Saturday, April 21, 2018
Forest Dark
Forest Dark is the newest novel from the wonderful author, Nicole Krauss.
Quite the confusing plot! Not sure I really understand the book . One character, an elderly man is giving away all his worldly possessions. Another storyline of a woman in midlife. She is married and has two sons. Her marriage is in trouble. She is an author who is facing a writer's block. She goes off to Israel looking for the motivation to try and write her next book. She meets a man who tells her that Kafka left some unfinished work in Israel and he wants her to finish it.
One a elderly man at the end of his life, looking to find some satisfaction in giving away all his material goods. He wants to donate money to leave a memory of his parents. The other a young woman unhappy in her marriage and stuck in her writing career, trying to come back to a place she has fond childhood memories of to write her next novel. I know there is deep meaning in this novel, but it is hard to work out alone. It will be a great book group discussion.
This is a novel full of disorienting moments. I loved all of Nicole Krauss's other novels. This one I am not as sure about. It is the story of two lost souls. They parallel their stories, starting in NYC and ending up in Israel. Two plots running side by side, one with a young novelist, Nicole, facing a writer’s block, leaves her husband and children in New York and goes off to Israel to the Tel Aviv Hilton Hotel of childhood family vacations, looking for inspiration. Running alongside this plot is the story of Jules Epstein, an wealthy, ambitious industrious New York lawyer who is now flailing after the loss of both his parents, retirement from his law firm and divorce from his wife. At age 68 he starts to divest himself of things including his art collection. He travels to Israel with idea of leaving a legacy tribute to his parents. He goes off to Israel to looking for charities to donate his money to and create a memory to his father and mother. He does not seem to care about leaving anything to his children. I was never quite sure of his motivation.
Each character go on separate goose chases, which have life changing consequences they could never have imagined. Epstein follows a charismatic rabbi who has convinced him is a descendant of King David and a young woman who is producing a film in the desert about the life of of the King. Nicole follows the lost manuscripts of Franz Kafka hidden away in a suitcase by Max Brod and found possibly in the home of his sister in the desert.
Then the plot gets very confusing. The two characters never meet, which was what I was waiting for. For their lives to intersect but they do not. Each character goes through their own trials and tribulations. Each must find the answers for their own survival.
Dinner at the Center of the Earth
Nathan Englander, has written what I think is a very confusing novel. I absolutely loved What Do You Think About When You Think About Anne Frank. It is one of my all time favorite books ever. But I was let down by this newest book. I even listened to an interview hoping to like the book more and understand the thought process behind it. Though I did come away from the interview with a better understanding I cannot say it made the book more enjoyable to finish or one that I would recommend.
Dinner At The Center of The Earth is a complicated novel. A story that keeps you thinking and working to keep the plot and characters straight in your mind as you are reading. Also working through who all the characters represent and the historical references that discussed in this novel are important.
Like other Englander novels, these books are edgy with a sense of dark humor, and complexity. Englander takes on topics that are controversial, taking chances that are courageous and provocative. This time, in Dinner At The Center of The Earth, Englander has brought us to Israel with a political thriller that explores the Israeli-Palestinian tensions and failed peace process. We meet X, a jailer and Prisoner Z, an American spy for Israel who is accused of treason. We follow the thoughts of the General, who is modeled on Ariel Sharon, caught in his own prison of unconsciousness. His nurse, who is hoping he will wake up and finish what he started, is the mother of Prisoner Z’s guard. In this novel, Englander works through his personal “optimistic pessimism or pessimistic optimism for
Israel - Palestine, his true heartbreak over the peace process falling apart.”
Dinner At The Center of The Earth is a complicated novel. A story that keeps you thinking and working to keep the plot and characters straight in your mind as you are reading. Also working through who all the characters represent and the historical references that discussed in this novel are important.
Like other Englander novels, these books are edgy with a sense of dark humor, and complexity. Englander takes on topics that are controversial, taking chances that are courageous and provocative. This time, in Dinner At The Center of The Earth, Englander has brought us to Israel with a political thriller that explores the Israeli-Palestinian tensions and failed peace process. We meet X, a jailer and Prisoner Z, an American spy for Israel who is accused of treason. We follow the thoughts of the General, who is modeled on Ariel Sharon, caught in his own prison of unconsciousness. His nurse, who is hoping he will wake up and finish what he started, is the mother of Prisoner Z’s guard. In this novel, Englander works through his personal “optimistic pessimism or pessimistic optimism for
Israel - Palestine, his true heartbreak over the peace process falling apart.”
Apple Strudel Alibi
Once again H.Y. Hanna captured my attention with her clever fun amateur detective. Gemma and the Old Biddies are at it again, solving a murder the police do not seem interested in.
