choices. As she becomes well known and published, his masculinity is threatened and he also deserts her.
George Sand was a woman who created her own rules to live by despite her personal risks and loses that accompanied the choices she made.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Stealing Mona Lisa
What a fun delightful story of mystery. intrigue and romance. This is a novel based on the story of the theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Portrait of Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911. Author, Carson Morton, has taken the facts of the news story and created what might have happened in his imagination.
Using the facts from a story published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1925 that was supposed to be an interview with Eduardo de Valfierno, a self confessed con artist who purported to be the mastermind behind the theft of the Mona Lisa and the forgery of the original work of art. Also arrested in connection with the theft of the painting was an Italian, Vincenzo Peruggia, who tried to return the work of art to Italy, claiming that he was bringing it home to its right owners.
Known in France as La Joconde and in Italy as La Gioconda, The Portrait of the Mona Lisa has always been surrounded in mystery. Morton has created a wonderful story of art forgery and intrigue that makes the reader wonder how many of the famous original pieces of art that adorn the museum walls could possible be incredible copies. In this novel Valfierno is the mastermind who leads a band of co conspirators from the art forger, to the thieves who help convince the buyers that they are getting the original paintings stolen from the museum, to the actual sale to the rich unsuspecting buyer, who then hides the famous painting away in his home.
To flesh out the story Morton played fast and loose with the great Paris flood of 1910 moving it to help build the drama around the theft of the painting. He also builds into the story some romance and a few extra assistants who all live together in Madame Charneau's boarding house in Paris. This is also a story of selfishness, greed and love. Choosing love and relationships over ownership of artwork. Which are more important in life, material objects and money or love? When it is a matter of life and death, which should you choose? Valfierno is caught up when the water floods the streets of Paris, he holding a valise with thousands of dollars and the woman he may love is slipping away in the rushing water. "He had to do something quickly. He looked at the valise. It held no small fortune. He turned back to Ellen and he knew in an instant the terrible truth: He couldn't possibly hope to save both of them...."
This will be the group's final and most ambitious caper. The twists and turns keep the reader guessing all the way to the end.
Using the facts from a story published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1925 that was supposed to be an interview with Eduardo de Valfierno, a self confessed con artist who purported to be the mastermind behind the theft of the Mona Lisa and the forgery of the original work of art. Also arrested in connection with the theft of the painting was an Italian, Vincenzo Peruggia, who tried to return the work of art to Italy, claiming that he was bringing it home to its right owners.
Known in France as La Joconde and in Italy as La Gioconda, The Portrait of the Mona Lisa has always been surrounded in mystery. Morton has created a wonderful story of art forgery and intrigue that makes the reader wonder how many of the famous original pieces of art that adorn the museum walls could possible be incredible copies. In this novel Valfierno is the mastermind who leads a band of co conspirators from the art forger, to the thieves who help convince the buyers that they are getting the original paintings stolen from the museum, to the actual sale to the rich unsuspecting buyer, who then hides the famous painting away in his home.
To flesh out the story Morton played fast and loose with the great Paris flood of 1910 moving it to help build the drama around the theft of the painting. He also builds into the story some romance and a few extra assistants who all live together in Madame Charneau's boarding house in Paris. This is also a story of selfishness, greed and love. Choosing love and relationships over ownership of artwork. Which are more important in life, material objects and money or love? When it is a matter of life and death, which should you choose? Valfierno is caught up when the water floods the streets of Paris, he holding a valise with thousands of dollars and the woman he may love is slipping away in the rushing water. "He had to do something quickly. He looked at the valise. It held no small fortune. He turned back to Ellen and he knew in an instant the terrible truth: He couldn't possibly hope to save both of them...."
This will be the group's final and most ambitious caper. The twists and turns keep the reader guessing all the way to the end.
Sunday, May 22, 2016
The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem
This is a very interesting novel written originally in Hebrew by Sarit Yishai-Levi, and translated into English by Anthony Berris. This book found acclaim in Israel and now is receiving popularity in the United States and other countries.
I found that I was learning a new perspective on the history of the relationships between Arabs and Jews under British rule in the 1940s. Also I found quite surprising the animosity between Sephardi Jews and Ashkanazi Jews in Palestine. So from a historical perspective this is a very interesting novel. the only thing I found difficult in the book was remembering all the names and relationships. It might have been helpful to have a family tree that the reader could refer to every once in a while.
