Books Set in North America: New York City

The Hidden Palace, by Helene Wecker (2021)

 

The Hidden Palace picks up the characters from The Golem and the Jenni, but the reader need not have read the first book to enjoy this one.  This novel takes place eight years after the first novel has ended and begins around 1900.  There are several threads plots in this novel.  Chava, the Jewish golem, and Ahmad, the Arabian jinni, have gone their separate ways haven’t seen each other in years.  Sophia Winston, who became chilled following her affair with the jinni, has traveled to a desert Middle East to find a cure.  Anne is working as a laundress and raising her young son.  Interwoven into the lives of the characters, is a fair amount of history, as the world is on the brink of World War I.

 

Cheva realizes that as a golem, she never ages, while the people around her do.  She realized that she could no longer work in the bakery, so attends a nearby college and gets a degree in that allows her to teach cooking.  She reinvented herself as Charlotte Levy and landed a job at an orphanage academy.  After the jinni’s partner died, he holed up in the building and cut himself off from the rest of the community and spent his time constructing with steel.  Anne’s son landed a job as a Western Union messenger, which takes him around New York City.

 

While searching for a cure to her illness, Sophia encounteres a female jinni, whom she calls Dima.  Dima has been banished from her tribe and is searching for the jinni who can touch steel (Ahmad).  She promises Sophia a cure if she can bring her to Ahmad.  Meanwhile, back in New York, the reader meets Kreindel, a young girl who studies Hebrew with her rabbi and assists him in making Yessele, another golem to be her protector.

 

In addition to a beautiful story, the author also gives us a glimpse of life in the New York tenements at the turn of the last century.  I loved this book and look forward to other writings from this author.

 

Read:  May 3, 2023

 

4 Stars

 

 

Books Set in Europe: England

Disobedience, by Naomi Alderman (2006)

Read: March 3, 2023

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: France and Germany

The Art of Resistance, by Justus Rosenberg (2020)

 

The author, Justus Rosenberg, was well into his 90s when his memoir was published.  He was born in 1921 in the Free City of Danzig, a semi-autonomous city-state that existed for about 20 years between 1920 and 1940.  He was immersed in both Polish and German culture.  His grandparents lived in Poland, but his parents had moved to Danzig.  They believed that the Jewish residents of Danzig would be insulated from the rise of Hitler.

 

At age 16, Rosenberg was sent to Paris to further his education.  The rest of his family remained in Danzig.  When the Germans invaded France, Rosenberg’s studies came to an end.  The blond-haired, blue-eyed Rosenburg didn’t “look Jewish” and soon found himself joining the underground resistance movement.  The fact that he was also fluent in Polish, German and English was a major asset to the underground.

 

Rosenberg recounts his imprisonments and escapes in vivid detail.  The book reads like a suspense story.  We know from the beginning, of course, that the author survives, but that doesn’t distract from the tensions of the narrative.

 

After the War, Rosenberg settled in the United States where he became a literature professor at Bard College.  He died in October 2021 at age 100.

 

4 Stars

 

Read: January 2022

 

 

Books Set in Asia: Siberia, Russia and North America: New York, New York.

The Nesting Dolls, by Alina Adams (2020)

 

The Nesting Dolls focuses on three Jewish women: Daria (from 1931 to 1942), Natasha (from 1970 to 1991) and Zoe (1991).  Daria is Zoe’s great-grandmother, who was born in Russia and married the talented musician, Edward Gordon.  They and their two young daughters were sent to Siberia for a minor infraction during the Stalin years.  The janitor, Adam, of their building was also deported to Siberia.  He had a reputation for having reported on his mother for her infractions, thus was feared.  He ostensibly was being deported for not having reported Daria’s family to the authorities.  In Siberian village, however, he was granted better quarters than most if its occupants.  Adam would come to play a vital and integral role in saving Daria’s family.

 

We then skip a generation to Natasha, Daria’s granddaughter.  The family was now living in Odessa.  Natasha had a brilliant mind for mathematics and was hoping to attend the prestigious Odessa University.  Sadly, the quota for Jews was filled and Natasha was giving failing marks on her entrance exams.  She had to settle for a mediocre school and was then given a job teaching math to junior high students.  Her childhood friend, Boris, had always been in love with her, but she took him for granted.  One day she met Dima, a refusenik, who convinced her that she could be instrumental in letting the outside world know about the atrocities going on in Russia.  Natasha fell in love with Dima, and soon finds herself pregnant.  Her only way out was to marry Boris who, while being seemingly apolitical, was able to gain passage out of the USSR.

 

Finally, we meet Zoe, Natasha’s granddaughter.  She was born in America but bears the burdens and guilt imposed upon her by her grandmother and great-grandmother.  Like them, she, too, has two men in her life and must choose between what she believes is best for her family and what is best for herself.

 

Each of the three women are encased in each other’s lives, much like the nesting dolls that Russia is famous for.  Life does not always give you want you think you want, but it just might give you what you need.

 

I loved this novel.  I really felt the characters come alive.  I also loved how the author skipped a gereration and focused on the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Daria, the initial character.

 

Read:  June 15, 2021

 

5 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States, Atlanta, Georgia

In the Neighborhood of True, by Susan Kaplan Carlton (2019)

In the Neighborhood of True is a coming-of-age novel set in 1958 Atlanta, Georgia.  Ruth Robb’s father recently died, so her mother packs Ruth, her sister Nattie, and they move from New York City to Atlanta, Georgia to live in her grandparent’s guest house.  Ruth’s mother grew up in Atlanta society and was Queen of the Magnolia Ball, as well as a handful of other balls.  Ruth’s grandmother, Fontaine, is all set to send her granddaughters into the debutante season.

Atlanta society is white and Protestant.  Ruth’s late father was Jewish and Ruth’s mother converted.  Ruth and her sister have been raised Jewish.  This would be a stumbling block to enter Atlanta society.  Ruth and her sister attend the private school, Covenant, that was established after the ruling in Brown v. Education, so it wasn’t subject to integration.

Ruth quickly falls in the popular girls and learns Southern etiquette from the little pink pamphlet her grandmother has given her.  She decides to keep the fact that she is Jewish a secret so she can be accepted with her new friends.  She also falls hard for Davis Jefferson, the handsome young classmate.  He is attracted to her, too.

Ruth and her mother come to an agreement, that Ruth can go to school dances provided she attend Shabbos services on Saturday mornings.  The rabbi at the local synagogue is pushing for civil rights.  Ruth is walking a fine line between her religious upbring and her desire to fit in with her classmates.

Ruth is aware of the violence towards Blacks and learns about the lynching of Leo Frank in the early 1900s.  As the story leads to an act of violent antisemitism, Ruth is faced with a moral dilemma.

This story was based on an actual act of antisemitism that occurred in October 1958 in Atlanta, Georgia.  Although 60 years have lapsed since, antisemitism is on the rise.  Many synagogues in the South have police protection during Friday and Saturday services.  The attitudes and events of this novel could conceivably occur today.

Read: May 26, 2021

5 Stars

Books Set in the Middle East: Israel

Homesick, by Eshkol Nevo (2008)

 

Homesick takes place in a small village somewhere between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv where we become acquainted with several of its residents.  The book with college students, Amir and Noa, young college students looking for their first apartment in the fall of 1995.  Amir is studying psychology in Tel Aviv and Noa is a photography student at the Bezalel Art College in Jerusalem, hence their need for a place in between both cities.

 

Most of the residents in the village are Jewish immigrants from Kurdistan.  Amir and Noa find a small apartment in a home inhabited by Moshe and Sima Zakian and Moshe’s parents, Avram and Gina.  Their landlords are about their same age but married young and have two small children.  They share a common wall with their landlord, and in fact, much reach through a small hole in the wall to turn on the hot water to their apartment.

 

The house across the street belongs to Reuven and Nechama Averni.  Amir and Noa mistakenly enter the Averni home when they first arrive, thinking that is their intended destination.  The Averni’s are sitting shiva for their son Gidi, who was kill fighting in Lebanon.  Nechama is unable to stop grieving for her son and neglects her younger son, Yotam, who befriends Amir.

 

The home where the Zakian’s live had formerly been owned by an Arab family prior to 1948.  Saddiq A’adana, a middle-aged Arab, has been working on a construction site nearby.  He recognized the Zakian’s house as the one he lived in as a young child.  He is determined to get into the house to look for a gold chain that was left behind when his family fled.  He tries to make conversation with Gina, but she is fearful of him.

 

In Israel, the title of the book literally means Four Houses and Longings.  This title aptly describes the characters we are introduced to.  Each has his or her own longings, some of which they keep to themselves, causing rifts with their loved ones.  I just loved the way the characters came alive.

