Ayelet Waldman – MostlyFiction Book Reviews We Love to Read! Sat, 28 Oct 2017 19:51:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.18 LOVE AND TREASURE by Ayelet Waldman /2014/love-and-treasure-by-ayelet-waldman/ Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:00:23 +0000 /?p=25521 Book Quote:

“…tipped the contents of  of the pouch into his plan. He caught hold of the gold chain. The gold-filgreed pendant dangled. It bore the image, in vitreous enamel, of a peacock, a perfect gemstone staring from the tip of each painted feather.”

Book Review:

Review by Roger Brunyate (MAR 31, 2014)

Ayelet Waldman’s new book begins in Red Hook, Maine, the setting of her novel Red Hook Road, but the two could hardly be more different. For whereas she had previously confined herself to two families in the same setting over a period of a very few years, she travels in this one to Salzburg, Budapest, and Israel, at various periods over a hundred-year span. By the same token, though, it is a stretch to call Love and Treasure a novel; it is essentially a trilogy of novellas, each with different characters, but linked by a single object and common themes. The object is an enameled Jugendstil pendant in the shape of a peacock. Although only of modest value, it plays an important role in the lives of the people who people who possess it, and provides a focus for the novelist’s enquiry into the lives of Hungarian Jews both before and after the Holocaust.

In the prologue, Jack Wiseman, an old man dying of cancer, entrusts the pendant to his recently-divorced granddaughter Natalie. Immediately, we plunge into the first and by far the best of the novellas, set in Salzburg, Austria, in 1945. Jack, as a young lieutenant in the US Army, is entrusted with the administration of the box-car loads of valuable goods brought out of Hungary on the “Gold Train” — items that he realizes have all been “donated” by Hungarian Jews prior to their exile or extermination. I have no doubt that this is based on truth — not only the train itself, but the horrifying revelation of what happened to its contents, and indeed the exposure of continuing anti-Semitism on both sides even after the War was over. Set in a jurisdiction almost overrun by the sheer numbers of refugees, survivors, and other displaced persons, the story was disturbing, informative and gripping. Even more so as Jack falls passionately in love with one of the survivors, a fiery redhead named Ilona Jakab. It is a surprisingly muscular piece of writing building to a powerful finale. Had I stopped the reading then, I would have given the book five stars.

The other two sections are not quite of this standard. The second novella returns us to the present day when Natalie is in Budapest, keeping her promise to track down the original owner of her grandfather’s pendant. It is less interesting because the laborious process of searching archives is inherently less compelling, but also because it is more difficult to buy into the romance story in this episode. Natalie pairs up with an Israeli art dealer named Amitai Shasho, virile, polished, and wealthy — everything a hero should be — except that he is essentially a Holocaust profiteer, and thus a difficult man for me to trust. He will change towards the end of the novella, but I never really got over my initial disapproval.

The third section is rather more successful, taking us back to Budapest, but now in 1913. It works because Waldman has so perfectly captured the narrative voice of a Freudian psychoanalyst, Imré Zobel, describing his work with a nineteen-year-old Jewish girl named Nina S. It is a perfect parody of Freud’s own literary style, with the added deliciousness of a narrator who, if not actually unreliable, is certainly self-deceiving. But it takes us away from any of the characters whom we have met earlier, and although it fills in some interesting back-story, it is essentially a stand-alone piece.

I mentioned Waldman’s themes. Chief among them is anti-Semitism, seen in an historical context and in some unexpected places; Waldman both makes a strong case for Zionism, and reveals disturbing patterns of discrimination within the Zionist ideal. Almost equally strong is her concern for women’s rights and the historical suffragist movement. And as always, she writes very freely about sex. I was reminded of two other novels in particular. One is The Glass Room by Simon Mawer, which also looks at the twentieth century in Eastern Europe through the history of a single artifact. The other was The White Hotel by D. M. Thomas, in its multi-sectional structure and use of psychoanalysis, though Waldman’s book is neither so adventurous in its writing nor so strongly focused on the Holocaust. But you might call it a peri-Holocaust novel, and this I did find interesting. If only it had maintained a stronger focus.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 18 readers
PUBLISHER: Knopf (April 1, 2014)
REVIEWER: Roger Brunyate
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Ayelet Waldman
EXTRAS: Reading Guide
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

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]]> RED HOOK ROAD by Ayelet Waldman /2010/red-hook-road-by-ayelet-waldman/ Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:01:38 +0000 /?p=10661 Book Quote:

“They had fallen in love at sixteen and over the next ten years had, despite distance and difference, never swerved in their determination to reach this day. The faces in the photograph were alight with joy, and for a long time the bride’s mother would not be able to pass the picture hanging in the front parlor of her summer house without feeling a knot in her stomach and a rush of tears. In time the photograph would recede into the general oblivion of furnishings and knickknacks.”