The story line of the novel is about the Ermosa family. Starting with Great Grandmother Mercada who is married to a man who does not love her, the family curse begins. In each generation women are married to men who do not love them. The story is revealed by Grandma Rose and Aunt Rachel finally to Gabriela who is trying to figure out her own life and marriage. In each generation the mothers have loveless marriages which make them cold and harsh to their daughters. Each mother has forced their sons into unhappy relationships to keep the family within its tight community. The mother daughter relationships are hostile and emotionally distant. It has been a long held secret that is now finally being exposed, as Gabriele hopes to end the chain of unhappy marriages and unhappy mother, daughter rejection. Gabriele's mother Luna was considered one of the most beautiful women in Jerusalem but her husband is in love with another and she cannot win his love no matter how she tries. It has been the family curse for generations. The mothers can be emotionally attached and involved with their sons but not with their daughters. The fathers love their children but not their wives.
Yishi-Levi has created a fascinating love story of family betrayal, conflict and misunderstanding that intertwines with the history of Israel's beginning. The family members are part of the Haganah, Atzel, and Lehi organizations. All these organizations played a part in the British control of Palestine and how the area was divided between the Arabs and the Jews. the author shows how the Sephardim kept to themselves in an insular world where they can maintain their identity by following precise customs, eating certain foods and speaking a language that keeps out Ashkenazi Jews and all others.
Sarit Yishi-Levi has written a beautifully descriptive novel that spans the time from the scary world of World War II to the Golden Age of Hollywood to the 1970s. She covers the history of the times from the British rule to the birth of the State of Israel with interesting clarity. You can picture the streets of Jerusalem as you are reading.
I found that I was learning a new perspective on the history of the relationships between Arabs and Jews under British rule in the 1940s. Also I found quite surprising the animosity between Sephardi Jews and Ashkanazi Jews in Palestine. So from a historical perspective this is a very interesting novel. the only thing I found difficult in the book was remembering all the names and relationships. It might have been helpful to have a family tree that the reader could refer to every once in a while.
The story line of the novel is about the Ermosa family. Starting with Great Grandmother Mercada who is married to a man who does not love her, the family curse begins. In each generation women are married to men who do not love them. The story is revealed by Grandma Rose and Aunt Rachel finally to Gabriela who is trying to figure out her own life and marriage. In each generation the mothers have loveless marriages which make them cold and harsh to their daughters. Each mother has forced their sons into unhappy relationships to keep the family within its tight community. The mother daughter relationships are hostile and emotionally distant. It has been a long held secret that is now finally being exposed, as Gabriele hopes to end the chain of unhappy marriages and unhappy mother, daughter rejection. Gabriele's mother Luna was considered one of the most beautiful women in Jerusalem but her husband is in love with another and she cannot win his love no matter how she tries. It has been the family curse for generations. The mothers can be emotionally attached and involved with their sons but not with their daughters. The fathers love their children but not their wives.
Yishi-Levi has created a fascinating love story of family betrayal, conflict and misunderstanding that intertwines with the history of Israel's beginning. The family members are part of the Haganah, Atzel, and Lehi organizations. All these organizations played a part in the British control of Palestine and how the area was divided between the Arabs and the Jews. the author shows how the Sephardim kept to themselves in an insular world where they can maintain their identity by following precise customs, eating certain foods and speaking a language that keeps out Ashkenazi Jews and all others.
Sarit Yishi-Levi has written a beautifully descriptive novel that spans the time from the scary world of World War II to the Golden Age of Hollywood to the 1970s. She covers the history of the times from the British rule to the birth of the State of Israel with interesting clarity. You can picture the streets of Jerusalem as you are reading.
For Better For Worse
The memoir of Rachel Semo Wool, For Better For Worse, is about her family's history going back to Bulgaria before the first World War. It is fascinating the amount of detail she has both remembered and been able to collect about her relatives and how they lived life in Jewish Bulgaria all the way through til 1945.