 

I first read this book in July 2017.  I still loved it upon a 2^nd reading.

 

Read:  May 12, 2021

 

5 Stars

 

~~~~~~~~~

Homesick, by Eshkol Nevo (2008)

Homesick by Eshkol Nevo takes place in a small village somewhere between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We are introduced to the town when we meet Amir and Noa in the Fall of 1995, who are looking for their first apartment together. They find a tiny apartment in a house that before the War of Independence had belonged to an Arab family. Now the house is home to Sima and Moshe, a young couple with two small children, and Moshe's parents, who have the upstairs apartment. The family next door just lost their eldest son in the war in Lebanon. Because the parents are so distraught, they ignore their younger son, Yotam, who befriends Amir. Nearby, another family is adding on to their home. One of the Arab construction workers, Saddiq, once lived in the house now home to Sima and Moshe.

This novel is told through the voices of many characters. Thus, we experience the everyday experiences and interpersonal relationship from many points of view. This really made the characters come alive. I loved this book. 

Read: July 21, 2017

5 Stars 

Books Set in Europe: The Netherlands, Amsterdam

House on Endless Waters, by Emuna Elon (2016)

The novel begins when the well-known Israeli author, Yoel Blum, is boarding an airplane.  Right from the beginning, we realize that his is not really a likable character.  He is a bit of a snob, and he has trouble interacting well with people.  At some point in the novel, he acknowledges that he is not sure that he married for love, rather than convenience.

Regardless, his latest book is being published in the Netherlands and he is traveling to Amsterdam to promote his book.  He has mixed feelings about this trip because his mother had always told him he should never, ever go to Amsterdam.  Although he was born in Amsterdam during World War II, he and his family never returned.  His mother is now deceased, but he wants to keep his promise to her not to go.

While in Amsterdam, he goes to one of the Jewish museums and observes a movie clip that shows his mother holding a baby, along with his father (who perished in the War) and his older sister, Nettie.  Upon his return to Israel, he discussed what he had seen with his sister.  He tells her that he recognized his family, but the baby doesn’t look like him.  Soon after, he feels compelled to return to Amsterdam to search out his background.

The novel mixes the past and present as Yoel seeks out information of his family.  He decides to use his search for his identity as the basis for his next novel.  At times the past and present blur.  He seeks out the building where his family once had a small apartment.  The building is now a rather seedy hotel, but Yoel decides to rent a room.  He decides to use his search for identity as his next 

Yoel visits the local synagogue and eventually meets a man about his age who confides that he was a child of Jewish parents who were hidden by a Christian family during the War.  This man has only recently confronted his past with the life he lived for most of his life.

As Blum takes notes for his next novel, he imagines his family life in the building of a wealthy Jewish banker, and the banker’s daughter and her family.  All are in denial of what is happening during the War until it is nearly too late.

This novel also reads like a travel map of Amsterdam.  Streets and buildings are vividly described.

The reader can easily guess early on the punchline of the novel, but the payoff comes too late.  SPOILER ALERT:  Yoel is not the biological child of his mother.  Their neighbors switched their son with Yoel’s mother on the pretext that they would soon be following them to Palestine.  Still, it was a fast read, and not many Holocaust novels address the non-Jewish Dutch families who were willing to hide and safe Jewish children.

Read: August 3, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in Australia and Asia; China

The Song of the Jade Lily, by Kirsty Manning (2019)

This historical novel jumps back and forth between the present (2016) and the late 1930s’ through the end of World War II.  In the present, Alexandra Laird has a high-powered job with a financial company in London and has sought a transfer to Shanghai.  The transfer request was for three reasons: to escape part escape from a bad break-up; to be closer to her grandparents who live in Australia; and to learn about her birth mother who had been born in Shanghai.  Alexandra’s parents were killed when she was very young had had been raised by her grandparents, Romy and Wilhem Cohen.  Alexandra’s mother was ostensibly adopted and was of Chinese ancestry.  She is curious about her mother’s origins, but her grandparents have been very secretive about her past.

In flashbacks, we meet Alexandra’s grandmother, Romy.  Twelve-year-old Romy and her parents, who were Jews, fled Vienna shortly after Kristallnacht and made their way to Shanghai.  China was one of the few countries in the 1930 that was accepting Jewish immigrants.  They were not, apparently, practicing Jews in China, but their religious affiliation was not a problem in China.

In Shanghai, Romy met Li Ho, a beautiful young girl who is Romy’s age and the two become fast friends.  Li Ho’s father was a doctor in Eastern medicine, which intrigued Romy.  She picked up some herbal treatment methods, which she employed throughout her life.

Initially, Shanghai was safe.  In the 1930s it was a major international city.  Late in World War II, however, Shanghai fell under Japanese control and the city became very dangerous.  There are parallels between the brutish treatment of the Nazi’s towards the Jews and the Japanese soldiers’ treatment of the Chinese.  Li’s parents were active in the resistance, which lead to a tragic result.  Li and her brother then had to take whatever steps necessary to survive.

The description so Shanghai bring the city to life with its sight and smells.  Unfortunately, the characters are lacking and are not fully developed.  Alexandra too quickly falls into a new relationship that doesn’t quite fit as described in the novel.

The novel was a very quick read, although it could have used a better editor.  There were several places where the author repeated herself.  The twist at the end, however, made the book a worthwhile read.

Read:  May 25, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Paris, France

The Paris Architect, by Charles Belfoure (2013)

Lucien Bernard is a young up-and coming architect living in Paris in the 1940s with his wife, and he has a mistress on the side.  He hopes for the next big commission that will bring him money and fame.  Germany has occupied France, and architectural jobs are dwindling.  He has an appointment with Auguste Manet, a wealthy industrialist, whom he hopes will bring him a lucrative commission.

Manet seeks to have Bernard devised a hiding place in one of his properties to hide one of his Jewish friends.  At first, Bernard dismisses the idea, but Manet teases him with a lucrative job designing a factory.  Although Bernard knows that the factory will be making armaments for the Germany, he accepts the challenge to devise a hiding space so he can use his creative talents on the factory building.

Bernard devises a hiding place in a non-structural column in one of Manet’s apartments.  He knows that if the Germans find the spot, and learns that he created the space, he will be killed.  The hiding place is a success.  The Germans ransack the apartment, but fail to find the hiding spot.  Soon, Manet asks Bernard to devise another hiding spot.  Bernard agrees, but says this will be the last time.  “Of course,” agrees Manet.  … Until the next time Manet must hide a Jew from the Germans.

While working on the factory, Bernard meets Herzog, a Germany officer who also has an interest in architecture.  They for a sort of friendship, which makes Bernard realize that he is in collaboration with the Germans.  Still, he continues to devise hiding places for Manet, knowing that his interaction with the Germans can come to an abrupt end should they discover his secret works.

I enjoyed this novel, however, I found the constant stereotypes of Jews to be disturbing.  

Read:

March 27, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: New York State

The Romance Reader, by Pearl Abraham (1995)

The Romance Reader, by Pearl Abraham, is a coming of age story told from the perspective of a young Hasidic girl.  Rachel Benjamin is the daughter of a visionary rabbi of a very small community somewhere in New York State.  She is the eldest of 7 children, and as the eldest, is expected to tend to the younger children.

Also, as the daughter of a Hasadic rabbi, she is expected to be an example in the community.  She loves to read secular books, especially gothic romance novels.  She knows that her parents would disapprove, and so work out a scheme to get a library card so she can check out her beloved novels.

She finds ways to rebel against the stringent rules imposed by her father.  Although she attends a religious school, her classmates wear clothing that is more “modern”.  Rachel develops a scheme allowing her to wear shear stockings at school, instead of the thick, seamed opaque tights that her parents insist are more modest.

When her mother goes to Israel and her father goes to South America, 15-year old Rachel is left in charge of the household.  She and her younger sister, Leah, decided to take a class in lifeguarding so that they can work and earn money over the summer.  (Somehow, they had learned how to swim and were strong swimmers).  Their only concern is whether or not they will be able to continue the class once their parents return.  They decide that their best course of action is to remind their father that lifeguarding will, indeed, save lives.  The parents, however, are more concerned about the girls wearing bathing suits.

As Rachel nears her 18^th birthday, she knows she is expected to marry.  From her readings, she has fantasies of being with a man.  She isn’t eager, however, to step into the life of an arranged marriage that is expected of her in her restrictive community.

Her rebellion and struggles are what all young women go through, except that her family is deeply religious and have certain expectations that she is not sure she is able to meet.

Read:  March 15, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in North America; United States; New England; Massachusetts and Vermont

The Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor Lipman (1998) is a delightful little romantic comic novel.

