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Dec. 15, 2006
More than one kind of love
First-time novelist Ludwig nails the genre, while Kushner struggles.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
There isn't much connecting the two works of fiction reviewed in
this week's Independent, other than their Jewish theme and
their focus on love.
Family, self or both?
Holding My Breath by Sidura Ludwig, which will be released
by Key Porter Books in March 2007, is worth the wait. In her first
novel, Ludwig tells with grace and wisdom the story of a Jewish
family – the Levys – living in Winnipeg's North End during
the late 1940s and into the '70s. She does so from the perspective
of Beth, the youngest in a household of two generations of strong
women, and mainly focuses on Beth's relationships with her mother,
her two aunts and her uncle, who died before Beth was born.
Beth's mother, Goldie, aspires to (and achieves) the middle-class
life. She is the linchpin of her family and the local Jewish community,
albeit with the quiet support of her husband and, as she gets older,
Beth. Aunt Carrie never marries and carries not only a secret, tragic
past, but is the one who ingrains in Beth the memory and dreams
of Uncle Phil. Aunt Sarah, the most beautiful and rebellious of
the three sisters, is the one Beth most idolizes, but whose star
loses its shine as Sarah loses herself.
Beth does not wish to dedicate herself to the family pharmacy business
or the Jewish community. She doesn't want to live in the past or
fail in her dreams, as she has seen her aunts do. To be happy, she
must reach a compromise between her own wishes and her duties to
her family. Ironically, or fittingly, it is her uncle who most helps
set her on the path to her future.
In Holding My Breath, Ludwig captures the complexities of
love, as it relates to personal happiness but also responsibility
to family, friends and community. She has a talent for dialogue
and manages to communicate the feeling garnered by those uncomfortable
moments we've all experienced when something awkward is said and
people flounder to find a response.
While this is Ludwig's first novel, she has had short fiction published
in several magazines and anthologies and she is the recipient of
the Canadian Author and Bookman First Prize for Most Promising New
Writer. Much-deserved honors, indeed.
A kabbalah mystery
Another interesting, but not as well-written, novel is Kabbalah:
A Love Story (Morgan Road Books, 2006) by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner.
It follows the journey of Rabbi Kalman Stern, who has just discovered
a hidden letter in an ancient copy of the Zohar that he picked up
(or that picked him up) in the mystical city of Safed, Israel.
While searching to decipher the letter's meaning, Stern meets astronomer
Isabel Benveniste, with whom he falls in love. The key to both situations
lies in the mysterious document and there are at least three stories
woven together – one in the 13th century, one during the Holocaust
and Stern's, in the present day as well as in his youth (actually,
all of the stories are taking place at the same time, in kabbalah
terms). There are also different versions of each story, as there
are layers to the understanding of kabbalah.
Kushner is obviously knowledgeable – he has been a rabbi for
almost 40 years and has written countless articles and 15 books.
His intelligence is clear in his ability to simplify difficult subjects,
such as kabbalah, and create an enjoyable story about them. As well,
without reading his biography – that says he likes graphic
design, sailboats and is learning to play the clarinet – you
can tell from his writing that he loves life. However, a "master
storyteller" he is not yet, despite being described as such
by Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent, on Kabbalah's
cover. Neither is his novel "a gem" (David Mamet, playwright).
While there are moments of insight and beauty in Kabbalah,
it often reads like the product of a creative writing class. When
Stern contemplates "what that astronomer looks like without
her glasses" or worries about his syntax, one gets the feeling
that Kushner was taught that a main character must have quirks to
be interesting. Perhaps not surprisingly, the best parts of the
book are the more academic ones: the passages on kabbalah and Jewish
bookmaking, for example.
Kabbalah is a novel that could have been quite good with
some more editing and a little rewriting. As it is, it's a pleasant,
but nonremarkable, read.
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