An award-winning collection of interrelated stories, first published in Australia, brings together middle-class men and women who share a community and the same terrible childhood memory--their parents were all Holocaust survivors.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Although the middle-aged characters in this distinctive collection of 16 interconnected stories are a diverse lot, they are bound together by a shared past: all are the children of Holocaust survivors living in or near Melbourne, Australia. The women in these tales shine with originality and strength; the men for the most part exist in the background, betraying or supporting their wives. Chic, sensual Ruthie Brot is forced into some surprising decisions because of her affair with a friend's husband. Susan Silverman's husband "is shtooping a shikse" as she announces in Hot Ochre paint on the outside of her house. Ella Tennenbaum, a prominent journalist brooding over three failed marriages, seeks a new life in Israel. Dora Lipshitz, absorbed in being the perfect wife, decides not to pry into her husband's philandering. Rosa Cohen, after years of analysis, is still profoundly neurotic. Each has her own individual problems but they share subtle self-imposed barriers: each stifles her anger, distrusts the consequences of happiness and feels an overwhelming need to keep the family together. These wryly comic yet deeply moving stories explore layers of guilt and fear, and above all the need for belonging--to the family, to the community and to the faith. This is Australian writer Brett's first book to be published here; she also wrote Things Could Be Worse and three books of poetry.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
A German native and Australian author evokes the rich texture of modern-day Jewish-Australian life in these 16 engagingly down- to-earth tales--first published in Australia, where they won the 1992 National Steel Award, and Brett's first collection to be published here. In ``Moishe Zimmerman's Wife,'' 38-year-old Ruthie Brot succumbs to decades of sexual frustration by having an affair with Abe Lipshitz, a married man passed along by a fellow aerobics student. Not far down the road, in ``Something Shocking,'' adultery works a more evil magic on one of Ruthie's sisters-in-law, Susan Silver, who reacts to her own husband's extramarital affair by painting ``My husband is schtooping a shikse'' across the front of their house. Other members of Ruthie's tightknit Melbourne circle have their own, equally all-encompassing stories, most highlighting the tension between the Jewish past and present and each getting fair exposure here. These include, in ``Half-There,'' the obsession of Ruthie's other sister-in-law, Golda Goldenfein, with her experience as the daughter of concentration camp survivors; in ``What God Wants,'' Ruthie's father's announcement that his much younger Filipino wife is going to have a child; and, in ``Moving Meals,'' Abe's wife's frantic efforts to lose herself in volunteer work until her husband's love affair has run its course. As the months pass, few here are ever actually abandoned, though many temporarily stray, while gossip is energetically circulated via telephone calls, lunches, and the all-important weekly women's gin rummy game. Just when the tales of bed-hopping and scandal- mongering begin to wear on the soul, one of the more thoughtful protagonists, mildly neurotic Susan Cohen, flies off to New York with her family, where her sudden solitude allows for welcome depth and texture after the chattier Melbourne stories. Brett's abrupt, unadorned style can be off-putting, but, as with many of her characters, one grows fond in the end. Sketches throughout by David Rankin, the author's husband. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended Read,
By "roosterracing" (Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: What God Wants - (Hardcover)
I really enjoyed this book - it was frank and funny. It is constructed as a series of related short stories which made it easy to pick up again and keep up with how characters are associated with one another.It's about how (and if) children of holocaust survivors are affected by their parents suffering, which sounds like a clinical read, but it's not. It's a lot of fun.
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