We first meet Natalie Marx, the heroine of The Inn as Lake Devine, as a young girl, who lives in a tight-knit Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts.  The year is the early 1960s.  While exploring a resort for a summer vacation, her mother writes a letter of inquiry to the Inn at Lake Devine, which is situated on a beautiful lake in scenic Vermont. Ingrid Berry, the owner and manager of the Inn, writes back stating that the clientele at the Inn is for gentiles.  This seems to be Natalie’s first experience with anti-Semitism.  It also convinces her that she absolutely must find out what is so great about this particular Inn.

Soon after this event, the Civil Rights Act became the law.  Young Natalie began a campaign to flood the Berry’s letters reminding them that they could no longer restrict their clientele to only gentiles.

Later, while at summer camp, Natalie meets Robin Fife, whose family just happens to vacation at the Inn at Lake Devine each summer.  Natalie befriends Robin, even though she finds Robin a bit dull.  She devises a scheme to get herself invited to go to the Inn with Fife family for a week’s vacation.

Flash-forward 10 years.  Natalie is now a professional chef who is between jobs.  Natalie and Robin have more-or-less lost track of each other when Natalie learns that Robin is working in Boston at the Pappagallo store on Newbury Street in Boston.  (How well I remember this store!)  Natalie learns that Robin is engaged to marry Nelson Berry, son of the infamous Inn at Lake Devine.  Robin insists that Natalie attend her upcoming nuptials, which will be held at … (wait for it) the Inn!

Natalie returns to the Inn for the wedding and, on the way to the event, Robin is killed in a tragic car accident.  With family gathered for the wedding, the family decides to hold the funeral there instead.  Natalie stays for the week, cooking for the grieving families where she befriends Kris Berry, the groom’s younger brother.

She hopes that her budding friendship with Kris will develop into something more.  Her parents aren’t thrilled with her involvement with Kris because not only is he not Jewish, but at least 1 member of his family is anti-Semitic.  They fail to give Natalie messages and letters from Kris.

Ultimately, Kris and Natalie get together and go off to a resort in the Catskills with Nelson and his college friend Linette.  Linette’s family runs a kosher resort in the Catskills and she is engaged to a rabbinical student.  She and Nelson, however, renew their friendship as Natalie and Kris’s relationship blooms.

I liked this book, however, the ending was a little too trite.  Nelson quickly became involved with Linette so soon after Robin’s death.  This seemed very callous.

There is a brief, but interesting, #MeToo incident between Natalie and her influential boss.  He tacitly promises to provide her with job opportunities in exchange for sexual favors.  Natalie declines his “offer”, but this passage was written 20 years before such actions were even remotely being taken seriously by the public at large.

Read: February 26, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: New York City

Button Man, by Andrew Gross (2018)

Button Man is a historical family drama about organized crime and the garment industry in the 1920s and 30s.  The novel opens in 1905 with the death of one of the young twin brothers from the Rabishevsky family.  His death left a pall over the family and haunts Harry, his twin brother, for the rest of his life.

The Rabishevsky’s were Russian-Jews scraping by in their new environs.  After the death of their father, a few years later, the children are forced to find work.  The novel focuses on Morris, the youngest child.  He finds work at 12 years old as an apprentice as a cutter in the garment factory.  He is ambitious and soon learns the industry.

Jump forward to the 1920s, Morris has begun his own small garment company.  He enlists his older brother, Sol, to be the company’s account.  They call their company Raab Brothers.  They try to get Harry into the business, but he is drawn to the seedier side of the city and has fallen in with some small-time criminals.

At first the Raab Brothers is too small to attract the interest of organized crime, which by the 1930s has infiltrated the garment industry by controlling its unions.  Morris fought the unions, knowing that he was able to pay his employees higher wages, and didn’t want to pay the “protection” to the criminal syndicate.

The novel also focuses on some real-life criminals ~ Louis Buchalter, Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro, Mendy Weiss, Dutch Schultz, Albert Anastasia and others.  While reading this book, I periodically stopped to do some fact checking.  Much of what was depicted in the novel was based on actual events.

I enjoyed this book.  It was a fast read.  The final confrontation between Morris and the criminal element in the last few pages, however, was a bit too far-fetched, in what otherwise was a very believable novel. 

The novel was based on his only family saga.  His grandfather was in the garment industry and had first-hand experience in dealing with the so-called union organizers.  This made the book especially poignant.

A Button Man is a hired killer.  The title, thus, is a double entendre:  It can refer to both a hired killer or the garment industry itself.

Read:  January 14, 2020

4.5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Poland

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris (2018)

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the experiences of Lale Sokolov and Gita Furman who were deported to Auschwitz in the early 1940s, and remained there until the end of World War II.

Lale was a young Slovakian Jew who was rounded up, ostensibly for construction work, in 1942.  He soon found himself a prisoner at Auschwitz.  At the time he was taken, he was not aware of the full extent of Nazi actions.  Because he spoke several languages, he became the assistant to a French Jew named Pepan, the tattooist.  Pepan took Lale under his wing and taught him the art of tattooing.  Although he despised the work, he learned to keep his head down and tattooed the numbers on the arms of Jews entering the camp.  One day his tattooist mentor disappeared, he Lale became the primary tattooist.  This position gave him privileges not afforded other prisoners.

One day, he tattooed the arm of a young women.  Although she had already been shorn of her hair, he thought she was beautiful.  He learned her name was Gita and she was a prisoner at Birkenau.  She, too, was given a “job” at Auschwitz, which provided her with some protections.  The two young people were able to arrange meetings and they fell in love.

Because of Lale’s position and privileges, he was able to smuggle extra rations of food and clothing to some of the other prisoners.  Lale did what he had to do to survive and to try to keep some of his fellow prisoners alive.

When the War ended, Lale and Gita were separated, however, they continued to search for each other, as well as their family members.  Ultimately, they found each other and after the War, they married.  They ended up living in Australia.  He kept his work as at tattooist secret for many years for fear that he would be considered a Nazi collaborator since his work in the Auschwitz kept him alive.

After Gita died, Lale met with the author and told his story.  It is a fascinating tale of love and survival amid unthinkable horror.

Read:  November 19, 2019

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: France, Austria, and England

The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal (2010)

The Hare with Amber Eyes is a memoir of the author’s paternal ancestors, who were once of the wealthy European Jewish Ephrussi’s of the banking dynasty.  The memoir starts with a telling of the author’s great-uncle Charles Ephrussi, an art collector in Paris.  In the 1870’s, Charles acquired over 260 Japanese netsuke, the small wood and ivory carvings of plants and animals.  One of the netsuke was a hare with amber eyes, hence the title of the book.

Charles gave the netsuke to his Viennese cousin, Viktor Ephrussi, as a wedding present.  Viktor was the author’s great-grandfather, which is how the items came into the possession of the author’s family.

Because the Ephrussi’s were Jewish, albeit secular, during the Nazi regime and World War II, they lost everything, including the extensive art collection.  Amazingly, the netsuke survived and remained in the family.  (We learn the story of their survival in the book.)  The author inherited the netsuke collection, which led him to explore his family’s history.

His grandmother, Elizabeth Ephurssi, converted to Anglican Church when she married the Dutch Hendrik de Waal.  The author father, Elizabeth’s son, became an Anglican priest, thus the memoir is in part a search into the author’s Jewish past.  I found it a rather uncomfortable search.

I read this book because it was a selection of one of my book discussion groups.

Read:  November 4, 2018

2 Stars

Books Set in England; London

The Weight of Ink, by Rachel Kadish (2017)

In late 2000, British academic Helen Watts come across a cache of Jewish papers written in the 1660s.  She quickly realized that they might be important and enlists the assistance of an American graduate student, Aaron Levy, to review the documents before turning them over to the university for preservation.  In their initial review, they realize that the documents contain scholarly writings between the Sephardic communities in London and Amsterdam. They soon discover, too, that the documents are written by a scribe who is a woman, very unusual for the 1660.

The novel goes back in time between the early 2000s and the 1660, where we are introduced to Ester Velesquez, the scribe.  The Jewish communities in the 1660s were still in the midst of the Inquisition.  The Amsterdam Jewish community had recently excommunicated Baruch Spinoza. Additionally, at this period in time the Jewish community was confronted by Sabbetai Zev, a Sephardic rabbi who claimed to be the Messiah.

Ester, being a woman, had been educated, hence her ability to serve as the scribe for the aged and blind rabbi.  The rabbi had Ester copy the letters he sent to Amsterdam, hence the newly found documents contain both the rabbi’s correspondence as well as the return replies. The letters seem to discuss arguments regarding the Sabbetai Zev’s influence throughout Europe, especially Florence.