Rachel reminisced with family members to flesh out the parts she could not remember or those experiences that happened before she was born. Rachel or Shelly the family nickname for Rachel comes from a long and large extended family that lived for the most part in Sofia, Bulgaria. She herself is the second daughter of Dr. Yosef and Flora Semo. Her story starts with the matriarch of the family Baba Vintura who was orphaned at the age of 12 in 1870. When her brothers married, her parents left her in their care and moved to the Holy Land, Palestine. Vintura's brothers quickly married her off and so starts the story of Rachel Semo Wool's family saga.
This book is a wonderful chronicle of how life was lived in Europe during the early part of the 20th century. How marriages were arranged and how children were treated and behaved. The importance of work in comparison to schooling, and manual labor jobs in relation to professional positions.
Even if the reader doesn't know who any of the family members are in this book, and none of them are famous, this is a wonderful history of the average life in Bulgarian society.
Rachel's mother Flora spoke about her childhood and how she met and married her husband. Though Rachel is surprised by her mother's behavior, Flora explains that at the time that was how a child would behave and listen to her parents wishes. It is surprising in modern day by comparison, especially when you think about your own interactions with your parents or your child's responses to your trying to give advise as a parent.
Flora was given a special chance to go onto advanced education and studied dentistry for a year in Nancy, France. She loved her experience to be on her own, studying and socializing on her own far from home. But after the year, her parents required she return home. Her mother was afraid that if she studied for five years and then returned home she would never find a husband. That was the priority. Flora listened to her parents even though she was disappointed. Her daughter never understood and questioned her mother, "Why did you come back? Why did you give up your education? You were doing so well and had such a good time in France! Why didn't you graduate and get your degree?" First Flora explains that you just didn't behave that way in those days, "Resist?...What could I do? They paid my tuition! ....My father was busy with so many important things! My duty was to let him be. If he felt something was wrong, he reacted and tried to help out. If he didn't notice, I tried not to bother him."
Such a different way of thinking than children in present day society. each generation has changed the way parent treat their children and even Rachel couldn't understand her mother's behavior. Flora gave a further explanation, "It wasn't serious in France. ...In Bulgaria - at twenty five and with a nose like mine - I would have remained single, or gotten married to some old guy or a widower, and surely not an academic. Here, in Israel the conditions are totally different, and it's hard to explain what it was like there so many years ago. I agree that nowadays a girl should remain independent, provide for herself , and choose a suitable husband."
So from a historical perspective this is an interesting story. This is the story of a large extended Jewish family who were financially secure and well educated. Who with most of their entire family survived two World Wars and emigrated to Israel before the declaration of the state. They did suffer some setbacks and loses but that on the whole they were successful and happy.
Rachel reminisced with family members to flesh out the parts she could not remember or those experiences that happened before she was born. Rachel or Shelly the family nickname for Rachel comes from a long and large extended family that lived for the most part in Sofia, Bulgaria. She herself is the second daughter of Dr. Yosef and Flora Semo. Her story starts with the matriarch of the family Baba Vintura who was orphaned at the age of 12 in 1870. When her brothers married, her parents left her in their care and moved to the Holy Land, Palestine. Vintura's brothers quickly married her off and so starts the story of Rachel Semo Wool's family saga.
This book is a wonderful chronicle of how life was lived in Europe during the early part of the 20th century. How marriages were arranged and how children were treated and behaved. The importance of work in comparison to schooling, and manual labor jobs in relation to professional positions.
Even if the reader doesn't know who any of the family members are in this book, and none of them are famous, this is a wonderful history of the average life in Bulgarian society.
Rachel's mother Flora spoke about her childhood and how she met and married her husband. Though Rachel is surprised by her mother's behavior, Flora explains that at the time that was how a child would behave and listen to her parents wishes. It is surprising in modern day by comparison, especially when you think about your own interactions with your parents or your child's responses to your trying to give advise as a parent.
Flora was given a special chance to go onto advanced education and studied dentistry for a year in Nancy, France. She loved her experience to be on her own, studying and socializing on her own far from home. But after the year, her parents required she return home. Her mother was afraid that if she studied for five years and then returned home she would never find a husband. That was the priority. Flora listened to her parents even though she was disappointed. Her daughter never understood and questioned her mother, "Why did you come back? Why did you give up your education? You were doing so well and had such a good time in France! Why didn't you graduate and get your degree?" First Flora explains that you just didn't behave that way in those days, "Resist?...What could I do? They paid my tuition! ....My father was busy with so many important things! My duty was to let him be. If he felt something was wrong, he reacted and tried to help out. If he didn't notice, I tried not to bother him."
