Tag: fiction

The beauty of Kent Haruf’s ‘Our Souls at Night’

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  • Unknown-8Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (Random House Audio, 2015)
  • In 40 words or less: A beautiful, yet spare tale of two older adults who are changed through their relationship.
  • Genre: Fiction
  • Locale: Colorado
  • Time: Present
  • Read this to savor a story about the essence of humanity and the importance of relationships at every age.

There are some things are far better with a healthy measure of life experiences behind you. Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night is such a book. As with Haruf’s other novels, it takes place is small town Colorado. Addie Moore drums up the courage to approach her neighbor, Louis Waters, with a proposal. Both are widowed and up in years.  She suggests that they consider spending some nights together, talking in bed, an intimacy she misses and suspects he might as well. And so the story proceeds.

Over the course of this short novel their relationship grows.  They become the subject of gossip in town and consternation from their children. Life happens, both good and bad.

Our Souls at Night is written beautifully. The language is befitting the wise, yet simple characters. I had the good fortune to listen to the book read by Mark Bramhall. If anything, his reading amplified the message. It has been years since I wanted anyone other than my children to read me a bedtime story. More so than any other audiobook I’ve listened to, this one was true artistry. Whether holding the book in hand or listening to Bramhall’s voice, Our Souls at Night warms the heart.

Kent Haruf died on November 30, 2014, shortly after completing this book. At its publication six months later it was heralded as a fitting swan song. If only we could all finish out our days so well.

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An award winning story of Soviet-era politics meeting contemporary mores

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  • betrayThe Betrayers by David Bezmozgis (Little, Brown and Company, 2014)
  • In 40 words or less: A disgraced Israeli politician on vacation sees the man who betrayed him to the KGB forty years earlier. One is a prisoner of his past, the other has no sense of his future. Each is changed by the meeting.
  • Genre: Fiction
  • Locale: Crimea, Israel, Moscow
  • Time: 2012 and 1972
  • Read this if you enjoy novels where difficult moral choices are front and center. Bezmozgis provides incisive historical context and characters consistent with the issues presented. It is rare that an author can pull it all together so succinctly .

David Bezmozgis has spent more than ten years opening the door on the lives of refuseniks that left the former Soviet Union (FSU) in a trickle in the early 1970s becoming a tidal wave in the 1990s. His latest, The Betrayers, tells of a senior Israeli politician, Baruch Kotler, a poster child of the dissident movement, who travels to Crimea with his young lover as pictures of their indiscretion hit the press. Kohler left Israel in disgrace after taking a position against the government, speaking out against dismantling settlements in the territories. The exposure of the affair came about after he refused to change his position.

The plot centers on an unfortunate coincidence. Upon arrival in Yalta there is a mixup at the hotel and Baruch and Leora are forced to find accommodations in a private home. Their host is the wife of Baruch’s roommate from 40 years earlier. He betrayed Baruch to the KGB, resulting in 13 years of imprisonment. When Baruch recognizes Volodya (Chaim) through the window, he has a choice – leave without disclosing his identity or confront the man he considered a friend and colleague.

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From start to finish, the story covers less than a weekend. Using a mix of memory to bring in details of the past and technology to connect to the conflicts of the present, The Betrayers is tightly written and clearly drawn.

The title is plural for a reason. Each of the principals makes explicit choices with major repercussions for themselves and their families. By focusing on the encounter between Baruch and Chaim, the ripples of these decisions are clearly seen.

In this and his prior works, David Bezmozgis has been frank about the motivations that sent Jews (and non-Jews) from the FSU and the reasons some regretted this choice. Each book has shown the challenges in acclimating to a completely different way of life and the difficulties that the older generation, in particular, has had in finding a place in the new world.

As Bezmozgis was completing The Betrayers, the Russia/Ukraine conflict erupted. While this provides an odd current events twist for the reader, the setting was key to the story and Bezmozgis had undertaken extensive research so no changes were made.

For those in the DC area, David Bezmozgis will be on a panel on October 19 at the Folger Shakespeare Library as part of the DCJCC Literary Festival. The Betrayers won the National Jewish Book Award and was a Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist in the same year.

 

 

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Grab a copy of Jessamyn Hope’s debut novel

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  • Unknown-9Safekeeping by Jessamyn Hope (Fig Tree Books, 2015)
  • In 40 words or less: An array of seekers volunteer at a kibbutz in the throes of change. The kibbutz’s elder holds tight to 50 year-old secrets as the community she created crumbles. A young, troubled New Yorker arrives desperate for redemption.
  • Genre: Fiction
  • Locale: Primarily Israel
  • Time: 1994
  • Read this if you enjoy complex characters dealing with the life choices they have made. The plot lines are enhanced by the detailed descriptions of kibbutz life which were under great upheaval at that time.  Fig Tree Books is a new press and this is a beautifully put together paperback. It would be a great discussion title.

A confession. I was given advance access to this wonderful book in April. Life happened and I didn’t finish before my electronic copy disappeared. The story so grabbed me that this was the book I bought when I reached Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, NC. An excellent decision.

Adam is a mess. Drug addicted and bereft after the death of the grandfather who raised him, he assaults a jeweler and escapes New York for Israel, his goal to fulfill his grandfather’s lifelong wish and deliver an antique brooch. With this inauspicious start, he is not the ideal volunteer for Kibbutz Sadot Hadar. He hopes to quickly locate Dagmar, his grandfather’s true love, and get on with his life.

