Tag: Judaism

‘Memento Park’, a novel of lost and found

  • Memento Park by Mark Sarvas (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) March 2018
  • In 40 words or less: Matt Santos, a B-list actor, plays parts on screen and in his own life. A phone call suggesting he’s the rightful owner of a painting seized by the Nazis in 1944 raises questions about his identity, his family, and the choices he’s made.
  • Genre: Literary fiction
  • Locale: United States and Hungary
  • Time: Contemporary

Matt Santos seems to be living the Los Angeles dream. A regular role in a series. Living with his girlfriend Tracy, a model and activist working to free a death row inmate she believes wrongly convicted. Things are rarely what they seem. Matt isn’t really into the show and Tracy is spending a lot of time with a lawyer on the case. Out of the blue, a phone call from a New York law firm upends the delicate balance of their lives.

The lawyer insists that Matt may be the rightful owner of a painting wrongly transferred during WWII and now in the restitution process. Matt argues he knows nothing about it and is told his father has declined any claims in Matt’s favor. Matt has had a fractious relationship with his father and wants nothing to do with the painting or his father. Tracy has been the go-between for father and son, and a weekend visit cross country by Gabor does little to assuage the ill feelings.

With this as the background, Matt begins the search for the truth about the painting, its ownership, and the history of his family in Hungary during the war. The attorney provided Matt for this process is Rachel, a young woman from a traditional Jewish family, whose relationship with her father is in stark contrast to Matt’s. The richness of Rachel’s family life, despite their modest means, awakens a mix of curiosity and envy towards Judaism. The discovery the other possible owner of the painting is a woman rabbi further adds to the complexity.

In Memento Park Mark Sarvas has written several stories swirling around one another. The story of Matt the actor touches on the emptiness of a life built on good looks and mediocre acting skills. Matt’s research into the life of the (fictitious) artist provides his first look into the struggles of the years between the wars and the toll it took on individuals and Jews, in particular.

Throughout the novel, Matt’s ongoing yearning for his father’s approval/love and his conditioned response when disappointed is the real grabber. It is only through the larger quest surrounding the painting that Matt learns of the experiences that shaped his father’s childhood and made him such a difficult man.  Coming to terms with it all is key to Matt reclaiming his life.

While the Holocaust and the infamous history behind the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial are critical to the novel, I wouldn’t characterize it as a part of that genre.  This is a story of family and the secrets that color every aspect of life. Achieving this balance requires a delicate touch and Mark Sarvas has carried it off. The success of Memento Park is weaving together all the elements into cohesive work without straining credulity. The result is a novel with interesting plot twists that will provide book groups with ample material for discussion.

 

 

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Culture clash at the breakfast table

Harpers FerryIn 2011, my husband and I decided to celebrate our February anniversary with a getaway to Harpers Ferry.  The big news story at the time was the Arab Spring. As we headed out all eyes were on Cairo’s Tahrir Square and the next steps in Egypt’s revolution. Like many inside the Beltway, I welcomed the chance to dial down the political conversation when DC disappeared from the rearview mirror.

The Jackson Rose is a small B&B, only 3 rooms, close to all the sights – a perfect choice when the weather might be blustery. After a day exploring the park and the hilly streets of Harpers Ferry we headed to Charlestown for dinner. Everything as planned.SnowyHouseYard

The next morning we headed to breakfast and a table set for six. I can’t remember anything about the food but the conversation will stay with me always. As guests at the same dining table, we introduced ourselves. We started with a coincidence. Before leaving town, Dan was a guest on a weekly radio show at WFED. While there he was introduced to a new engineer with WTOP, with which WFED shared studio space. The engineer, a young recent Egyptian immigrant, was there with his wife, a Palestinian staff member at CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. For both of them the news from Egypt was critically important.  Most of his family was still there so there was a mix of concern and excitement.  For her, the political and public impression of the Arab Spring and its impact on Arab-Americans was key. So much for leaving the Beltway behind.

The second couple was visiting from Norfolk, VA. Retired, she was a dedicated docent at the art museum. After talking about that for a few minutes she began speaking about her real passion. Her grandmother was a survivor of the genocide of Armenian Christians by the Turks in 1915-16. Her mother was born shortly after her grandmother arrived in the US. Her mission was two-fold: 1) to see a museum in downtown DC dedicated to telling the story, raising awareness of this often forgotten event, and 2) to secure a proclamation from the Congress criticizing the government of Turkey for the genocide and demanding acknowledgement that it did occur. The museum plans stalled and, despite many calls for passage, neither the Congress nor the White House formally criticized Turkey on the 100th anniversary this April.

And then Dan and Ellen. The “small world” conversation made clear what Dan does and I mentioned I facilitated a number of book groups. Any questions about our ethnicity/religion were answered with my responses about the groups and books that I was working with at the time.

At this small table we sat, Muslims, Christians and Jews, talking about the perceptions and misperceptions of our peoples. Talking about lands under contention and governments with mixed motivations. A playwright would have been criticized for writing such a scene.  We all looked or sounded our parts.  The young Palestinian-American with the hijab, the older Armenian-American with a glistening gold cross and me; each with our matching spouses. We each spoke with passion about our heritages and the importance of respect. I’m certain there were many points of difference in our views, but I see their faces at that table whenever the Armenian genocide or CAIR are mentioned. And I hope they do as well for putting a human face on conflicts can change the way we deal with them.

Yesterday, on the confluence of Yom Kippur and Eid al Adha, the holiest days on the Jewish and Muslim calendars, I completed my second reading of Chris Bohjalian’s The Sandcastle Girls, a novel about the Armenian genocide and those who stood witness. While I will write about the book separately, I’m sure Bohjalian would have loved to be at that accidental gathering. Sometimes it is a book or a serendipitous conversation that brings a new perspective. When we hold on to those experiences we more able to bring the a human face to big international issues.

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