Customer Reviews

Swimming Toward the Ocean: A Novel

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Set in Brooklyn and Manhattan in the 1950's, the story centers on Chenia, a 45-year-old Jewish-Russian immigrant, wife and mother of three children. In an unusual narrative and plot convention, the story opens with the as yet unborn third child, a daughter named Devorah, telling the story, most of it recreated from her imagination and from her perspective as an adult 40 years later. The central story revolves around Chenia's miserable marriage to Ruben, a philanderer, a liar, a con man, who works in the garment district. He is at best indifferent to his family, and often worse. With the two older children in school, Chenia once again finds herself pregnant. Unable to successfully abort the third child, uneducated, trapped in a loveless marriage, having never learned English well enough and still very much a greenhorn, the only option she sees is suicide. Through a set of circumstances, she is saved from this fate and enters into an off and on again affair of her own with one Harry Taubman. When Harry eventually lets her down, too, she again nearly commits suicide, but is rescued at the last minute.

Down the road, as her children are getting older, through a financial twist of fate, she is able to divorce Ruben and eventually marry good-hearted Sol. From husband A to husband B, we see the children shunted aside and left to grow up on their own, but Devorah is the child who has it the worst. It is almost a miracle that she even survives in this household of neglect and it is no wonder that as a 40-year-old and a mother to be herself, she asks the dying Chenia, 'do you really love me?' Although Chenia never fully grows up, she does come to a sense of peace years later. The last chapters and the final denouement work well in bringing the story to closure as Devorah tries to figure out the truth and what it means for her own future.

The story is told in strong simplistic language that never sentimentalizes Chenia's heartbreaking life or the life of her children. The other characters in the story are also complex and recognizable. Swimming Toward the Ocean is written with intelligence, depth, and compassion. This is not a feel good story or a comfortable one, but one which will resonate in the hearts and minds of readers.

I have been a fan of Carole Glickfeld's for some time now. When I discovered that Swimming Toward the Ocean was to be published in eight long months, it was all that I could do to prevent myself from calling up the bookstores and demanding that they push up their deadlines. I had already read Carole Glickfeld's first book of short stories, Useful Gifts, and could not wait to read something else by this gifted and talented author.

The day I purchased Carole Glickfeld's novel, I read the first few pages while standing near the checkout counter and from that point on I could not put it down. Carole Glickfeld is so wise. I am so emotionally attached to her characters. I want to meet them on the street. I have questions for them. I love them. My mother also sailed through Swimming Toward the Ocean. On the phone she said, "Oh, Chenia-what a character...and she loved her children so much." We spoke about the intricate lives of Chenia and her family for what could only have been more than an hour, and once I had hung up the phone, my husband asked, "Who were you talking about?" "Chenia," I responded. "Do I know Chenia?" he asked. "No," I answered and pointed to Carole Glickfeld's book. It's a hardback, the type of book one treasures.

Let me tell you a little bit about Chenia, but not too much! Chenia is a Russian immigrant who is pregnant with her third child when the novel opens. Although she is married, Chenia has never experienced a loving relationship with her husband. What follows is a comical, intricate and unique description of Chenia's process of self-discovery, as told through the omniscient eyes of her youngest child. Chenia's unique personality is enhanced by the fact that her English is often spoken in a foreign syntax and peppered with Yiddish words throughout the novel. It is in this colorful manner that we are introduced to Brighton Beach, the Atlantic Ocean, the cloisters of Manhattan, the shoe store salesman, the opera, the underbelly of the Coney Island boardwalk, a factory fire, and the infidelities of a marriage. Chenia's fear of the evil eye, her superior wit and intelligence, her likeable and humane spirit, and her vivid sensuality and passion along with her compelling story make this a must read for men and women alike. I guarantee that you will cancel plans to finish Carole Glickfeld's novel and when you have read from cover to cover, you will mourn the loss of Chenia's world, considering her a dear and important friend.

I really cannot imagine someone reading the incredibly intriguing first few scenes of this book-a woman's account of her mother's attempts to abort her-- and choosing to set it aside. Jewish-Russian immigrant Chenia Arnow is a fascinating and vivid character-the type who leaves an imprint in memory as sharp and clear as any person I've met. And the narration by daughter Devorah was a brilliant and daring choice. It is handled with such absolute authority that it causes no confusion, and what the reader gains is a steady and powerful insight into how Chenia's struggles and regrets as mother, wife and mistress must have shaped Devorah's character and life. Glickfeld clearly deserves the acclaim she is receiving. I look forward to her next book.