Times are tough in the kibbutz.  Young people are moving away, the original Socialist Zionist principles are falling by the wayside. Without volunteers and workers from the neighboring Arab villages, the kibbutz’s survival is in jeopardy. Ziva, the last remaining founder, is insistent that the original path is the only true path for Sadot Hadar. And she will devote every last breath to have that as her legacy.images-2

Volunteers have come to Sadot Hadar from the unlikeliest of places. Ulya, a survivor of Chernobyl, sees the kibbutz as a way station on her path to New York.   Claudette arrives from Quebec, her OCD and Catholic faith complicating her acclimation to the kibbutz. She is on a personal pilgrimage with an unknown destination. Subject to assignment by Eyal, the kibbutz secretary, they all remain on the periphery of the controversy about the future of the kibbutz. Ofir, a talented teenage musician on the kibbutz and their only peer contact, was badly injured in a terrorist bus attack.

Adam’s quest propels the story. His dealings with both the bureaucracies trying to locate Dagmar and the rules of the kibbutz test his commitment. Throughout the book he is challenged to heal physically and emotionally, and that can’t happen alone. Only through the actions of others is a richer portrait of life on the kibbutz and Adam’s challenges seen. From a historical standpoint, Jessamyn Hope captures the kibbutz movement at the crossroads. The changes that Ziva works to stave off were occurring across Israel and marked a dramatic shift in the country’s social and economic history.

Grounded in 1994 but with clearly delineated departures to the past, Jessamyn Hope weaves a novel filled with life’s successes and missteps. For each of the characters family, or the absence thereof, helps set his/her path. Each is broken and sees Sadot Hadar as a step on the road to redemption. This is a wonderfully crafted debut novel and I look forward to reading more from Jessamyn Hope in the future.

 

 

 

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Mermaids, tarot cards and an antique book

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  • The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler (St. Martin’s Press, June 2015)
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  • In 40 words or less: An enchanting debut novel of families past and present, shaped by magic, tarot and traveling circuses. A mysterious antique book and young librarian enrich the story.
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
  • Locale: USA East Coast
  • Time: Now and 1780’s
  • Book Group Potential: An unusual story with an interesting construction. Good for those interested in structural analysis as well as plot.
  • Extra: Indiebound.org has made this title one of its Indie Next Great Reads!

Erika Swyler’s debut, The Book of Speculation (St. Martin’s Press), is the latest novel featuring carnival mermaids, psychics and freaks. Just last year Alice Hoffman had The Museum of Extraordinary Things about a freak show in Coney Island at the turn of the 20th century. The Book of Speculation has many appealing features that set it apart from many carnival stories.

In the present, Simon Watson is hanging on by his fingernails to the disintegrating family home on the edge of Long Island Sound and his job as a research librarian in the local library. The son of a traveling circus mermaid who drowned in the Sound and a father who fell into a deep depression and died, Simon was left to care as a teen for his sensitive younger sister, Enola. With Enola off in parts unknown, a book from an 18th century traveling circus arrives at his door, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who believes it related to Simon’s family.

An omniscient narrator tells the story of Hermelius H. Peabody’s 1780’s traveling show. Entrepreneurial, but with great affection for his company, Peabody takes in a young, mute boy with unusual skills who appears one night. Alternately serving as a surrogate father and putting him to work as the “Wild Boy”, Peabody recognizes the boy’s intelligence and has the tarot card reader teach him the secrets of the cards and elevate him to her assistant.  Amos, as he is named by the troupe, is a favorite of all until a young woman with an unknown past joins the circus as a mermaid. And from there, as the cards will tell, bad things continue to happen.images

Back in the present, Enola and her tattooed, electric boyfriend arrive at the house just as it is about to fall over the cliff. They are part of a traveling show where Enola reads cards. Simon’s early reading of the antique journal leads him to believe his mother’s drowning may be familial and Enola is likely at risk within the next few seeks. Using his research skills, Simon tries to connect the 18th century volume to the current history of his family.  In the process he discovers disturbing truths about his family and the neighbor family who play such a significant role in his life.

Swyler tells a wonderful story, painting vivid pictures of the characters and surroundings. Each major character is well-drawn and consistent within his/her time.  Since the local library and Simon’s librarian contacts figure in the unveiling of connections, the reader is reminded of the tenuous nature of library funding in the present economy.

Many recent novels have suffered from great length and abrupt endings. The Book of Speculation continues naturally to its end in less than 350 pages. If you prefer visiting traveling shows between the pages of a book to walking the midway, this may be the book for you. I enjoyed it far more than I had expected.

 

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The Power of Water – Michelle Brafman’s Washing the Dead

Water is essential to life. Calming, cleansing, purifying, devastating – from a cup of tea, to a hot bath, to a torrential downpour – it all starts with water.  Michelle Brafman naturally weaves water in all its forms throughout her debut novel, Washing the Dead.

IMG_2940The story revolves around Barbara Pupnick Blumfield, a member of the sandwich generation. Mother to Lili, a teenager facing stresses and challenges common today, and daughter of June, her mother, whose new health challenges threaten the emotional distance Barbara has fought hard to maintain. Washing the Dead is a story about keeping secrets from those you love and baring secrets to be able to share love. Continue reading The Power of Water – Michelle Brafman’s Washing the Dead

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