Such a different way of thinking than children in present day society. each generation has changed the way parent treat their children and even Rachel couldn't understand her mother's behavior. Flora gave a further explanation, "It wasn't serious in France. ...In Bulgaria - at twenty five and with a nose like mine - I would have remained single, or gotten married to some old guy or a widower, and surely not an academic. Here, in Israel the conditions are totally different, and it's hard to explain what it was like there so many years ago. I agree that nowadays a girl should remain independent, provide for herself , and choose a suitable husband."
So from a historical perspective this is an interesting story. This is the story of a large extended Jewish family who were financially secure and well educated. Who with most of their entire family survived two World Wars and emigrated to Israel before the declaration of the state. They did suffer some setbacks and loses but that on the whole they were successful and happy.
The Gallery of Vanishing Husbands
What a wonderful novel by Natasha Solomons! This is a story of about love and betrayal. It is also more deeply a story of about inner strength, self confidence and how other people perceive you.
Solomons uses the medium of painting to show how we can see beyond the person's exterior personification to their inner being.
Juliet Montague stands out in her community because she is a young married woman with two children whose husband has deserted her. In a religious Jewish community a person in this position is called an aguna, not married and not divorced. " The elderly Rabbi Shlonsky cleared his throat and spoke for the first time since he entered the house. 'In Jewish law only men can divorce women. Until your husband returns or dies or divorces you, then you are stuck. You are married and not married."
She is in limbo because a woman must have a legal paper signed by the husband releasing her from her marriage, but Juliet's husband has run off with the family money and a portrait painted of Juliet when she was a child.
The loss of this portrait becomes like an inability for people to see Juliet. She feels like she is invisible to the people who surround her. Without a husband she does not fit into the community she grew up in and and is raising her children in. She becomes rebellious and starts going against the accepted practices of her extended family and friends. Her parents are embarrassed by her behavior, but she begins to find happiness and recognition in the art world.
Juliet is celebrating her thirtieth birthday and on an outing to buy a new refrigerator she meets a young artist at a sidewalk show. She decides that she wants to have a new portrait painted. "After the business with George, the rabbis decided that she must become a living widow. He was the one who had vanished but to her dismay she found it was she who had been quietly disappearing piece by piece. At that moment, on her thirtieth birthday, she decided that she wanted something more than fridges, more even than paintings of girls reading in the sunlight, Juliet Montague want to be seen."
This decision reshapes her life and changes the direction her children's lives will take. Each of her children, a daughter, Frieda and her young son, Leonard. George, the vanished father, is the always on the periphery of their lives but the characters int his story make their own decisions right or wrong and learn how to live with their choices. We are introduced to the art world of portrait painters who, Solomon says, if they are really good can see past a person's exterior and see into their soul.
Reading this novel made me really think about how other people perceive me and what the message is tat I am trying to portray when I dress and act a certain way. Am I putting out my true self? Do people see me the way I see myself? What a terrific story!
Solomons uses the medium of painting to show how we can see beyond the person's exterior personification to their inner being.
Juliet Montague stands out in her community because she is a young married woman with two children whose husband has deserted her. In a religious Jewish community a person in this position is called an aguna, not married and not divorced. " The elderly Rabbi Shlonsky cleared his throat and spoke for the first time since he entered the house. 'In Jewish law only men can divorce women. Until your husband returns or dies or divorces you, then you are stuck. You are married and not married."
She is in limbo because a woman must have a legal paper signed by the husband releasing her from her marriage, but Juliet's husband has run off with the family money and a portrait painted of Juliet when she was a child.
The loss of this portrait becomes like an inability for people to see Juliet. She feels like she is invisible to the people who surround her. Without a husband she does not fit into the community she grew up in and and is raising her children in. She becomes rebellious and starts going against the accepted practices of her extended family and friends. Her parents are embarrassed by her behavior, but she begins to find happiness and recognition in the art world.