A good portion of the beginning of this novel provides a concise history of Sephardic Jews.  This portion of the novel is very interesting and very readable.  Later portions of the novel, however, become bogged down with too many people and too many details that are seemingly irrelevant to the main ark of the story.  Ester becomes a companion to Mary, a spoiled rich young woman, who herself becomes involved with a rowdy cast of British actors.  This portion could have been trimmed down into another book, as I found this to be a distraction to the thesis of the novel.

Ultimately, we learn that Ester had taken the name of one of the British actors and written theological arguments to many Jewish thinkers, including Spinoza.  Her letters showed her intellectual curiosity and thirst for learning in her well-laid out arguments.  Some of the thinkers responded.  We also learn that her letters, written under the name of Thomas Fallow, presented Spinoza’s arguments.  The aged rabbi for who Ester was acting as scribe, would respond to Fallow’s letters with his own theological arguments.  Only as the old rabbi is dying does he confess to Ester that he knew she was Thomas Fallow.

I started reading this book several months ago, but had to put it down because it is so busy.  Then, one of my book groups selected this as a reading, so I picked it up again.   I liked it better on the second try, but it is still too busy.  There is simply too much going on in this novel.

Read: August 18, 2019

3.5 Stars

Books Set in Africa: Cairo, Egypt

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, by Michael David Lukas (2018)

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo takes place over a millennium, from 1000 years ago when Ali became the night watchman of the Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, to the late 1890s, when Solomon Schechter and the Smith twins, Agnes and Margaret, “discovered” and saved the documents stored in the synagogue’s geniza, to present day Joseph al-Raqb, who traveled to Cairo, Egypt to learn about his father.  The synagogue is said to house the legendary Ezra Torah Scroll, which was written centuries before the birth of Christ.

In alternating chapters, we learn Cairo during three periods of history.  Ali’s story takes place around the year 1000.  He was a young Muslim orphan who was hired by the synagogue council to be its night watchman.  As he learned his job, he also became fascinated by Jewish traditions, while maintaining his own religious beliefs.  In the late 1890s, Solomon Schechter (1847 ~ 1915) was in Cairo to search for the Ezra Torah Scroll.  With him were the middle-aged widowed twins Agnes Smith Lewis (1843 ~ 1926) and Margaret Smith Gibson (1843 ~ 1920), who were real people (although probably did not join Schechter on this quest).  The sisters were known for having discovered the Syraic Sinaiticus and were Biblical scholars in the Presbyterian Church.  In present day, Joseph al-Raqb, is a young American graduate student, raised by his Jewish mother, but whose father is Muslim.  A few months after his father’s death, Joseph received a mysterious package from his father.  This led him back to Cairo to find out why the object was sent to him.

In alternating chapters, the focus is on one of the above periods of history.  In Jewish tradition, texts with G~d’s name are sacred.  When such texts become worn or unusable, they must be treated with respect and not just thrown out.  Traditionally such texts are either buried or stored in a geniza.  The geniza in the Ibn Ezra Synagogue is a small room in the attic.

When portions of sacred texts are found being sold on the black market, Solomon Schechter traveled to Cairo to seek out the documents.  He had the documents saved and sent to Cambridge University, where they are still held.  [This is true.]

In family tradition, the eldest son of the al-Raqb family (with Ali being the original night watchman).  Joseph’s father was the eldest son, hence was the night watchman.  He held this position until after the Yom Kippur War when an event occurred in which he was unable to keep a mob from the synagogue.  Joseph became fascinated in his quest to determine the fate of the Ezra Scroll.

The novel doesn’t take a position on the religious tradition per se, but does raise issued confronted by religious scholars in studying ancient documents.

I was totally absorbed by this novel.  Michael David Lukas also wrote The Oracle of Stamboul, which is a historical novel about the last days of the Ottoman Empire.  I read this book about 7 years ago and very much enjoyed that as well.

Read:  August 8, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in the United States

The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin (2018)

Would you want to know the date of your death, and if you did know when you would die, would that impact your life?  That’s the premise of The Immortalists.

In 1969, the four Gold children, Simon, Klara, Daniel and Varya, aged 7, 9, 11, and 13, respectively, visit a mysterious woman said to tell fortunes.  As the children individually enter the woman’s apartment, she tells them the exact date of their death.  Some of the children share that date, the others keep it a secret.  But the children are just that ~ should they take the woman seriously?

