THE DESTINY WALTZ

by Gerda Charles ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1972

Although this is basically a sentimental book (the title referring to the theme song of one of its two central characters -- a former band leader -- indicates that), it hasn't the appeal of her Logical Girl (1967) and it is more consistent with her earlier work which offered a substantial sociology of Anglo-Jewry. Throughout the first half of this book, ostensibly dealing with the making of a documentary by four or five people, Gerda Charles examines the soul of the Jew always suffering from his Jewishness without even the ""protection of stupidity""; always worrying his way, self-consciously but ambitiously, out of his ""small"" world of the People of the Book at a time, 50 years before this, when in their crass ignorance they were not even ""People of the Word."" This is the past inherited by the Jewish poet, minor, ingrown and consumptive, who will be the subject of the documentary; but it also imposes its allegiances on Michele, a writer and a teacher and a Rabbi's daughter, and Jimmy Marchant, the band leader, who have never found personal happiness. Less susceptible to it is Georges Franck, director of the documentary -- a charmer, a betrayer who finally will hurt everyone in connection with this project but still will enable Michele and Marchant to find some sort of compromise together for their half-lives. . . . The novel moves very slowly since the author is far more interested in permitting her characters to assess themselves and each other -- it is sometimes talky but not preachy. At one point she questions whether life should take precedence over art -- in this case it is life, and Gerda Charles, with her very level intelligence and practical realism, deals with it on just those terms.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION