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 Also working through who all the characters represent and the historical references that discussed in this novel are important.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.”
Saturday, April 21, 2018
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.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
The Chalk Artist
The Chalk Artist is the newest novel by author, Allegra Goodman. She has written another terrific plot that gives the reader food for thought.
This time the novel centers around the gaming industry and the children and adults, who are totally caught up in it. They are glued to their computers and the virtual friendships they think they are making inside the game. Goodman shows us how it becomes an all consuming lifestyle to the detriment of school, work and real relationships.
Aeroflakes or chalk dust, that is how our characters see the world. Aiden and Diana are twins, who are facing the teen years each with their own inadequacies. Aiden is the conventional nerd, has a hard time fitting with other kids in school socially. He has found the world of on line gaming a great escape. He can be tough and dangerous int he game, where he is shy and intimidated in real life. It has taken over his life. He is locked away in his room and always on his computer even though his mother has forbid it. Diana wants to be a good twin and not report on her brother. She also has personal image problems and only one friend. She writes in her journal about her feelings, which her teacher can read.
Aiden and Diana are working against the pull of the computer game to be successful in school and at home with their mother and their friends.
The teacher is Nina, the daughter of the Arcadia the role playing game company founder. She is trying to find a way to each the children in her classes the beauty of literature and poetry. She is fighting against the world her father is helping to promote. She sees the danger in this unreal world of aeroflakes, which are all temporary and disappear in a moment.
She meets Collin, who is working as a waiter in a Harvard Square bar along with other odd jobs. He is the Chalk Artist, who draws beautiful paintings on the sidewalk to be washed away in the next rain.
He is lacking in self confidence, which Nina wants to help him find. She gets him a job at her father’s gaming company.
Nina and Collin must work through all the pitfalls of romance, love and work against the pull of the gaming world to either lose their relationship or come out winners in the end.
This time the novel centers around the gaming industry and the children and adults, who are totally caught up in it. They are glued to their computers and the virtual friendships they think they are making inside the game. Goodman shows us how it becomes an all consuming lifestyle to the detriment of school, work and real relationships.
Aeroflakes or chalk dust, that is how our characters see the world. Aiden and Diana are twins, who are facing the teen years each with their own inadequacies. Aiden is the conventional nerd, has a hard time fitting with other kids in school socially. He has found the world of on line gaming a great escape. He can be tough and dangerous int he game, where he is shy and intimidated in real life. It has taken over his life. He is locked away in his room and always on his computer even though his mother has forbid it. Diana wants to be a good twin and not report on her brother. She also has personal image problems and only one friend. She writes in her journal about her feelings, which her teacher can read.
Aiden and Diana are working against the pull of the computer game to be successful in school and at home with their mother and their friends.
The teacher is Nina, the daughter of the Arcadia the role playing game company founder. She is trying to find a way to each the children in her classes the beauty of literature and poetry. She is fighting against the world her father is helping to promote. She sees the danger in this unreal world of aeroflakes, which are all temporary and disappear in a moment.
She meets Collin, who is working as a waiter in a Harvard Square bar along with other odd jobs. He is the Chalk Artist, who draws beautiful paintings on the sidewalk to be washed away in the next rain.
He is lacking in self confidence, which Nina wants to help him find. She gets him a job at her father’s gaming company.
Nina and Collin must work through all the pitfalls of romance, love and work against the pull of the gaming world to either lose their relationship or come out winners in the end.
The Melancholy Menorah
The Melancoly Menorah written by Libi Astaire is another fun,light read from this terrific author.
I love Libi Astaire and all her Jewish Regency mystery novels. The gentleman sleuth, Ezra Melamed along with General Well’ngone , the leader of the pickpocket boys are so wonderfully described that you can see them in your mind’s eye as you are reading. These are my favorite recurring characters. The mysteries are also always clever and offer a good twist at the end when Mr. Melamed reveals the culprit.
