Against the backdrop of war and unrest, the strivings of a woman for independence gain international depth.
A curious and beautiful study of lives loosely linked by family and heritage.
Proprietor of a successful pajama factory catering to the ultra-Orthodox Jews in Tel Baruch North, Israel, Mandy Gruber ought to feel empowered. Unfortunately, she is hamstrung by deathbed promises made to her mother, an astonishing woman who courageously escaped Rhodesia and pulled herself out of certain poverty as a widowed refugee by founding her own company. Instead of helping Mandy achieve her own independence, she binds Mandy to an unhappy marriage and an antiquated business. Nonetheless, Mandy runs the factory well and supports her self-proclaimed genius husband, Irad, the narcissistic, demanding bore acclaimed for inventing the spiral escalator. Their daughter, Lirit, is at loose ends, living with a judgmental, controlling organic farmer in an effort to avoid following in Mandy’s footsteps too soon. Worse, their son, Dael, an army sharpshooter, has returned to war. Eager to regain the limelight, Irad is working on special protective suits for the military. He is planning to visit an ex-Israeli scientist in America, Bahat McPhee, who (after discovering that Irad shares Rod Serling’s birthday) is eager to share her research. Taking advantage of Irad’s absence, Mandy schedules her eighth (not counting her nose job) cosmetic surgery procedure. She’s become addicted to the numb bliss of anesthesia and the distracting pain of recovery, both of which dull her fears for Dael’s safety. Her surgeon, flying in from Dresden, will implant new shoulder blades. But when the surgery goes awry, everyone closely and distantly related to Mandy will feel the repercussions. Internationally acclaimed Castel-Bloom (Human Parts, 2004, etc.)—whose Dolly City is listed by UNESCO’s Collection of Representative Works—deftly weaves a web of intertwining character studies, each rich with detail and nuance.
Against the backdrop of war and unrest, the strivings of a woman for independence gain international depth.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55861-825-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Feminist Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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