The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (2009)
The Help is a phenomenal book about Southern life in the 1960s, just as the Civil Rights movement is coming into fruition. The novel, which is set in Jackson, Mississippi, follows the daily lives of three women through their own voices.
Aibileen is the black maid of Elizabeth Leefolt. Elizabeth is a disinterested parent who leaves, not only the care of her house to Aibileen, but also the childrearing of her daughter Mae Mobley. Elizabeth ignores her own child, leaving her confused and distraught. Aibileen loves Mae Mobley and subtlety tries to teach her, through stories, how to treat all people equally.
Aibileen has spent her life raising other people’s children, only to see them turn on her once they reach adulthood. Although Aibileen attends their weddings, she must do so dressed as a maid.
Although Aibileen has worked for Miss Elizabeth for some time, she must use the house, ie, “white” bathroom. Elizabeth’s friend, Miss Hilly, informs Elizabeth, in Aibileen’s hearing, that the “colored” carry diseases, and that she should install an outdoor bathroom just for Aibileen. After the bathroom is built, the white ladies expect Aibileen to be thrilled to have her own facility.
Minny is another black maid. She is a close friend of Aibileen and about 16 years younger than her. Her perspective on tending to the needs of the white folk is considerably different than that of Aibileen. She has worked for some abusive women and has unfairly been accused of stealing silverware. In addition, she is in an abusive marriage and is trying to raise several children of her own.
She lands a job with Miss Celia Foote. Celia married up and hasn’t been accepted by the other women in Jackson. She cannot cook and secretly hires Minny to work for her and teach her to cook. Celia’s husband, Johnny, does not know that Minny has been hired, something that makes Minny very nervous.
Eugenie “Skeeter” Phalem, has just graduated from college and has returned home. It would be unthinkable for her to venture out on her own. She is tall and not conventionally beautiful. Her mother dreamed for her to marry a prominent man and become a good Southern wife. Skeeter, however, dreams of being a writer. She makes contact with an editor at a publishing company in New York who tells her to practice her writing skills.
Skeeter lands a job at the local paper writing a cleaning advise column. The only problem is that Skeeter has no knowledge of cleaning houses. For this, she begins conversations with Aibileen, who provides the background information for her columns.
Because Skeeter doesn’t have a boyfriend, her mother and friends try to set her up with a wealthly playboy. Skeeter longs for her beloved maid, Constantine, who left under mysterious circumstances. Skeeter is told that Constantine decided to move to Chicago, but she gleans bits and pieces of information with her budding friendship with Aibileen, that makes her realize that the move was not voluntary.
Skeeter becomes awakened to the growing civil unrest in Mississippi. Her friends don’t want things to change, but Skeeter suddenly wonders what life is really like for the black maids. She slowly gains the trust of a dozen maids who tell their stories, which she compiles into a book that is published to coincide with the Civil Rights March in Washington, DC.
The Help is a phenomenal book that explores moral values, friendships and racism. It is a book that is hard to put down and tells a powerful story.
Read: November 22, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Books Set in a Global Environment
The Book of Names by Jill Gregory and Karen Tintori (2007)
The Book of Names is the Jewish answer to Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code.
According to Jewish tradition, within each generation, there are thirty-six righteous souls. No one knows who they are, but they are essential to the existence of the world. If they all die, the world as we know it ceases to exist. This book plays on this theme.
The main character is David Shepherd, a political science professor who is also the son of a senator. When he was a young teenager, he, along with two teens, was in a tragic fall from a roof-top. He survived, but one of his companions, Crispin Mueller, was in a coma for months. David has lost track of Crispin, but assumes that he ultimately died from his injuries.
Years later, David remembers his near death experience and recalls voices and names being called out to him. He records these memories in a notebook. He later becomes involves in the hunt for the Book of Names ~ an ancient text that legend has originated with Adam and Eve. By Kabbalistic tradition, this book contains the names of each generation thirty-six righteous individuals, known as the Hidden Ones.
David discovers that most of the names that he has “remembered” are actual people who have recently died under mysterious causes. At the same time, world events start to escalate that could be interpreted as the beginning of the end ~ war in Afghanistan, tsunamis in the Pacific, terrorist attacks …
As David seeks to identify the Hidden Ones, he finds himself face-to-face with the Hidden Ones mortal enemies, the Gnoseos, a secret anti-religious cult whose goal is to kill all the righteous ones, thereby destroying the world. David’s quest becomes personal when he realizes that one of the surviving thirty-six in his generation is his beloved stepdaughter, Stacy.
Of course, there is a love interest, as sabre Yael HarPaz joins in the search for the Gnoseos.
The book is a page-turner, but not of any real substance. It seems like it was written with a movie in mind. Not a bad book, but not intellectually stimulating, either.
Read: November 18, 2009
The Book of Names is the Jewish answer to Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code.
According to Jewish tradition, within each generation, there are thirty-six righteous souls. No one knows who they are, but they are essential to the existence of the world. If they all die, the world as we know it ceases to exist. This book plays on this theme.
The main character is David Shepherd, a political science professor who is also the son of a senator. When he was a young teenager, he, along with two teens, was in a tragic fall from a roof-top. He survived, but one of his companions, Crispin Mueller, was in a coma for months. David has lost track of Crispin, but assumes that he ultimately died from his injuries.
Years later, David remembers his near death experience and recalls voices and names being called out to him. He records these memories in a notebook. He later becomes involves in the hunt for the Book of Names ~ an ancient text that legend has originated with Adam and Eve. By Kabbalistic tradition, this book contains the names of each generation thirty-six righteous individuals, known as the Hidden Ones.
David discovers that most of the names that he has “remembered” are actual people who have recently died under mysterious causes. At the same time, world events start to escalate that could be interpreted as the beginning of the end ~ war in Afghanistan, tsunamis in the Pacific, terrorist attacks …
As David seeks to identify the Hidden Ones, he finds himself face-to-face with the Hidden Ones mortal enemies, the Gnoseos, a secret anti-religious cult whose goal is to kill all the righteous ones, thereby destroying the world. David’s quest becomes personal when he realizes that one of the surviving thirty-six in his generation is his beloved stepdaughter, Stacy.
Of course, there is a love interest, as sabre Yael HarPaz joins in the search for the Gnoseos.
The book is a page-turner, but not of any real substance. It seems like it was written with a movie in mind. Not a bad book, but not intellectually stimulating, either.
Read: November 18, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Books Set in the United States
The Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer (1999)
The Wholeness of a Broken Heart is the story of several generations of Jewish women. Each chapter is narrated in a voice of one of the women. Central to the book is Hannah Felber, a young woman with a strained relationship with her mother, Celia.
Hannah was named after her great-grandmother, Channa, who was born in Poland in 1880. Channa describes the struggles she dealt with in Poland and her life in America. She marries Meyer Horowitz and has a fairly happy life. Her daughter, Ida, marries Moishe, a hateful man who makes her life miserable. Moishe was spared being conscripted into the Russian army when his mother, Leah, traded his life for that of her daughter, Raisl. Leah allowed a cossack sleep with Raisl in exchange for getting Moishe to America. Raisl became pregnant and Moishe never spoke kindly to his sister again. He was aware of the exchange, but could not forgive her.
Celia, Hannah's mother, is unable to form a strong bond with her daughter after she grows up. Hannah struggles with this this loss and relies on the comfort of her grandmother, Ida, who blossoms once Moishe does.
Through each woman's voice, we go back and forth through time and discover the secrets and events that form the personalities of each woman.
This was a delightful book.
Read: November 8, 2009
The Wholeness of a Broken Heart is the story of several generations of Jewish women. Each chapter is narrated in a voice of one of the women. Central to the book is Hannah Felber, a young woman with a strained relationship with her mother, Celia.
Hannah was named after her great-grandmother, Channa, who was born in Poland in 1880. Channa describes the struggles she dealt with in Poland and her life in America. She marries Meyer Horowitz and has a fairly happy life. Her daughter, Ida, marries Moishe, a hateful man who makes her life miserable. Moishe was spared being conscripted into the Russian army when his mother, Leah, traded his life for that of her daughter, Raisl. Leah allowed a cossack sleep with Raisl in exchange for getting Moishe to America. Raisl became pregnant and Moishe never spoke kindly to his sister again. He was aware of the exchange, but could not forgive her.
Celia, Hannah's mother, is unable to form a strong bond with her daughter after she grows up. Hannah struggles with this this loss and relies on the comfort of her grandmother, Ida, who blossoms once Moishe does.
Through each woman's voice, we go back and forth through time and discover the secrets and events that form the personalities of each woman.
This was a delightful book.
Read: November 8, 2009
Books Set in Pakistan
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (2009)
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is a collection of eight short stories, connected through the loves and lives of the rich Harouni family and its employees. The stories are set in Punjab, a district of Pakistan.
K.K. Harouni owns a farm in the countryside, but lives in Lahore, away from his wife. He has allowed Chaudrey Jaglani manage his farm, misplaced judgment on his part. Jaglani is corrupt who sells off portions of the farm and pockets the money. Female employees try to sleep their way into money only to be tossed away when they are no longer useful. Male employees are equally as corrupt. In the opening story, Nawabdin the Electrician steals electricity from the electric company. His most prized possession is his bicycle, which makes him the envy of his village ~ a possession that he is willing to kill for.
These stories paint a bleak portrait of Pakistan. How much of it reflects life in the country today?
Read: November 15, 2009
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is a collection of eight short stories, connected through the loves and lives of the rich Harouni family and its employees. The stories are set in Punjab, a district of Pakistan.
K.K. Harouni owns a farm in the countryside, but lives in Lahore, away from his wife. He has allowed Chaudrey Jaglani manage his farm, misplaced judgment on his part. Jaglani is corrupt who sells off portions of the farm and pockets the money. Female employees try to sleep their way into money only to be tossed away when they are no longer useful. Male employees are equally as corrupt. In the opening story, Nawabdin the Electrician steals electricity from the electric company. His most prized possession is his bicycle, which makes him the envy of his village ~ a possession that he is willing to kill for.
These stories paint a bleak portrait of Pakistan. How much of it reflects life in the country today?
Read: November 15, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Books Set In Medieval France
Maggie Anton has written a series of books about the three daughters of Rashi. Salomon Ben Isaac, better known as Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Itzachak) was born in 1040 and died in 1105. He is one of the most famous Talmudic scholars of his age. He had no sons, but taught his daughters Talmud during a time when women were not typically educated.
Rashi lived in Troyes, France, and established a Yeshiva there. He also had a vineyard to support his family, his wife and three daughters. Anton carefully researched this time period to incorporate not only biblical knowledge and Rashi’s writings, but minute details of life in France during this time period. Each book describes superstitions, sexual rituals and marital relations, the celebration of Jewish holidays, childbirth and life-cycle events.
Rashi's Daughters: Book 3: Rachel, by Maggie Anton (2009)
Rachel is Rashi’s the youngest and most beautiful daughter. She is madly in love with her husband, Eliezer.
This book is set during the First Crusade. Marauders of the First Crusade massacre nearly the entire Jewish population of the Germany city of Speres, where her father began his Talmudic studies. Eliezar is a merchant who travels frequently to Spain, where the Sephardic Jewish tradition is vastly different from that in France. Eliezer wants Rachel to join him there, but she fears life there. In France, she has the freedom to pursue her religious studies and maintain her business of wool manufacturing. In Spain, she will be forced to stay out of the public eye. Marital customs are also vastly different in the Sephardic community. Eliezar takes a second wife. When Rachel learns of this, she is, of course, saddened. This give Anton an opportunity to explore the Jewish laws regarding divorce.
Read: November 6, 2009
Rashi's Daughters: Book 2: Miriam, by Maggie Anton
Miriam was Rashi's middle daughter. The love of her life died after they were engaged, but before they married. This created a sort of "widowhood" for Miriam. Miriam eventually marries a man who is filled with longing for other men. Thus, Anton explores homosexuality during this time period. Miriam and Judah eventually settle into a loving but sexless marriage, after the birth of their four children.
Miriam becomes a midwife, a trade she learned from her Aunt Sarah. In addition, she learns to become a mohel. The community, however, is not ready for a female mohel, so she must rely on family members to have sons to preform circumcisions.
Read: April 13, 2009
Rashi's Daughters: Book 1: Joheved, by Maggie Anton (2005)
Rashi's eldest daughter was Joheved. Anton explores daily life of women during the latter part of the 11th Century. She discusses love and sex in the context of marriage as well as the laws of niddah, or the separation between man and women during and after a woman's monthly period. Joheved is also responsible for assisting in the family's wine trade. Anton provides details of the practices of vintners at this time in history.