Juliet is celebrating her thirtieth birthday and on an outing to buy a new refrigerator she meets a young artist at a sidewalk show. She decides that she wants to have a new portrait painted. "After the business with George, the rabbis decided that she must become a living widow. He was the one who had vanished but to her dismay she found it was she who had been quietly disappearing piece by piece. At that moment, on her thirtieth birthday, she decided that she wanted something more than fridges, more even than paintings of girls reading in the sunlight, Juliet Montague want to be seen."
This decision reshapes her life and changes the direction her children's lives will take. Each of her children, a daughter, Frieda and her young son, Leonard. George, the vanished father, is the always on the periphery of their lives but the characters int his story make their own decisions right or wrong and learn how to live with their choices. We are introduced to the art world of portrait painters who, Solomon says, if they are really good can see past a person's exterior and see into their soul.
Reading this novel made me really think about how other people perceive me and what the message is tat I am trying to portray when I dress and act a certain way. Am I putting out my true self? Do people see me the way I see myself? What a terrific story!
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Lilac Girls
Lilac Girls written by Martha Hall Kelly is another fascinating novel that brings the reader back to the time of life leading up to and during World War II. This novel though takes a very different angle on this time period in history. Lilac Girls follows the lives of three different young women, each coming from different circumstances, each in a different country experiencing the war from avery different perspective.
Living in America, is a young New York socialite, Caroline Ferriday, working at the French consulate. She is determined to help the war effort by sending care packages to French orphaned children. As the war increases in intensity, and Hitler invades France Caroline works harder and harder to raise money to help the French children and then also a man important to her. The character in the book of Caroline was inspired by the real woman, Caroline Ferriday who did bring the "Rabbits" or Lapin Ladies to the United States for surgeries to correct the horrible surgical tests they were subjected to during the war. Martha Hall Kelly writes in a romance and fleshes out the Caroline's character for the novel but the facts about her are all true.
Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager is determined to help the war effort as a courier for the underground resistance movement. Working in a movie theatre selling tickets could be a good cover for her more dangerous assignments. A calm exterior and quick thinking is important as suspicious neighbors are watching ready to report unusual activity.
Newly graduated from medical school, Herta Oberheuser, accepts a job for a government medical position that seems like the answer to all her employment problems until she realizes that she is trapped in a male dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power. On the other side of the coin is Herta, also a real person whose character Kelly has developed for the novel with her imagination, but who did perform the horrific experiments on the women of Ravensbruck. Trying to delve into her mind and understand why and how someone could be so heartless and cruel is what the author creates for the reader here.
Lilac Girls follows separately at first each of these young ladies as they run up against the unthinkable. Each of the three main characters encounters the Nazi regime in a different way and as the novel moves forward the three stories interconnect. Caroline and Kasia are trying to bring justice to those who history mistreated. Herta is caught up in the Nazi machine and the cruelty of the time. this is an incredibly well told story that shows yet again a different side to the Holocaust and how so many different groups of people were subjected to terrible situations.
Also amazing is the story within the story of the "Rabbits" at the concentration camp Ravensbruck. This part of the book is based on real life women. Once again there is new information being written about and this time in this book, it is not the persecution of just Jewish women but of Polish Christian women as enemies of the state. Author Kelly explains in her notes, "The Rabbits were women who while at Ravensbruck were used as test cases for operations. They were known as Rabbits because after the tests were conducted on them they hopped around the camp and because they were the Nazi's experimental rabbits."
Living in America, is a young New York socialite, Caroline Ferriday, working at the French consulate. She is determined to help the war effort by sending care packages to French orphaned children. As the war increases in intensity, and Hitler invades France Caroline works harder and harder to raise money to help the French children and then also a man important to her. The character in the book of Caroline was inspired by the real woman, Caroline Ferriday who did bring the "Rabbits" or Lapin Ladies to the United States for surgeries to correct the horrible surgical tests they were subjected to during the war. Martha Hall Kelly writes in a romance and fleshes out the Caroline's character for the novel but the facts about her are all true.
Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager is determined to help the war effort as a courier for the underground resistance movement. Working in a movie theatre selling tickets could be a good cover for her more dangerous assignments. A calm exterior and quick thinking is important as suspicious neighbors are watching ready to report unusual activity.
