SECOND HAND SMOKE

Tikkun literary editor Rosenbaum’s debut novel is again, like his earlier collection of stories (Elijah Visible, 1996), an autobiographically influenced account of the burdens shouldered by children of Holocaust survivors. While the family-background elements are persuasive, the plot itself tends more often to be forcedly unrealistic. Raised in Miami in the ’50s and ’60’s, Duncan Katz is trained for strength and vengeance by his refugee parents, the benign “Yankee” and towering Mila, both survivors of Poland’s death camps. Well evoked are the family’s habits of secrecy, suspicion, and paranoia; Mila’s compensating appetite for ruthless gambling; and the early phases of Duncan’s life. The boy excels at martial arts and aggressive sports, and later he becomes a lawyer in order to pursue Nazi war criminals hiding in the US. Eventually, his attempt to extract a confession illegally from a suspect costs him his job; then his mother dies; and his wife Sharon—no more than an emotional bauble here—insists that he leave her and their daughter Milan. His mother’s final days in the hospital, and her confession that she abandoned a son in Poland before fleeing, contain touching moments, while Duncan’s own search for his brother Isaac, and his exploits in Poland, are thick on action but thin on credulity. Isaac, a spiritual leader in his own community, teaches Duncan the techniques of yoga to contain his rage, and the pair spend a harrowing night (or is it a dream?) in a Birkenau camp cell dressed in striped uniforms adorned with gold stars. Ultimately, realizing that his mother never nourished him emotionally, Duncan is able to make peace with his past. Rosenbaum portrays well Miami’s Jewish refugee population and the psychological box that traps Duncan early on. It’s difficult, though, to credit a reconciliation that involves proper breathing techniques, the alignment of chakras, and a great, dewy-eyed group hug around the gravesite of a departed matriarch.