We meet Chenia, a young Jewish Russian immigrant, living in Brooklyn in the early '50s. And, we learn about Chenia's despair through the eyes of her yet-unborn daughter, Devorah. Chenia, barely making ends meet caring for her husband, Ruben, and two children, is pregnant. Though she tries all the old wives' tales she knows to abort the unborn child, her pregnancy continues and Devorah is born.

This is not a story of sadness and grief. It is the BEST book I have read that captures human longing, learning, and loving through the spirit of the Jewish immigrant story. Most of all, it is a story we can relate to as women. We get to know Chenia as a woman growing to like herself and feel comfortable in her new land.

As readers, we are priviledged to be with Chenia as she emerges from the past, including the ever-present evil-eye, and becomes one with her new reality. Come to know Chenia as she returns time and time again to gaze at the ocean and tong for comfort in the arms of the "man with the fedora hat."

Don't miss this one. You'll feel like you know these people. You won't want to leave them. Carole Glickfeld is an author to watch and welcome into our hearts.

This is absolutely one of the best books I have read in a long time. The book sucked me in from the first page. I was taken into Chenia's life and wasn't let go till the last page. I found it quite unique that her story was told by her daughter Devorah. The last child and the one that Chenia tried so hard to do away with. Chenia felt her life was over and the thought of another child was just too much to bear. Little did she know how this child would take her on a journey that would help to make Chenia's life her own. This is truly a rich and fulfilling novel about life in new jersey and new york in the 1950's.

When we choose a novel we demand to be entertained and, hopefully, transformed in some way by the story. If the novel lives up to these demands we are satisfied that we have just enjoyed literature. Though scholars may yearn for a less pithy definition of what is literature, we should recognize that for the money we put out, and more for the money that actually ends up in the author's hands, we have extraordinarily high expectations. Yet in a beautifully quiet, heartfelt way, Glickfeld's Swimming Toward the Ocean delivers.
How does one find a measure of contentment in a world of practical limitations, outright deceit and one's own shortcomings? Glickfeld suggests answers from the narrative viewpoint of Devorah Arnow, whom we meet as an intrepid zygote that survives her mother Chenia's attempts at abortion and suicide. Devorah is sort of an Ismael, but more interesting than that. Though she is often a passive observer her intelligent, confused voice transfixes us. We also come to know Devorah's siblings who struggle with mediocrity, her philandering father and his lovers, Chenia's sister and her husband, and Chenia's off and on lover. These are economically modest, post-War immigrants living in Coney Island and Manhattan. Through their evolving relationships we find no one is beyond deceitfulness, but that there is always more to it than that.
For those of us burdened by an MTV short attention span, Glickfeld constructs her narrative of these lives in relatively short, subtle vignettes that move us along faster than we realize. In that way little moments become transforming events. The book ends too soon and we are saying regretful good-byes to people that have become our friends by shared experience. This novel will appeal to those who want to read a well-crafted story of small but sincere lives unsugared by contrived satisfaction.

Swimming Toward the Ocean is that rare book that combines spare, evocative writing with a story so original that I could not wait each night to curl up with my book to see how Chenia, the main character, was faring. Every woman will identify with this lovely, overwhelmed immigrant, whose struggles with life, love, failures and the challenge of an unwanted child are stunning in their clarity. Carole Glickfeld deserves all the accolades she has been receiving. We have never met a character quite like Chenia, and for that alone, this book should be a must-read.

What a wonderful, all-consuming novel! I could barely put it down. I cried when I finished it! The characters, the setting the time, the Yiddish-isms, all resonated deeply within me. I highly recommend this moving and tremendously enjoyable book!!

I highly recommend SWIMMING TOWARD THE OCEAN. The author is a master at storytelling and the book is broken up into Parts, rather than chapters and this worked so well. Within each part there were short passages which made it a good read to pick up and set down.

The captivating and descriptive life of the immigrant family represented in this story was so real. I felt like I had actually met Chenia (the main character) and felt her disgust for her husband, Ruben. The story also spans many years which is fun in a book - to see where everyone is years from the beginning of the book. The title was perfect and the cover of the book plays in your mind as you read this book. It was as if the book was a work of art, IMHO.

I could hardly put this book down. The characters are very real and very wonderfully crafted. Beautiful handling of the clash between the old world immigrant Jewish culture and the new generation of American Jews. Wonderful Yiddish dialect. Just loved every minute of reading this book!