Read March 9, 2009
Rashi lived in Troyes, France, and established a Yeshiva there. He also had a vineyard to support his family, his wife and three daughters. Anton carefully researched this time period to incorporate not only biblical knowledge and Rashi’s writings, but minute details of life in France during this time period. Each book describes superstitions, sexual rituals and marital relations, the celebration of Jewish holidays, childbirth and life-cycle events.
Rashi's Daughters: Book 3: Rachel, by Maggie Anton (2009)
Rachel is Rashi’s the youngest and most beautiful daughter. She is madly in love with her husband, Eliezer.
This book is set during the First Crusade. Marauders of the First Crusade massacre nearly the entire Jewish population of the Germany city of Speres, where her father began his Talmudic studies. Eliezar is a merchant who travels frequently to Spain, where the Sephardic Jewish tradition is vastly different from that in France. Eliezer wants Rachel to join him there, but she fears life there. In France, she has the freedom to pursue her religious studies and maintain her business of wool manufacturing. In Spain, she will be forced to stay out of the public eye. Marital customs are also vastly different in the Sephardic community. Eliezar takes a second wife. When Rachel learns of this, she is, of course, saddened. This give Anton an opportunity to explore the Jewish laws regarding divorce.
Read: November 6, 2009
Rashi's Daughters: Book 2: Miriam, by Maggie Anton
Miriam was Rashi's middle daughter. The love of her life died after they were engaged, but before they married. This created a sort of "widowhood" for Miriam. Miriam eventually marries a man who is filled with longing for other men. Thus, Anton explores homosexuality during this time period. Miriam and Judah eventually settle into a loving but sexless marriage, after the birth of their four children.
Miriam becomes a midwife, a trade she learned from her Aunt Sarah. In addition, she learns to become a mohel. The community, however, is not ready for a female mohel, so she must rely on family members to have sons to preform circumcisions.
Read: April 13, 2009
Rashi's Daughters: Book 1: Joheved, by Maggie Anton (2005)
Rashi's eldest daughter was Joheved. Anton explores daily life of women during the latter part of the 11th Century. She discusses love and sex in the context of marriage as well as the laws of niddah, or the separation between man and women during and after a woman's monthly period. Joheved is also responsible for assisting in the family's wine trade. Anton provides details of the practices of vintners at this time in history.
Read March 9, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Books Set in Africa: Zimbabwe
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin (2006)
The saying, “When a Crocodile Eats the Sun,” comes from a belief in some remote villages of Zimbabwe that a crocodile eats the sun when a solar eclipse occurs. This event is a very bad omen, signaling the celestial crocodile's displeasure with the behavior of humans living on earth.
At the beginning of the 2000s, two total eclipses occurred within the span of less than two years. The Zimbabwe villagers became very scared, saying that the crocodile must be very angry with humans, with the threat of perpetual darkness occurring so close together.
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is Peter Godwin's memoir, recounting the final years of his father's life. Godwin grew up in Zimbabwe. His parents emigrated to Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was formerly known, after World War II. Following several years of a civil war, which pitted black nationalists against white settlers, the country was becoming increasingly more violent. Robert Mugabe's government began taking over white-owned commercial farms and began redistributing the land to his supporters, who had no farming knowledge or interest. The government refused to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic and refused assistance from other countries. The life expectancy plummeted to about 34 years.
Mubage's henchmen, men who began calling themselves "War Vets", began terrorizing white farmers. Many of the so-called War Vets had not actually fought in the War of Independence, but were actually a band of rogues and Mugabe supporters, whom others began calling "Wovets. They carried out their threats with AK-47s and machetes. Many farm owners lost their lives in confrontations with the Wovits. Many of the wovit leaders took such names as Hitler Hunzvi, Comarade Satin and Stalin Mau Mau.
Peter's parents were white liberals, his mother was a physician in a black hospital. When she was in need of a hip replacement, she insisted on being treated in the same hospital where she worked instead of opting for a better-equip facility.
In 1978, shortly before her wedding, the author's older sister, Jain, and her fiance, were ambushed in a guerrilla attack. Later her grave is desecrated by wovits, simply because she is interned in a white cemetery.
Mugabe turns many blacks against the whites. Mavis, the Godwin's housekeeper, whom they regarded as a member of the family, began stealing from them and demanding money. The elderly Mr. Godwin was attacked outside the gates of his house. Fires are set in the bushes surrounding their house. Despite all this, the Godwin's refuse to leave the country that has been their home for 50 years.
When his father suffers a heart attack, Peter returns from his overseas journalist job to tend to his parents. He finds a photograph of a middle-aged couple and a young girl. His mother informs him that the people in the picture are his paternal grandparents and aunt. With this comes the knowledge that the man known as George Godwin was actually a Polish Jew named Kazimierz Goldfarb. He had been sent to England to a boarding school in 1939, thereby surviving the ensuing Holocaust. The rest of his family was not so lucky. His mother and sister were killed in the Holocaust. Although his father survived and remarried, George never saw him again. Instead, he reinvented himself as an Anglo and moved to the deepest part of Africa.
George Godwin observes that being a white in Zimbabwe is a bit like being a Jew in Poland during the Holocaust.
Read: October 25, 2009
The saying, “When a Crocodile Eats the Sun,” comes from a belief in some remote villages of Zimbabwe that a crocodile eats the sun when a solar eclipse occurs. This event is a very bad omen, signaling the celestial crocodile's displeasure with the behavior of humans living on earth.
At the beginning of the 2000s, two total eclipses occurred within the span of less than two years. The Zimbabwe villagers became very scared, saying that the crocodile must be very angry with humans, with the threat of perpetual darkness occurring so close together.
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is Peter Godwin's memoir, recounting the final years of his father's life. Godwin grew up in Zimbabwe. His parents emigrated to Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was formerly known, after World War II. Following several years of a civil war, which pitted black nationalists against white settlers, the country was becoming increasingly more violent. Robert Mugabe's government began taking over white-owned commercial farms and began redistributing the land to his supporters, who had no farming knowledge or interest. The government refused to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic and refused assistance from other countries. The life expectancy plummeted to about 34 years.
Mubage's henchmen, men who began calling themselves "War Vets", began terrorizing white farmers. Many of the so-called War Vets had not actually fought in the War of Independence, but were actually a band of rogues and Mugabe supporters, whom others began calling "Wovets. They carried out their threats with AK-47s and machetes. Many farm owners lost their lives in confrontations with the Wovits. Many of the wovit leaders took such names as Hitler Hunzvi, Comarade Satin and Stalin Mau Mau.
Peter's parents were white liberals, his mother was a physician in a black hospital. When she was in need of a hip replacement, she insisted on being treated in the same hospital where she worked instead of opting for a better-equip facility.
In 1978, shortly before her wedding, the author's older sister, Jain, and her fiance, were ambushed in a guerrilla attack. Later her grave is desecrated by wovits, simply because she is interned in a white cemetery.
Mugabe turns many blacks against the whites. Mavis, the Godwin's housekeeper, whom they regarded as a member of the family, began stealing from them and demanding money. The elderly Mr. Godwin was attacked outside the gates of his house. Fires are set in the bushes surrounding their house. Despite all this, the Godwin's refuse to leave the country that has been their home for 50 years.
When his father suffers a heart attack, Peter returns from his overseas journalist job to tend to his parents. He finds a photograph of a middle-aged couple and a young girl. His mother informs him that the people in the picture are his paternal grandparents and aunt. With this comes the knowledge that the man known as George Godwin was actually a Polish Jew named Kazimierz Goldfarb. He had been sent to England to a boarding school in 1939, thereby surviving the ensuing Holocaust. The rest of his family was not so lucky. His mother and sister were killed in the Holocaust. Although his father survived and remarried, George never saw him again. Instead, he reinvented himself as an Anglo and moved to the deepest part of Africa.
George Godwin observes that being a white in Zimbabwe is a bit like being a Jew in Poland during the Holocaust.
Read: October 25, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Books Set In Israel
Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein (2009)
This was another book that I just picked up off the shelf at the public Library.
Archaeologist Page Brookstone has spent her entire career unearthing ancient remains in the Middle East, most specifically at the battlegrounds of Megiddo. She is single, convinced that the Lou Gehrig's disease that affected her father will fall upon her as well. Her mentor, Norris Anderson, is the lead archaeologist at the Migiddo dig. He has a romantic interest in Page, which she does not return.