This time instead of staying in Oxford and solving the murder while serving delicious scones at her Tea Shop, Gemma is off to Vienna to accept an award for her scone recipe. The Old Biddies surprisingly show up at the hotel for a vacation at the same time and the detecting begins when a dead body is discovered in the hotel also. Gemma has to call home for assistance from her boyfriend, the police detective, who had to stay behind and solve another crime.
Gemma and the Old Biddies are great giving the readers a wonderful description of the city sights to see and the scrumptious food one should taste while visiting the country of Austria. Once I picked up the book I did not put it down until I had finished it.
It is always a fun break from all the hard work we do to sit down and enjoy a simple mystery, with characters you remember, like old friends, who keep coming back to share an experience they had with you.
This time instead of staying in Oxford and solving the murder while serving delicious scones at her Tea Shop, Gemma is off to Vienna to accept an award for her scone recipe. The Old Biddies surprisingly show up at the hotel for a vacation at the same time and the detecting begins when a dead body is discovered in the hotel also. Gemma has to call home for assistance from her boyfriend, the police detective, who had to stay behind and solve another crime.
Gemma and the Old Biddies are great giving the readers a wonderful description of the city sights to see and the scrumptious food one should taste while visiting the country of Austria. Once I picked up the book I did not put it down until I had finished it.
It is always a fun break from all the hard work we do to sit down and enjoy a simple mystery, with characters you remember, like old friends, who keep coming back to share an experience they had with you.
Eternal Life
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live forever, to never die? I know as I am now living in the second half life, assuming that fifty is the midpoint, I start to chant the Jewish blessing as an incantation, "May you live to 120". It is based on the most often cited sources in Bereishit (Genesis) 6:3 and in Devarim (Deuteronomy) 34:7. The age of Moses upon his death is given as 120, and the text explains, "his eye had not dimmed, and his vigor had not diminished." That is also important, that we live a long healthy and happy life. The idea being that life is so enjoyable that we do not want to leave.
Author, Dara Horn has given us a novel that will keep you thinking about living for eternity for quite some time after you put the book down. As I finished this novel, Eternal Life, I sat wondering what it would be like to continue to live on as those I love in my life were not. It is something many of us have thought about as we age or get sick, wondering if it would be possible to stay the same age or find a cure to keep us alive longer. Right off the top of my head I think of instances where we dream of ways to stay young. Ponce de Leon and the myth we learned about his search for the fountain of youth and Dorian Gray and his portrait hanging in the attic, after realizing his wish to remain young and let the portrait age is coming true.
That is similar to the premise of this book. The plot is based on the idea that Rachel and Elazar are two young lovers living during the first temple time. Rachel, the daughter of a scribe and Elazar, the son of a high priest. They are star crossed lovers who have to hide to spend time together because they would not be permitted to marry. When Rachel is married off Zakkai this relationship should end but of course it does not and Rachel finds herself pregnant. The son is born as Zakkai's and then as a small boy becomes deathly ill. To save his life Rachael and Elazar vow their lives for his. They agree without understanding that they will never die. They will continue to live forever while those around them age and pass on to the next life.
Thus begins the extremely long and fruitful lives of both Rachel and Elazar, who between other lives they are leading meet up again throughout the centuries. They never stay together, but marry others and bear children in each new century, each leaving a long legacy of children, grandchildren and so on. Each time they start life over again young, and learn new things as science and time move on, living through wars, disease, modern medicine and computers, right up until today with social media and bitcoin.
In a way it seems like starting to read a new book. Each time you pick up a book, it is like a new relationship. You open it full of the expectations. You read the first chapter with anticipation and hope that you will fall in love. The plot draws you in and you are hooked. It is exciting to come back to it each day, when you have finished your other work. Time passes and you are in the middle and fully attached, then the end approaches and you are starting to read slower and dreading the experience coming to an end. When it is over you are both at peace and fulfilled by the enjoyment of it and sad that it has come to an end. Then you reach to your bookshelf or to-read pile and pick up the next book and the process begins again. Would this be similar to living forever, while others around you do not?
Dara Horn has created her both an enticing novel that is enjoyable just on the P'shat level of reading a fascinating plot. She also has given the reader an interesting D'rash to contemplate. Thinking about what it would be like to live through all the changes in history. To be immortal when those around you are still mortal.
Author, Dara Horn has given us a novel that will keep you thinking about living for eternity for quite some time after you put the book down. As I finished this novel, Eternal Life, I sat wondering what it would be like to continue to live on as those I love in my life were not. It is something many of us have thought about as we age or get sick, wondering if it would be possible to stay the same age or find a cure to keep us alive longer. Right off the top of my head I think of instances where we dream of ways to stay young. Ponce de Leon and the myth we learned about his search for the fountain of youth and Dorian Gray and his portrait hanging in the attic, after realizing his wish to remain young and let the portrait age is coming true.
That is similar to the premise of this book. The plot is based on the idea that Rachel and Elazar are two young lovers living during the first temple time. Rachel, the daughter of a scribe and Elazar, the son of a high priest. They are star crossed lovers who have to hide to spend time together because they would not be permitted to marry. When Rachel is married off Zakkai this relationship should end but of course it does not and Rachel finds herself pregnant. The son is born as Zakkai's and then as a small boy becomes deathly ill. To save his life Rachael and Elazar vow their lives for his. They agree without understanding that they will never die. They will continue to live forever while those around them age and pass on to the next life.
Thus begins the extremely long and fruitful lives of both Rachel and Elazar, who between other lives they are leading meet up again throughout the centuries. They never stay together, but marry others and bear children in each new century, each leaving a long legacy of children, grandchildren and so on. Each time they start life over again young, and learn new things as science and time move on, living through wars, disease, modern medicine and computers, right up until today with social media and bitcoin.
In a way it seems like starting to read a new book. Each time you pick up a book, it is like a new relationship. You open it full of the expectations. You read the first chapter with anticipation and hope that you will fall in love. The plot draws you in and you are hooked. It is exciting to come back to it each day, when you have finished your other work. Time passes and you are in the middle and fully attached, then the end approaches and you are starting to read slower and dreading the experience coming to an end. When it is over you are both at peace and fulfilled by the enjoyment of it and sad that it has come to an end. Then you reach to your bookshelf or to-read pile and pick up the next book and the process begins again. Would this be similar to living forever, while others around you do not?
Dara Horn has created her both an enticing novel that is enjoyable just on the P'shat level of reading a fascinating plot. She also has given the reader an interesting D'rash to contemplate. Thinking about what it would be like to live through all the changes in history. To be immortal when those around you are still mortal.
Thursday, April 12, 2018
The Afterlife of Stars
Joseph Kertes tells the reader that this novel is based on his childhood memories.
He remembers at the age of four coming upon a scene of counterrevolutionary carnage at Budapest’s Oktogon Square, just hours before his own family was fleeing Hungary. Hungarian soldiers hanging from lampposts. All these years later he still remembers it as clear as it was then, and he relays the memory through his main character, Robert. "The soldier who captures Robert’s attention looks down with “evergreen eyes,” his auburn hair “parted and brilliantined so that it shone even at this distance.”
This is the story of Robert, who tells us he 9.8 years old and Attlia, his older brother at 13.7 years old. They are two Jewish Hungarian brothers who are leaving Hungary in 1956, heading by boat to Canada, but are stopping in Paris to say good bye to Robert and Atllia's grand-aunt, Hermina, who was an opera singer before the WW II. Attila is the driving force behind finding out the truth. He encourages his younger brother to follow him on a quest for truth, running into danger, with a strong need to understand the world and what happened to their cousin Paul Beck. He has disappeared along with the man he worked for during the war, Raoul Wallenberg, who helped many Jews escape the concentration camps. Attila and Robert find an old black trunk hidden at Aunt Hermina's house in Paris and they press the adults to tell the truth.
This is a fascinating story that describes another moment in history that was fraught with danger for Jewish people. Another story of how families suffered, could not hide the stories from their children and tried to keep their heads above water through violent times. Surviving means staying just one step ahead of history's tragedies.
I will go back and find the first book by Kertes, Gratitude, which tells the beginning of the story.
He remembers at the age of four coming upon a scene of counterrevolutionary carnage at Budapest’s Oktogon Square, just hours before his own family was fleeing Hungary. Hungarian soldiers hanging from lampposts. All these years later he still remembers it as clear as it was then, and he relays the memory through his main character, Robert. "The soldier who captures Robert’s attention looks down with “evergreen eyes,” his auburn hair “parted and brilliantined so that it shone even at this distance.”
This is the story of Robert, who tells us he 9.8 years old and Attlia, his older brother at 13.7 years old. They are two Jewish Hungarian brothers who are leaving Hungary in 1956, heading by boat to Canada, but are stopping in Paris to say good bye to Robert and Atllia's grand-aunt, Hermina, who was an opera singer before the WW II. Attila is the driving force behind finding out the truth. He encourages his younger brother to follow him on a quest for truth, running into danger, with a strong need to understand the world and what happened to their cousin Paul Beck. He has disappeared along with the man he worked for during the war, Raoul Wallenberg, who helped many Jews escape the concentration camps. Attila and Robert find an old black trunk hidden at Aunt Hermina's house in Paris and they press the adults to tell the truth.
This is a fascinating story that describes another moment in history that was fraught with danger for Jewish people. Another story of how families suffered, could not hide the stories from their children and tried to keep their heads above water through violent times. Surviving means staying just one step ahead of history's tragedies.
I will go back and find the first book by Kertes, Gratitude, which tells the beginning of the story.
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