This is a light entertaining mystery series with a great historical perspective on Jewish life in Regency England. In this story it is the week before Chanukah and everyone is getting ready to celebrate. As is the custom in the Great Synagogue of England there is a special menorah that is lit at the evening service each night of the holiday and then the men go home to light a menorah in each home and have family dinner. In this book there is a mystery surrounding the synagogue’s menorah. As Mr Melamed uncovers the troublemaker and unravels the reasons behind the crime, we also learn about the Jewish practice of this community. We meet the members of the shul and their wives and children.
We also learn about the less wealthy members of the community. There are three tiers of society, the wealthy, the shopkeepers who are not as successful and then the people either in a poor house or in these stories, orphans in a home or the young boys who run as pickpockets for General Welln’gone. He is very much a Shylock type of character.
I do find that Astaire writes in a beautifully descriptive way that brings the characters and synagogue and its menorahs into full color pictures in my mind.
I love Libi Astaire and all her Jewish Regency mystery novels. The gentleman sleuth, Ezra Melamed along with General Well’ngone , the leader of the pickpocket boys are so wonderfully described that you can see them in your mind’s eye as you are reading. These are my favorite recurring characters. The mysteries are also always clever and offer a good twist at the end when Mr. Melamed reveals the culprit.
This is a light entertaining mystery series with a great historical perspective on Jewish life in Regency England. In this story it is the week before Chanukah and everyone is getting ready to celebrate. As is the custom in the Great Synagogue of England there is a special menorah that is lit at the evening service each night of the holiday and then the men go home to light a menorah in each home and have family dinner. In this book there is a mystery surrounding the synagogue’s menorah. As Mr Melamed uncovers the troublemaker and unravels the reasons behind the crime, we also learn about the Jewish practice of this community. We meet the members of the shul and their wives and children.
We also learn about the less wealthy members of the community. There are three tiers of society, the wealthy, the shopkeepers who are not as successful and then the people either in a poor house or in these stories, orphans in a home or the young boys who run as pickpockets for General Welln’gone. He is very much a Shylock type of character.
I do find that Astaire writes in a beautifully descriptive way that brings the characters and synagogue and its menorahs into full color pictures in my mind.
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Waking Lions
Ayelet Gunnar-Goshen has written an intriguing, yet disquieting novel that makes us look at our feelings of self importance, prejudice and inner moral fiber. It makes the reader think, what would I do in this situation?
Eitan Green is a neurosurgeon, who has relocated from a prestigious Tel Aviv hospital because of a disagreement with the head doctor. Ironically it is Eitan’s ethical conscience that leads to his transfer to the outpost of a hospital in Beersheba. One night shortly after transferring, still angry at this change in his career plans, he is driving through the desert on his way home from work. When he takes his eyes off the road for a moment and hits a man walking along the side of the road. In a moment of panic, as he gets out and looks at the man laying on the road, he makes a choice to save the life he knows, with his wife and two young sons, leaving the scene of the accident.
Seen only by the widow, Sikrit, who then comes and blackmails the doctor not for money but for medical care for the people who live in the Eritrean neighborhood of illegal immigrants from northeast Africa.
At first Eitan sees all these sick and injured illegals as one and the same, but over time he grows to realize his prejudice and see not only the patients but Sikrit for who they are beyond their skin color.
His wife, ironically, is the police detective assigned to the case of the hit and run driver. As the story unfolds there is a sense of suspense that I found unnerving. It kept me on the edge of my seat, as I waited for the happy family life that Eitan and his wife, Liat have built with their young sons to unravel.
This is a psychological tale of suspense that examines the refugee crisis, through a collision of cultures. Every character, as the plot reveals, has a complicated relationship to the story. No one is completely innocent.
This novel explores a side of Israel society little talked about in the west. This is a novel of raw disturbing exploration of the high price of walking away. It could be from the scene of an accident or from the crisis of prejudice in Israel or in America.
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