One day an Arab couple, Ibrahim and Aisha Barakat, go to Migiddo, hunt out Page and ask that she excavate the ground beneath their house. They are convinced that their house is haunted by a pair of spirits. The spirits, they claim, are lovers.
Against the advice of her mentor, Page decides to investigate. She finds that Ibrahim has already begin digging through the floor of his living room. Page is intrigued and ultimately finds a cistern beneath the Barakat house.
In the course of her excavation, she finds wonderful artifacts along with the bones of the prophet Jeremiah and a mysterious woman named Anatiya. Buried with the entwined skeletons is a collection of jars which contain the Anatiya scrolls. Page photographs the scrolls and asks her best friend, Jordanna, to translate them.
Page also meets Mortichai Masters, an Orthodox Jew whose mother is a Russian Jew and whose father is Irish Catholic. Mortichai is newly observant and engaged to marry the rabbi's daughter. Soon, however, the chemistry between Page and Mortichai is too much to ignore.
The book started off with a bang, but the momentum couldn't be sustained. It was an interesting book and filled with biblical knowledge. The end, however, couldn't live up to the first pages.
Read: October 16, 2009
This was another book that I just picked up off the shelf at the public Library.
Archaeologist Page Brookstone has spent her entire career unearthing ancient remains in the Middle East, most specifically at the battlegrounds of Megiddo. She is single, convinced that the Lou Gehrig's disease that affected her father will fall upon her as well. Her mentor, Norris Anderson, is the lead archaeologist at the Migiddo dig. He has a romantic interest in Page, which she does not return.
One day an Arab couple, Ibrahim and Aisha Barakat, go to Migiddo, hunt out Page and ask that she excavate the ground beneath their house. They are convinced that their house is haunted by a pair of spirits. The spirits, they claim, are lovers.
Against the advice of her mentor, Page decides to investigate. She finds that Ibrahim has already begin digging through the floor of his living room. Page is intrigued and ultimately finds a cistern beneath the Barakat house.
In the course of her excavation, she finds wonderful artifacts along with the bones of the prophet Jeremiah and a mysterious woman named Anatiya. Buried with the entwined skeletons is a collection of jars which contain the Anatiya scrolls. Page photographs the scrolls and asks her best friend, Jordanna, to translate them.
Page also meets Mortichai Masters, an Orthodox Jew whose mother is a Russian Jew and whose father is Irish Catholic. Mortichai is newly observant and engaged to marry the rabbi's daughter. Soon, however, the chemistry between Page and Mortichai is too much to ignore.
The book started off with a bang, but the momentum couldn't be sustained. It was an interesting book and filled with biblical knowledge. The end, however, couldn't live up to the first pages.
Read: October 16, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Books Set in Victorian England: London
The Singing Fire by Lilian Nattel
This novel is set in Victorian England and follows two Jewish women who immigrate to London. Nehama is from shtel and has dreams of making money and sending for her parents and sisters. Emilia is from a wealthly family in Minsk who leaves for London to escape her tyrant father after finding herself pregnant.
Both have their dreams dashed in London, a city dealing with the "Jewish" question. Nehama finds herself quickly lured into prostitution When she leaves this life, she is taken in by a couple who nurture her and she eventually finds a loving husband.
Emilia abandons her newborn daughter to Nehama who raises her. Emilia "passes" as a gentile and marries a Jew, only to be faced with conversion before her child is born.
The author makes some interesting points about Jewish life in mid-Victorian England, but the novel itself is disjointed.
Read: October 11, 2009
This novel is set in Victorian England and follows two Jewish women who immigrate to London. Nehama is from shtel and has dreams of making money and sending for her parents and sisters. Emilia is from a wealthly family in Minsk who leaves for London to escape her tyrant father after finding herself pregnant.
Both have their dreams dashed in London, a city dealing with the "Jewish" question. Nehama finds herself quickly lured into prostitution When she leaves this life, she is taken in by a couple who nurture her and she eventually finds a loving husband.
Emilia abandons her newborn daughter to Nehama who raises her. Emilia "passes" as a gentile and marries a Jew, only to be faced with conversion before her child is born.