The novel follows each of the four children.  Simon, the youngest, leaves home at age 16 to seek a new start in San Francisco.  Klara focuses on magic and perfects a death-defying trick of hanging by her teeth from a rope.  Daniel becomes a military doctor, and Varya becomes a researcher in aging.  Each child remains haunted by their early prophesy into their death.  This supposed knowledge also affects their relationships with family members and others they encounter.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The author really made the character’s come alive.

Read:  May 14, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe and the United States: Williamsburg

I am Forbidden, by Anouk Markovits (2012)

I am Forbidden is a look into the life of the ultra-orthodox Satmar community. The novel begins in 1939 in Transylvania and follows the family of Zalman Stern, and his extended family.

Five-year old Josef Lichentenstein sees his family murdered and is raised by the family’s gentile maid, Florina.  When he is 10, he rescues Mila Heller after her family was killed running for the Kasztner train, an historical event, that transported approximately 1,600 Jews from Hungary to safety in Switzerland.  Her parents were running to meet the Rebbe who was to have saved them.

Josef sends Mila to Zalman Stern’s family who adopt her.  Zalman has several children, including Atara, who is about the same age as Mila and the two become very close.

Zalman is a leader in the Satmar community and his family must live by the very strict and rigid rules of that community. Following World War II, the family moved to Paris to escape the communist regime.  They live isolated from the secular aspects of Paris.  The girls attend a religious school where they learn how to observe the tight rules.

Atria is curious about the secular world.  She questions the fundamentalist doctrine and leaves the community to avoid an early arranged marriage.  From then on, she is totally cut off from her family.

Mila, however, remains religious.  She is sent to Williamsburg to marry Josef, the boy who saved her years earlier.  Their marriage is challenged with their struggle with childlessness.  There are strict rules within their community regarding their inability to produce children, which is a constant pain for the couple.  The novel explores a resolution that test the bonds of the couple.

I found this book a bit difficult to get into, but once I did, I found it difficult to put down.

4 Stars

Read:  May 11, 2018

Books Set in North America: St. Thomas

The Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman (2015)

The Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman is the fictionalized account of the life of Rachel Monsanto PomiéPetit Pizzarro, the mother of Camille Pissarro, one of the Fathers of Impressionism.  Rachel was born in the Jewish community on the island of St. Thomas in 1795.  Her first husband was a widower many years older the Rachel.  At the time of her marriage, she immediately became step-mother to his three children.  Before she was 30 years old, she was widowed with seven children ~ three step-children and four of her own.  Soon Abraham Gabriel Frédéric Pizzarro (known as Frédéric), a nephew of Rachel’s dead husband, moved to St. Thomas to run the family business.  As a woman, Rachel had no rights to manage the business.

Rachel and Frédéric almost immediately fell in love, but do to religious reasons, were not permitted to marry.  They were ostracized, but lived as husband and wife for years, before the religious community recognized their marriage. Together, Rachel and Frédéric had three children, bringing their household to 12.  Their youngest child was named Jacobo Abraham Camille Pizzarro.  (He changed the spelling of his name when he moved to France.)

The novel describes life in the paradise of St. Thomas during the early 1800s.  Rachel’s best friend, Jestine, was the beautiful mixed-race daughter of the family’s cook.  The novel touches on the life of slavery on the Islands.  Jestine falls in love with Aaron, a distant relative of Rachel’s family. The love is mutual, but any marriage is forbidden for a host of reasons, which ultimately harbor a deep family secret.

The novel also weaves the myths and superstitions of the Islands into the everyday life of the Pizzarro family.

A beautiful read.

Read:  May 8, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Brooklyn

The Two-Family House, by Lynda Cohen Loigman (2016)

Two brothers own a house together in Brooklyn in the late 1940s and run the family business.  The brothers couldn’t be more different.  Abe is out-going, and Mort is resentful that he was unable to complete his studies in mathematics.

Abe, his wife and three sons live upstairs in the shared house.  Mort, his wife, and three daughters live downstairs.  The wives get along like sisters, sharing recipes and take care of the children.  What happens when both are pregnant and give birth at home on the same night as a frightful storm with only a midwife available to assist with the birth.

Although the reader knows within the first few chapters what happens, the family members are kept in the dark about the events. The novel focuses on how events can radically change family dynamics.  The characters really come alive leading the reader to have an interest in how the family secrets can be resolved.

I really enjoyed this novel.

Read:  April 25, 2018

5 Stars

Read: April 25, 2018

5 Stars