The Bookseller of Dachau

 

As is our tradition, my Jewish book club will be discussing a Holocaust novel in conjunction with the synagogue's observance of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. This year's selection is The Bookseller of Dachau by Shari J. Ryan.

Part typical Holocaust novel, part romance story, The Bookseller of Dachau is a novel full of hope. In fact, one of the characters whom we don't get to know well is named Runa which secret. Matilda is always looking for a sign that will give her hope, always associated with her secret.

The novel is told in two storylines. One is the story of Matilda and Hans during WWII in Dachau. The other is a contemporary story about American Grace and German Archie who meet in Dachau when Grace inherits property in Dachau. I especially loved the explanation that those who live in present-day Dachau as to why they are still there.

As with other books about the Holocaust that I've read recently, I can't help but make connections to what happened then to what is happening in our country now. That frightens me. I don't want to allow the hopefulness of this novel to get my guard down. I'm also amazed in one way, not surprised at all in another, that while atrocities were going on in the concentration camp at Dachau, "Life is moving about as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening." Yikes!

This should be a good discussion.

Color Me In

I saw this young adult novel recommended on an email from the Jewish Book Council. I thought after the "weightiness" of The Weight of Ink, something more contemporary and shorter might be appreciated for our next synagogue book club meeting. Now that I've read it, even though I enjoyed it, I'm not sure if it's the best choice for this particular book club.

Color Me In is the coming of age story of a 16-year old Nevaeh Levitz. Growing up in an affluent NYC suburb, attending a prestigious private school in Riverdale, Nevaeh never considered her bi-racial roots beyond feeling like she didn’t really “fit in” with her peers. She never even really considered that her very best friend, Stevie, is also bi-racial and facing some of the prejudice that she is able to avoid.

When Nevaeh’s Black mom and White Jewish dad split up, Nevaeh and her mom move in with the mom’s family in Harlem. At the same time, her dad decides that even though Nevaeh is past Bat Mitzvah age, this is a ritual he wishes her to partake in. Now Nevaeh is really forced to come to terms with who she is.

Nevaeh develops a relationship with non-traditional Rabbi Sara while preparing for her Bat Mitzvah. For the sake of the synagogue book club, I wish that this part of the storyline had been more developed. Much more of the story is about Navaeh's realizations of how much easier her life has been because she can pass for White. Thinking outside of just the book club, I really did appreciate the way that Diaz dealt with many of the race issues. 

I also really liked that Color Me In was not predictable. I had a preconceived notion of how the novel would end and it did not end that way.

For the next two months, I will keep my fingers crossed that the members of the book club will have some appreciation for this young adult fiction since I was the one to recommend it.

The Weight of Ink

 

I thought I'd written up a quick review about The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish after I finished reading. But I must have written the little blurb that went in our synagogue newsletter since this is the book we'll be discussing at our next book club meeting.

Set in London of the 1660s and the early 2000s, Kadish alternates between the stories of Ester Velasquez and Helen Watt. Ester is a Portuguese emigrant from Amsterdam and Helen is a university historian at the end of her career. The novel centers on the discovery of a cache of Jewish documents accidentally discovered by one of Helen’s former students as he and his wife prepare to start major home renovations. Helen takes on American assistant Aaron, and eventually they are in a race against another team of historians to get to the deeper story of the documents. Who was the author? Why were they hidden? What significance do they have today?

It’s quite an ambitious historical fiction novel (in other words fairly long) but it’s so full of very different subplots. One of my favorites was how Ester and her household navigated The Great Plague of London 1665. It was interesting to make comparisons from London life during The Plague to present life during Covid-19.

A major theme of the novel was the roles of women in both 2000 and the 1660s. I was able to understand Helen's choices but that's probably since I'm from the same era. Ester's choices were so much more limited and as such, the choices she does eventually make seemed so extreme.

There’s philosophy, romance, a connection to Israel. I would definitely not call this a "Jewish" book. There are references to Spinoza and Shakespeare. All in all, I found it an interesting read and I hope my fellow book club members agree. If you enjoyed People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, you'll enjoy The Weight of Ink.