The author makes some interesting points about Jewish life in mid-Victorian England, but the novel itself is disjointed.
Read: October 11, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Books Set in the United States: The Carolinas
Strangers in the Land of Egypt by Stephen March (2009)
I picked this book up at my local library without knowing anything about it. It is a fascinating story of the rural south and the anti-Semitism that is still very prevalent there.
Jesse Terrill is a young teen-aged boy, whose mother left the family and whose father was seriously brain-damaged by an act of violence. In addition, Jesse's older brother was killed in a terrorist attack while serving abroad. Jesse is now living with his uncle.
One evening, Jesse and some of his wild buddies go out and vandalize the local synagogue. He is arrested and tried. Because he refuses to name is friends, he takes the fall for the crime. The judge seeing some goodness in Jesse, places him on a 2 year probation and requires him to do community service. He is assigned to assist Mendal Ebban, an elderly Jewish Holocaust survivor living in a nursing home.
Ebban is a religious Jew who is still very tortured by the events he survived in the concentration camp. He is wheelchair bound and his eyesight does not permit him to read. He has Jesse read Torah to him. Slowly they form a friendship in which Ebban teaches Jesse the ethics of living a good life.
While Jesse struggles to behave, so as not to be sent to the brutal detention center, he is faced with dealing with some not-so-gentle people. He wants to take revenge on the man whom he thinks injured his father. Jesse comes up with what he thinks is the perfect plan, and he fantasizes about how he will carry out his plan.
One of his friends is LaFay, who has an abusive boyfriend. Jesse gets into a fight with the boyfriend, seriously injuring him. When Jesse is later beaten and left for dead, he refuses to tell the police the details of his attack for fear that he will be sent to the detention center for his own prior attack on LaFay's boyfriend.
This was a beautifully written book about a young boy's struggle to be good in a terrifying world.
Read: October 3, 2009
I picked this book up at my local library without knowing anything about it. It is a fascinating story of the rural south and the anti-Semitism that is still very prevalent there.
Jesse Terrill is a young teen-aged boy, whose mother left the family and whose father was seriously brain-damaged by an act of violence. In addition, Jesse's older brother was killed in a terrorist attack while serving abroad. Jesse is now living with his uncle.
One evening, Jesse and some of his wild buddies go out and vandalize the local synagogue. He is arrested and tried. Because he refuses to name is friends, he takes the fall for the crime. The judge seeing some goodness in Jesse, places him on a 2 year probation and requires him to do community service. He is assigned to assist Mendal Ebban, an elderly Jewish Holocaust survivor living in a nursing home.
Ebban is a religious Jew who is still very tortured by the events he survived in the concentration camp. He is wheelchair bound and his eyesight does not permit him to read. He has Jesse read Torah to him. Slowly they form a friendship in which Ebban teaches Jesse the ethics of living a good life.
While Jesse struggles to behave, so as not to be sent to the brutal detention center, he is faced with dealing with some not-so-gentle people. He wants to take revenge on the man whom he thinks injured his father. Jesse comes up with what he thinks is the perfect plan, and he fantasizes about how he will carry out his plan.
One of his friends is LaFay, who has an abusive boyfriend. Jesse gets into a fight with the boyfriend, seriously injuring him. When Jesse is later beaten and left for dead, he refuses to tell the police the details of his attack for fear that he will be sent to the detention center for his own prior attack on LaFay's boyfriend.
This was a beautifully written book about a young boy's struggle to be good in a terrifying world.
Read: October 3, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Books Set in South America: Brazil
The Garlic Tree, by Ellen Bromfield Geld (1970)
Wealthy American Annie Bancroft married Jacinto Madurai and left the world she knew to move to the wilderness of Brazil. Jacinto’s family owned acres of farmland in Brazil’s Mato Grosso. There are few people on the land other than Jacinto’s family and the farm workers. Annie must travel miles to the nearest city.
The Brazilians called the land the Terra de Pau D’Alho, the land of the Garlic Tree, which symbolizes good, rich earth. The Madureira’s are taming the land when the Communists discover the land as an ideal spot for the activities of the Ligas Camponese.
