THE BIRTHMARK

by Dorothea Straus ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 1987

Heiress to the Rheingold Beer family, Straus in her non-fiction books (Thresholds; Showcases; Palaces & Prisons) commemorated her beautiful, sheltered life growing up among the German Jewish elect. In this first novel and disguised reminiscence, she probes the wound her brother carved in that life--and, with surgical care, builds from hermemories a parable of a man who traded his heritage for scraps from the miserly table of assimilation. The narrator is born 18 months after her brother Nicholas into the sheltered world of the German-Jewish Bloch family, founders of Meistersinger Brewery. It is a world of country houses and Park Avenue apartments--not the product of a sudden spectacular rise but of ""more modest riches that had originated in Bavaria prior to the 1848 arrival in the United States."" Nicholas seems to vandalize the scene almost at once. As a baby, he stages fits to get what he wants, and he never changes. At the semi-public school they attend, she shrinks from the sight of him--unnaturally tall and awkward, groveling before his Polish and Irish playground tormentors, trying to bribe them for acceptance. Nicholas inspires a nightmarish shame in his sister, and the reckless efforts he makes to win the trappings of assimilation are frozen in various, repeating tableaux that make up his life. Out of college, he assumes his right to the family brewery and smashes its genteel roll-top desk security with a brash Madison Avenue hustle that culminates in the ""Miss Meistersinger"" contest, the crowning achievement of his life. The promotion is a monument to Nicholas' blind adoration of all-American beauties that leads to three loveless marriages that drain his health and wealth. Finally, he loses the family brewery and comes to a pathetic end. A poignant, suggestive, revealing book, and a portrait not just of assimilation, but of a difficult relationship between brother and sister. As delicately as litmus paper, it discloses the way we know ourselves through the people who own our hearts.

Pub Date: April 23, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Braziller

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION