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.
The 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.
At Lili’s age Barbara was embraced by a loving Orthodox Jewish community in Milwaukee. Her mother, June, was always at the side of the rabbi’s wife. Barbara and her best friend Tzippy Schine, the rabbi’s daughter, are at the cusp of young adulthood. Barbara is looking ahead to finishing high school and heading to Madison for college, like her brother. Tzippy will finish her last year of schooling in Brooklyn, at a girl’s yeshiva, before becoming a bride through an arranged marriage and following in her mother’s footsteps as a rebbetzin. The girls share everything until June’s actions fracture the family ties and exile the Pupnicks from the community. Barbara pours her heart out to Tzippy in unmailed letters and sets herself adrift, seeking new connections while hiding the pain her mother’s actions have caused.
Years later Mrs. Schine contacts Barbara out of the blue following the death of Barbara’s favorite teacher and a wealth of emotions are unleashed. Barbara has built a busy life with her husband and daughter, nurturing pre-schoolers in her Reform synagogue with the same love she’d received as a child. With respect and meticulous care, Michelle Brafman uses life cycle events and the surrounding Jewish rituals to interweave the past and present and come to terms with her characters’ decisions. Above all else, this is a novel of three generations of women seeking strong family connections. Each is fully drawn, with all the strengths and vulnerabilities that “regular” people have.
Adding to the authenticity of the story is its framing in time. Much of the story is in the here and now with issues many families are facing. In the retrospective portions, Barbara (and Tzippy) are making their transitions to adulthood in the early to mid 70’s, a time of tremendous social change. The societal upheavals are seen in critical but subtle ways in moving the story along.
There is a universality to Washing the Dead despite its setting within an observant Jewish community. The struggles of each family member are human frailties, not bound by religious affiliation. Personal redemption requires facing up to one’s own mistakes and forgiving the errors of others.
My copy of Washing the Dead will be well-worn over the next few months. It is a book to share in a group or over a cup of tea. And it’s a book for mothers and daughters and those who love them.
IN A NUTSHELL
- Genre: Fiction
- Locale: Milwaukee and San Diego
- Time: 1973-2009
- Book Group Potential: Excellent choice for group discussion.
(Note: As a result of my work with area book groups and my blog, I received a complimentary copy of Washing the Dead to consider for future discussions.)
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