Book Review:

Review by Bonnie Brody (JUL 12, 2010)

Without much ado, let me state that I think this book is brilliant. It took my breath away and grabbed me by my heart from the first page till its stunning coda. Without being maudlin or histrionic, Ayelet Waldman’s Red Hook Road examines the impact of loss and grief on two families, each as different as day and night.

In the first chapter of the book, the reader is spectator to a profound tragedy. A young couple, married for about one hour, die in a car accident on the way to their own wedding reception.

The bride is Becca Copaken and the groom is John Tetherly. Becca comes from a Jewish intellectual family that has summered in Maine all of her life. Her grandfather, Mr. Kimmelbrod, is a holocaust survivor, and had been a concert violinist until recently when he became symptomatic for Parkinson’s Disease. Iris, Becca’s mother, is a holier-than-thou professor of the holocaust who thinks she knows what’s best for everyone. Beccas’s father is an attorney who never made partner and makes his living as an adjunct professor at a second-rate law school. Becca’s sister, Ruthie, goes to Harvard where she is studying English literature and has her eyes set on academe. She is emotionally needy and dependent. Becca had stepped away from her family’s traditions. She gave up her chance to be a concert violinist by giving up the violin completely and dropping out of conservatory.

John is a master boat designer who builds wooden yachts. He comes from a family of sturdy Maine folk who are not college educated and have lived by the generosity of the sea. His mother, Jane, is taciturn and autonomous, not wanting to feel grateful to anyone. She thinks of the Copakens as snooty and part-timers in Maine. Her ex-husband is a ne’er-do-well and Jane has survived by starting a house cleaning business. In fact, she cleans the Copaken’s home. John has a ne’er-do-well sister who is on welfare. He also has a brother, Matt, who is a student at Amherst. Matt is the first person in the Tetherly family to attend college.

The novel is divided into four parts: the first, second, third and fourth year after the tragedy. We watch as the families are forced to interact with one another despite wanting to keep their distance. We watch them in the classic stages of grief as defined by the physician and researcher, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross: Denial, Anger, Bargaining/Blame, Depression, and finally Acceptance. The stages are not always linear but they tend to be present in this order as each person works out their personal losses. As the years pass, the families move from denial and anger towards acceptance.

The novel is lyrical and moving at every stage. In fact, there is a lot about music in this book which serves as a wonderful backdrop and metaphor to what is happening to the families. Mr. Kimmelbrod is 92 years old but still teaches a few students in the local conservatory. By chance, the families find out that Jane’s niece, an adopted Cambodian child, has perfect pitch and is a musical prodigy. Mr. Kimmelbrod takes her under his wing and gives her violin lessons. We watch her flourish and we can almost hear the music jump off the pages.

I was especially taken by Mr. Kimmelbrod’s stoicism and very rare display of external emotion despite a sea of feeling residing inside him. Here is a man who has suffered some of life’s most profound losses at Terezin Concentration Camp, yet has been able to find meaning in life and a way to love others. He is not unlike his granddaughter Ruthie who flounders with the spoken word yet has a world of expression just beyond her capacity to verbalize. The two families are actually much more alike than they think. Jane is stoic and unlikely to show feelings yet they resound deeply in her spirit. Both families have a love of wood, one for beautiful boats and the other for violins.

This is as much a book about Maine as it is about grieving families. The reader can feel the pulse of the sea, the solid stoicism of the rocks, and the danger of the granite outcroppings in a place that can be fickle: at times loving and welcoming and at other times dangerous and moody. The weather and elements can cause death in an instant. This is the atmosphere that the book portrays and the reader feels throughout.

Ms. Waldman’s writing is riveting and beautiful. She uses her words like a musician plays an instrument: for beauty, impact, power, melody and mood. It is rare to find such fine writing on such a difficult subject. The only other book I’ve read that portrays grief as beautifully as this is How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall. If this review encourages at least one person to pick up this amazing book, I’ll have achieved my purpose.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 98 readers
PUBLISHER: Doubleday (July 13, 2010)
REVIEWER: Bonnie Brody
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Ayelet Waldman
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

Mommmy-Track Mysteries:

Also:

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