Newly graduated from medical school, Herta Oberheuser, accepts a job for a government medical position that seems like the answer to all her employment problems until she realizes that she is trapped in a male dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power. On the other side of the coin is Herta, also a real person whose character Kelly has developed for the novel with her imagination, but who did perform the horrific experiments on the women of Ravensbruck. Trying to delve into her mind and understand why and how someone could be so heartless and cruel is what the author creates for the reader here.
Lilac Girls follows separately at first each of these young ladies as they run up against the unthinkable. Each of the three main characters encounters the Nazi regime in a different way and as the novel moves forward the three stories interconnect. Caroline and Kasia are trying to bring justice to those who history mistreated. Herta is caught up in the Nazi machine and the cruelty of the time. this is an incredibly well told story that shows yet again a different side to the Holocaust and how so many different groups of people were subjected to terrible situations.
Also amazing is the story within the story of the "Rabbits" at the concentration camp Ravensbruck. This part of the book is based on real life women. Once again there is new information being written about and this time in this book, it is not the persecution of just Jewish women but of Polish Christian women as enemies of the state. Author Kelly explains in her notes, "The Rabbits were women who while at Ravensbruck were used as test cases for operations. They were known as Rabbits because after the tests were conducted on them they hopped around the camp and because they were the Nazi's experimental rabbits."
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
“Shylock is My Name”
So I am about to do something here that I try never to do. I am going to review a book I did not like. I really wanted to like this book and was quite excited when I bought my copy, but try as hard as I could I did not find it an enjoyable read. In the past I have always thought that I would only review books I could recommend, but this time that doesn’t seem fair. I am sure there are others who will love this book.
A few years ago I read Jacobson’s novel, The Finkler Question. I also did not really enjoy that novel. But I had read it for a book discussion and the controversy of some people loving it and some not and others not feeling they had even understood it made for a great discussion.
Now this new book was being promoted and it sounded so interesting. The reviews described it as, “a clever and entertaining retelling of the "Merchant of Venice”. I even went to see Howard Jacobson speak at Temple Kehillath Israel in Brookline, MA in anticipation of this new book and the plot as he was describing it was enticing. So I am doubly disappointed that I again find that I just do not like Jacobson’s writing style.
So I am sure you are saying to yourself, what were you expecting, Shakespeare created Shylock as the ambiguous money lender. Through the years he has become the epitome of the negative Jewish stereotype, how the gentile world portrays the anti-semantic metaphor, greedy, vengeful and legalistic. So when Jacobson modernizes the character of Shylock, what can you expect. In the novel we have Shylock who has remained alive for four centuries meeting his modern day equivalent, Simon Strulovitch, an art dealer and conflicted father, in a cemetery.
Strulovitch is concerned with his daughter, Beatrice’s disassociation with her heritage and family becoming involved in a romantic relationship with a football player, just as Shylock was concerned with his daughter, Jessica running away.
I find that though Jacobson is described as writing “comic novels about Jewish dilemmas”, I just have a hard time finding them funny. His books portray Jews in a negative light, not humorous, and degrading not uplifting.
For example, first there is a discussion about money and wealth. Plurabelle, the modern day Portia, and D’Anton, the updated Antonio, are talking about a gift he has brought her when he comes to visit. She lives in a splendid home and says she is sad. She wonders if they are unhappy because they are the advantaged. D’Anton wonders if they are really the advantaged, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
The conversation I would say takes a turn toward the negative when they bring the subject of Jews in and say that Jews have to be the center of every drama, human or theological. Then in what must be meant as humorous, Plurabelle says, “So they don’t count is that what you are saying?” and when D’Anton says he doesn’t think so she counters with, “Oh yes they do,” she laughed. “That’s all they do. They just sit and count...and count….and count..”
Jacobson does deserve credit for being very creative with the reinterpretation of Shakespearean classic. As Strulovitch tries to extract his “pound of flesh”, Jacobson is exploring the concepts of Jewish identity and anti-semitism. In this novel Jacobson In the original story we have never been really sure if Shakespeare was himself anti-semitic and using the Shylock character as the vilification or if Shakespeare was letting Shylock speak to justify the anger of Jewish persecution.
I have given you some suggestion of the plot and will let each of you make your own determination of whether to read the book or not and how you feel after reading it.
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