I've promised my group that we'll select something more contemporary and a little less "weighty" (pun intended) for next time.

Button Man

Button Man is Andrew Gross' semi-biographical novel about is grandfather's experiences in his rise to run a large women's ready-to-wear fashion empire. It was an interesting story about labor unions and the mob, most specifically in the garment district in New York City, in the 1930s. Lots of the names of the real life characters were familiar, but I didn't know much about them.

I hope I can hold all the questions I have in my mind straight until my book club discusses this in July. There really is a lot to discuss about this novel.

Morris was one of 6 children born to a family of immigrants in the early 1900s. The family came from Russia and Morris, the youngest, was the only one born in the United States. Of the four sons, Morris had the biggest dreams and the ambition to make something of himself. He's forced to quit school at a very young age, after the death of his father. He's lucky enough to get a job working for a clothing manufacturer. He aspires to do more than what the manufacturer thinks he's capable of, and Morris rises to the occasion.

Fast forward about 20 years and Morris has now started his own coat company. The unions are coming in to most of the shops, but the unions are run by the mob and are in cahoots with law enforcement and government officials. Morris treats his employees right and doesn't want to unionize because the way the unions are being run, they take away from the employees and basically end up "owning" the businesses. 

Besides being the most ambitious of the brothers, Morris is also the toughest and was never one to back down from a fight. So the story is about Morris having the strength to stand up to the mob. 

/In closing, because I'm persnickety me, there were two, or possibly three, little geographical "oops" in the novel. Two involved Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn - which is not in Bensonhurst and to the best of my knowledge never has been in Bensonhurst. I can't remember the other bit about Ocean Avenue that didn't make sense. (I grew up living only 6 blocks away from Ocean Avenue.) But there's also mention of a golf club in Tenafly, New Jersey. (I lived there, too, for a good part of my adult life.) And unless there was a golf club that no longer existed by the late 1980s that might have allowed Jews to become members in the '60s or '70s, then that was an "oops," too.

I'm looking forward to a good discussion of this novel with my book club.

Goddess of Battle

I have very mixed feelings about Gwendolyn Rachel Ackerman's novel about the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Goddess of Battle.

Tyra, daughter of civil rights activists Nancy and Paul, is running away from a bad relationship. She's the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors which play in a little bit not to Tyra's actions but to the way she feels her family will perceive her actions. Tyra is always very concerned about who will or will not approve of what she's doing.

Tyra is trying to think of how she can get out of a terrible relationship with Lamar when she literally bumps into a group of young Israelis in New York for a visit. She connects with them and when Tal needs to unexpectedly rush back to Israel, Tyra offers to go with her to give her moral support.

Noureen is a Palestinian whose parents had arranged a marriage for her with an older man. She was disappointed so as a sort of compromise the parents sent her to Berkley to learn English prior to settling down with her husband.

Eventually Tyra, Tal, and Noureen come together in an attempt to start a dialogue about ways to achieve peace.

First the pros.

• This book was recommended for our Jewish book club and I think it will lead to a great discussion. The topic remains very relevant today.
• The novel attempts to show the differences and similarities between what the Palestinians are experiencing in Israel and Black Lives Matter. That really did give me something to think about. 
• I also liked the friendships that the characters in the novel developed with each other.
• The character of Noureen, her husband, and Tal's mother, Michal, were by far the most authentic characters.

Now for the cons.

• The book was poorly edited which at times drove me crazy.
• The main character, Tyra, was so weak. She did more running away from things than running to things, and she was persuaded to join the Israeli army by her new roommate for very silly reasons. She felt neglected by her parents, loved by her parents, and loved by Anita. The relationships were not well-developed.

Would I recommend this book? I'm not really sure. If it wasn't for a book club discussion, I'm not sure I would have stuck with it. (Oh, who am I kidding? I'm sure I would have finished this one!) It gave me a lot to think about. That can never be bad.