This book feels largely autobiographical. The author, Ellen Bromfield Geld, is an American who married and moved to the fazenda in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She uses too many Portuguese terms, which she doesn’t define, which makes this book cumbersome to read. Furthermore, I couldn’t get a good fix on the characters, they were neither likeable, nor un-likeable.
Wealthy American Annie Bancroft married Jacinto Madurai and left the world she knew to move to the wilderness of Brazil. Jacinto’s family owned acres of farmland in Brazil’s Mato Grosso. There are few people on the land other than Jacinto’s family and the farm workers. Annie must travel miles to the nearest city.
The Brazilians called the land the Terra de Pau D’Alho, the land of the Garlic Tree, which symbolizes good, rich earth. The Madureira’s are taming the land when the Communists discover the land as an ideal spot for the activities of the Ligas Camponese.
This book feels largely autobiographical. The author, Ellen Bromfield Geld, is an American who married and moved to the fazenda in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She uses too many Portuguese terms, which she doesn’t define, which makes this book cumbersome to read. Furthermore, I couldn’t get a good fix on the characters, they were neither likeable, nor un-likeable.
Books Set in South America: Andes
Alive! The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read (1974)
This is the story of the rugby team from Uruguay whose plane crashed in the Andes in October 1972. Most of the passengers were young men on the rugby team and were between the ages of 18 - 26. On the flight from Uruguay to Chile, the plane crashed in the Andes Mountains. No one knew where. The rescue attempt was thwarted by bad weather.
Some of the 46 passengers were killed on impact, or died shortly thereafter. Some survived only to be killed a few weeks later by an avalanche. Many were injured, some seriously. All suffered the trauma from the crash and subsequent conditions high in the mountains, facing freezing temperatures and no food. After several days with no food, the young men realized that the only way they could survive was to consume the corpses of their dead teammates and passengers. Although they were revolted by this thought, they knew that without food, they could not have any hope of surviving.
Ten weeks after the crash, and just days before Christmas, two of the 16 survivors, were able to trek out of the mountains to find help. Their rescuers were amazed that these young men were even able to find their way out of the mountains. Ultimately, helicopters arrived and brought the remaining 14 young men to safety. All were suffering malnutrition.
The author did a wonderful job describing how these young men survived. Each is shown with compassion and love. A terrifying experience for all involved.
Read: August 29, 2009
This is the story of the rugby team from Uruguay whose plane crashed in the Andes in October 1972. Most of the passengers were young men on the rugby team and were between the ages of 18 - 26. On the flight from Uruguay to Chile, the plane crashed in the Andes Mountains. No one knew where. The rescue attempt was thwarted by bad weather.
Some of the 46 passengers were killed on impact, or died shortly thereafter. Some survived only to be killed a few weeks later by an avalanche. Many were injured, some seriously. All suffered the trauma from the crash and subsequent conditions high in the mountains, facing freezing temperatures and no food. After several days with no food, the young men realized that the only way they could survive was to consume the corpses of their dead teammates and passengers. Although they were revolted by this thought, they knew that without food, they could not have any hope of surviving.
Ten weeks after the crash, and just days before Christmas, two of the 16 survivors, were able to trek out of the mountains to find help. Their rescuers were amazed that these young men were even able to find their way out of the mountains. Ultimately, helicopters arrived and brought the remaining 14 young men to safety. All were suffering malnutrition.
The author did a wonderful job describing how these young men survived. Each is shown with compassion and love. A terrifying experience for all involved.
Read: August 29, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Books set in the United States: Florida
I Take This Land by Robert Powell (1962).
This is a novel about the settlement of Florida during the frontier days from 1895 through 1946. The novel follows three families: Ward Champion, Joel Emmett and Rush Lighburn. Ward Champion is a possessive land promoter who won a railroad in a poker game, thus leading him to southern Florida. Joel Emmett is a farmer, whose love of the land ultimately costs him the lives of all he loved. Rush Lighburn is the obligatory villain, the wild man who lives far from society in the deep Everglades. All are madly in love with Annie, the young woman school teacher.
I first read this book back when I was in high school. I remembered the egrets, and how Joel, despite his better judgment, hunted them for their plumes. He needed money to save his own farmland. It was the fashion for women to wear hats with large feather plums. Joel was able to save his farm, but at the expense of the egrets. In the novel, it took years for the egrets to return.
Where are the egrets today?
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