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June 16, 2006
Authors' poetic storytelling
Two vastly different new books offer insight into living life.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Two new books arrived at the Independent a couple of months
ago. One's a small collection of folktales infused with a Jewish
spirit. The other is a novel about two people who must make peace
with their pasts and find hope in their futures. Both are about
relatively innocuous subjects, yet they command your attention and
even create a sense of urgency – you are eager to know how
the stories will end but you can't bring yourself to skim because
they're beautifully written.
Luckily for those reading The Curse of the Blessings
by Mitchell Chefitz, the tales are only four to nine pages long.
While the cover bears the claim that "Sometimes, the right
story can change your life," the life-altering capacity of
these tales is debatable. They will make you think, though, and
they will help put certain aspects of your life into perspective.
As well, while easy to read, you won't breeze through The Curse
of the Blessings' 96 pages. Each chapter requires contemplation
and one or two in a sitting is plenty; more is actually overwhelming.
In the title story, "The Curse of the Blessings," an arrogant
officer of the law encounters a man in rags in an alley. He commands
the man to come forward, but the man attacks the officer instead
and curses him: the lawman must find something new to bless each
day, or die at sundown. The tale's moral is a good one and the ending
will make you chuckle. Most of the other stories are as entertaining
and thought-provoking, although some resonate more than others.
Blue Nude by Elizabeth Rosner has a similar poetic-yet-driven
feel to it. The protagonists are Danzig, a German-born artist whose
paintings were once in great demand, but who now only teaches at
an art institute in California, and Merav, an Israel-born granddaughter
of a Holocaust survivor who works as a nude model. The two meet
at the institute and, while their stories intersect and propel each
other, the two lead very separate lives and have their own particular
issues with which to deal. Rosner sets up their respective creative
blocks and delves into the events that have positively formed, but
at the same time emotionally impaired, Danzig and Merav. As clichéd
as it sounds, once each of them accepts their past, they are able
to create again and there is hope that they will be able to live
completely; their respective tragedies contributing to the fullness
of who they are, rather than their losses leaving them with emptiness.
Rosner manages to write this story with such a familiar theme in
a touching, evocative and novel way. Some readers may find the prose
too colorful or descriptive, but it's necessary to accurately communicate
the artistic nature of Danzig's and Merav's lives. And for people
who appreciate the well-written word, it's a pleasure.
You might be able to find The Curse of the Blessings ($16.95)
and Blue Nude ($29.95) – both in hardcover – at
a local bookstore. If you can't, the former is published by Running
Press Book Publishers (www.runningpress.com)
and the latter by Ballantine Books (www.ballantinebooks.com).
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