A quiet, satisfying collection well-situated in the American Jewish literary tradition.
In Teichman’s (co-editor: Truth and Lamentation: Stories and Poems on the Holocaust, 1994) short story collection, characters strive to form meaningful connections to each other and to their traditions.
In the collection’s first, titular story, set in New York City and the surrounding areas in 1975, a divorced professor named Martin begins a relationship through the classifieds with a Frenchwoman named Rachel, who is a Holocaust survivor. While seemingly a simple tale about two lonely, middle-aged people looking for love, the story highlights the immense gulf between European Jews who suffered in the Holocaust and their American cousins who escaped it, “by an accident of fortune.” The second story in the collection features a different professor; he also teaches a course on Holocaust literature and also meets an unstable woman who challenges his worldview. In this case, the woman is a half-Jewish student whose plan to formally convert to Judaism is derailed by her bouts with mental illness. In each of the book’s 12 stories, there are small, but unbridgeable, distances between the characters, be they professor and student, parent and child, man and wife, two friends or two brothers. The majority of these characters are Jewish men who came of age in New York in the years following World War II. Their stories reflect not only settings, but sensibilities of the mid- to late 20th century. While Teichman’s stories are by no means groundbreaking, they are well-crafted. Fixations on aging and health, as well as the frequent views back toward the second world war and the Holocaust, mark this as an older generation’s book, though these calm, experienced stories hold meaning for readers of any age. Teichman’s protagonists are men who live largely in the world of the mind, and much of their stories’ action is internal. Small transgressions are committed. Small mercies are granted. Small redemptions are achieved. Ultimately, the reader is left with a simple message: “A man can do wrong, but he can improve.”
A quiet, satisfying collection well-situated in the American Jewish literary tradition.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-62838-460-4
Page Count: 285
Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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