Casting Lots

Susan Silverman also grew up in NH.  Sister to well known comedian Sarah stands out in the family of Silverman sisters as becoming the most observant of the Jewish religion of the family.  She has become a Rabbi, marrying a Jewish activist and moving with their family of five children to live in Israel.

Again it is fun to read about a family growing up and living in a town near your own, knowing the schools and stores mentioned in the book.  There is a kind of camaraderie where you feel close to the author even though you never actually met them in person.  Of course then reading about their personal family life the object brings you in to their private world and you know feel like you are almost living in their neighborhood.

Interestingly both Susan in this book, Casting Lots and Sarah in her book, Bedwetter tell the same stories about their childhoods.  They describe their parents and the life of growing up with divorced parents in exactly the same way.  Sarah writes, "When I was seven years old my parents did what was fashionable and got divorced.  In addition to creating me, it's something they did for which I'm eternally grateful.  their divorce should be a model for us all; they both remarried happily, and all four spouses became good friends. "

In Casting Lots, Susan describes it a bit differently but also feels that their family is much happier the way it turned out than it was when her parents were married to each other.  "The family I have today was not made in our blood, but felt in our bones.  Not a whole cloth, but patches and seams.  Only after we stopped holding our nuclear family together, desperately smearing ourselves in some sort of emotional superglue, only when we let the pieces fall apart, were we able to  build something real. We were a mosaic - or perhaps, Mosaic."

So reading these two book side by side is interesting.  The two sisters grew up together in the same house and yet they describe the same situations in such different styles.  The facts are the same but Sarah uses comedy to relate the events and Susan retells the events and then finds a biblical or Talmudic interpretation to explain them.

The other major differences is that Susan has created her life around family and Judaism.  She was ordained as a reform Rabbi.   She married Yosef Abrahamowitz and together they have three biological daughters and two adopted sons from Ethiopia.

Again I ask myself while reading this what makes a person want to share so many intimate details of their life and those around them with the strangers who will read your book?  Susan talks about the everyday trials and tribulations of bringing up children.  They cry and throw tantrum.  They won't do their homework.  She shares about how she has adopted two sons from Ethiopia.  Her first son, Adar, as he grows up and realizes in Newton, Massachusetts Jewish Day school, he stands out as different from the other students and by the color of his skin even from his family.  Adar is throwing clean laundry off the bed and yelling, "I want a brown family, I don't want to be in this family.  I hate this family."  After trying to quiet her child, explaining that their family won't be complete without him.   Susan writes her thoughts as she was picking up and refolding the laundry, "He was like Adam in the Garden of Eden; he was suddenly ashamed and self-conscience, no longer part of an organic, perfect world."

Susan it seems is looking to create the perfect universe through her family.  "creating a family of many skin colors," Susan writes, "is a result of my earliest imaginings about the world and about my family someday."

Susan goes into more detail about her childhood, her relationship with her sisters, and different family encounters.  There are three Silverman sisters, Laura, Susan and Sarah.  Along with half sister, Jodyne.  They grow up in Manchester, NH in a working class, Jewish family.

Beth Ann Silverman, who gave up her french and theatre major from Tufts University to marry and work alongside, Donald Silverman who was taking over the family business, The Variety Shop, a clothing store on Main Street in Concord, NH.  On a buying trip to NYC, Beth Ann won the Tournament of Champions on the TV show, Concentration.  After selling most of the prizes she won, (they need the money) Beth Ann and Donald go on the cruise and then back to NYC for the 1968 World Fair.  On phone call to home they get disastrous news and rush back.  Both Sarah and Susan describe this event in the same detail in each of their books.  Their lives do not really go in such different directions until Susan goes off to college and meets Yosef.

Laura, though mentioned by both sisters in their respective books,  remains the most unknown and quiet of the Silverman family.

Reading each of the books, is quite interesting especially if you were curious about why they each went in the direction they have.  It is interesting to look into other people's lives.  You can find ideas you agree with and find validation.  You can see faults of your own and find acceptance.