The German Bride by Joanna Hershon

This is a very different book - a Jewish woman's journey in the westward movement of the mid 1800's. The story is interesting and fast-paced and deals with a subject area not usually depicted in "Jewish" themed books.

Eva marries, not out of love, a German Jew who went to America to seek his fortune. She is escaping a past and memories that haunt her in her native Germany. An affair with a gentile painter and the death of her sister (for which she blames herself) leads to shame and guilt and she needs to get away. Abraham Shein provides the means.

He turns out to be a gambler and womanizer and she is still haunted by her past and her guilt.

She suffers miscarriages and still births before finally giving birth to a baby girl, who she names after her sister.

She escapes finally, from her past and her husband and finds redemption in San Francisco.

A good read.

Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames

Heard this author interviewed on middle of the night radio (Joey Reynolds, also a Buffalonian) and was interested for a couple reasons. He teaches at Brooklyn College, where Scott Lindenbaum went and now teaches. Figured they might know each other. Second, of course, the Buffalo connection. So, when I walked into the library, looking for something else, and found this book, I grabbed it. And it grabbed me from the start.

Deals with a young man's grappling with his mom's early dementia. She is only 56 and in a home, no longer able to live in the world. She was a bright, successful and independent woman, a nurse, who started slipping. As a nurse, she wrote about her advocacy for euthanasia in cases like hers, but no one documented or talked about it with her when SHE became the one in question.

Anyway, it's a very touching and personal story; I couldn't help wondering how much was based on truth. The writing is great.

Here are a couple passages I love:

"Four twenty-one a.m. I don't think I'll ever get to sleep tonight.

But at four thirty or so, I drift off to sleep and remain free of torment, free of suffering for almost an hour. Yet just before the sun rises, I hear them gathering again in my mind, those immaculate words spooling out...trailing multicolored threads. Mother, euthanasia, death, Brooklyn, snow."

And another:

"An old philosophy teacher of mine used to say: 'If you've got one foot in the past and one foot in the future, you're pissing on the present.' He was often drunk, but his message was sound. He stressed learning how to experience a moment. He talked about being present. Sounds easy until you actually try to do it."

Anyway, this book made me sad, and it made me think and it made me want to make my feelings very clear for my children so they don't ever have to go through what the main character in this book did. I need to make my living will. 

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

When I first started reading this book, I was sucked right into the story line and the amazing writing style. But about half way through, I lost the same level of interest that I first had. I think because the book should have been read quickly, within a day or two. I recognize that it was an amazing piece of writing, but I think I just did not relate enough to the character and to the cricket theme. At first, I thought I understood why the author chose cricket as a focus. The book dealt with coming to terms with being unAmerican in America. And cricket is a "second class" sport in America, but not in so many other parts of the world. Anyway, I am glad that I read the book, but would like to have someone who has read it to discuss it with. Maybe it's time for me to join a book club.....

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Captivating book. I felt so ignorant about India reading this book; I felt like one of the villians, actually, that my vision is so narrow ... that I am so wrapped up in my "easy" life that I deflect thoughts of how most of the world lives. This is really an Indian's scathing indictment of India - despite the gains the country has made economically, it still remains corrupt and backward. This book is a social commentary that was met with derision by many in India.
The journey for the main character from servitude to entrepreneurship was accomplished, unfortunately, through the same corrupt means that his boss employed to attain and keep his position. So Balrain escapes from "the Darkness" but at a cost. He does not, however, treat his drivers the same way that his boss treated him.
This is a very cynical look at society and doesn't offer up much hope that those who want to elevate themselves from "the Darkness" can do so without becoming like those that that have enslaved them. I was unaware that the lower caste Indian people are much like the serfs in Russia; their servitude seems to be part of their persona and freeing themselves from servititude is something that they are not comfortable with.

For me, it was enlightening and of course, disturbing, and helped me understand the Indian and the caste system better.