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
No comments:
Post a Comment