The Writing on the Wall: A Novel [Hardcover]

Lynne Sharon Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1582432996 | ISBN-13: 978-1582432991 | Publication Date: May 31, 2005

Thirty-four and decidedly independent, Renata has been known to keep her involvement with people--men in particular--to a minimum. Even her job at the library keeps her at a remove from the uncertainty of trusting other people with the stories of her past. Instead she loses herself in language, ever measuring the integrity of words against lived experience. Then Jack, patient, solid, and sexy, enters her life. One bright September morning, as Renata walks across the Brooklyn Bridge to work, the sky bursts open and change comes without warning. It quickly becomes clear in the days ahead that Renata cannot keep memories of her buried past--of a twin sister, a betrayal, of family truths too ugly to acknowledge--at bay. Written with tremendous compassion and imagination, informed by an abiding love for the people of New York, and crafted by a master storyteller at the height of her powers, The Writing on the Wall is a profoundly engaging novel about how one woman saw--and we all continue to ponder--the defining event of our times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The aftermath of the World Trade Center attack provides a traumatic backdrop to Schwartz's latest novel (after In the Family Way), an intellectually evocative and emotionally trenchant exploration of troubled intimacy and the constitutive effects of language. Renata, a Brooklyn-based 30-something librarian with a gift for recondite tongues, is stymied in her promising affair with fellow Brooklynite Jack by her vows of "emotional celibacy," the result of a long history of family trauma, including the tragic death of her twin sister, Claudia, at age 16. When the Twin Towers are struck, Jack's assistant at his downtown social services agency perishes in the collapse, and he and Renata become the caretakers of her baby, Julio. As Renata develops an obsessive attachment to the baby as well to a mute stray teenager she names after her dead niece, Gianna (born just before Claudia's death), Schwartz artfully reveals the origins of Renata's psychic scars: the twins' overenmeshed relationship, the death of their father and institutionalization of their mother, plus Gianna's mysterious drowning. Renata's emotional wariness links to her suspicions of language in general, which are exacerbated by the president's verbal response to the terrorist attack. With Renata's complex balance of intellectual skepticism, emotional fragility and street smarts, Schwartz continues to show herself a rigorous novelist. (June)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Schwartz is a connoisseur of anguish, especially survivor's guilt, yet she is also an adept choreographer of romance. Incisive, unafraid to flirt with melodrama in pursuit of a compelling story, acutely descriptive yet to the point, she now brings to fiction the era-defining tragedy of September 11, 2001. New Yorker Renata, a librarian with a gift for languages, is a hard nut to crack, so thick is the protective shell she acquired after the mysterious death of her twin sister when they were 16. Claudia had just given birth to a daughter, father unidentified. Shortly thereafter, Renata's father also dies, her mother loses her mind, and Renata ends up raising her niece only to have the child disappear. All this pain keeps Renata on guard against intimacy, even with her kind lover, Jack, until 9/11 delivers another motherless girl to her doorstep. Schwartz evokes in electrifying detail the deep shock felt in the wake of the attacks, intuiting the psychological and spiritual dimensions of everyone's obsession with TV coverage, the creation of "impromptu memorials," and the longing to return to normal routines. But this is also a richly nuanced love story, a tale of earned trust and courageous receptivity in a time of fanaticism and war. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582432996
• ISBN-13: 978-1582432991
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #960,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel about redemption, June 27, 2005

By 

Elizabeth C. Hadas (Albuquerque, New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Writing on the Wall: A Novel (Hardcover)

This marvelous novel combines deep insights into human suffering and redemption with painfully sharp awareness of the importance of speaking the truth and the impossibility of hearing the truth from our political leaders. The story begins with the events of 9/11 but actually gets more powerful as it veers away from current events and into the protagonist's struggle with her private demons.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling writing, July 24, 2005

By 

HenderHouse (Libertyville, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Writing on the Wall: A Novel (Hardcover)

Schwartz's storytelling pulled me through "The Writing on the Wall" as each new revelation unfolded. While the revelations happen quietly, they completely change the landscape of Renata's life. The connection to the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers is an interesting corrolary to the losses that Renata has faced. The 9/11 attacks were huge and visible and the losses were known to all around the world. Renata's loss was similar (sudden disappearance of a loved one), but visible only to those directly affected. A thoughtful and thought-provoking story.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jack's tower of love, August 26, 2005

By 

Patricia Kramer (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Writing on the Wall: A Novel (Hardcover)

Another powerful book by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. Reading this book helped me move the events of 9/11 away from the still unthinkable horror to the effect that day had on the lives of real people as they first made their way through the ash and dust on the street and through the days beyond that.

I loved the strength of Jack's love for Renata. I liked that he fell for her before he learned her many layered aches from the past and stayed with her ready to move through and beyond to their days beyond that.

I liked how the characters were able to rise to the occasion when they needed do, including Renata's mother who loved her enough to reject her offered fantasy and demand that her daughter live her life and overcome her losses in the days beyond that.