Visit a world of books

Festival brings talented writers (and a cook) to JCC.
PAT JOHNSON AND CYNTHIA RAMSAY

A good book can provide a much-needed escape from reality or it can offer a whole new perspective on the world. A good poem can evoke emotions that you have felt but were never able to express in words. Imagine then what spending five days with some 20 authors (and their publications) could do for you.

The 20th Annual Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival takes place at various locations in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver Nov. 20-25. It features writers of fiction, poetry, social, political and economic commentary, cookbooks and kids books. Festival-goers will be able to meet authors from across Canada, as well as try their hand at writing their own stories. Here is a sample of what the festival offers.

The survival of Yiddish

Lillian Nattel will open this year's book fair. The author of The River Midnight has just published The Singing Fire, which has received rave reviews. At its heart, The Singing Fire is about two women, but the story here is an epic of Yiddishkeit across Europe, from London in the west to Minsk in the east.

Nattel, who lives in Toronto, is a master of dialogue, letting her characters tell the story in short, snappy outbursts that seem to have the cadence of the Yiddish tradition they depict. Set in the late 19th century and the turn of the tumultuous 20th century, the imagery of fire, of passion and of a culture that would not survive the new century gives The Singing Fire an understated poignancy. The power of Yiddish theatre as a social force both in eastern Europe and in the West provides some of the entertaining tableaux of the story, but the fantasies playing out on stage do not compete with the gritty, real-life adventures taking place in the East End ghetto or in the jumping shtetl. Amid annual Purim parties, birthday celebrations and Rosh Hashanahs, schisms arise between the religious tradition of the past and the free-thinking secularism of the future, of the dreams of comforts amid the grinding poverty of shmatte pieceworkers and an unflinching glare into the bleak choices life sometimes demands.

Joining Nattel in the opening night celebrations will be Swingamajig. Anyone who has heard the duo's CD Don't Sweat the Small Stuff will eagerly await this portion of the evening. Fifteen-year-old violin prodigy Michael Fraser – who started playing the instrument at age four – and his father, guitarist Don Fraser – who has played in numerous local swing and bluegrass bands over the last 30 years – are great together as they perform traditional, and not so traditional, jazz numbers.

Tickets for the opening are $20/$18 in advance, and $25 at the door.

Teen identity issues

In Winnipeg author Eva Wiseman's young readers' novel No One Must Know, a family's secrets are revealed. Alex's childhood in postwar Winnipeg seems ordinary and uneventful, but some questions are off-limits – like why she doesn't have a grandmother like the other girls her age and what took place in the Europe of her parents' origin. The cross Alex wears around her neck is significant to her, but not in the way it seems to hold importance for her parents, who will ultimately be faced with a choice. When Alex discovers mysterious old photos in her mother's room, the truth comes out ... inevitably. Though aspects of the novel are predictable, the denouement is less predictable than the details of the family's secret. Against the backdrop of catastrophic family history and mistakes made with the best of intentions, the legacy of a world turned upside down make its way across oceans and continents.

A complementary story for young readers is Torontonian Lynne Kositsky's The Thought of High Windows. With clouds of war and Holocaust forming over Europe, Esther flees Germany, eventually reaching France, where she confronts the normal teenage anxieties, coming to terms with the meaning of life in a continent increasingly dominated by death. Individual identity is developed in the teen years and young adulthood, but what happens when the identity one is born with threatens one's very existence? Loyalty and betrayal are common themes in young people's literature, but Kositsky explores these values in a context as drastic and existential as the Second World War. Eventually, her protagonist, Esther, emerges from this tumultuous epoch, but her self-identity is less certain than the course of history. Like so many, Esther will have to recreate herself in a world of peace.

At the festival, Kositsky and Wiseman will participate in a school field trip; Kositsky on Nov. 22, 1 p.m., and Wiseman on Nov. 23, 10 a.m. Both events will take place in the Dayson Board Room.

Mmm, mmm good

Pam Reiss will be offering a multi-sensual twist to this year's book fair, with a cooking demonstration and lunch. Reiss, who learned to cook in her parents' kosher catering business, is the author of Soup: A Kosher Collection.

Soup is an imaginative and varied collection of recipes, though those who prefer chatty cookbook authors might be disappointed. Reiss has a good introduction outlining what makes kosher soups different from other soups, but she doesn't spend much time introducing each individual recipe, despite that some might invite a little storytelling. A variety of lentil soup variations, for example, might have raised a discussion of taste differences among Sephardim and Ashkenazim perhaps, or the native influences on various Diaspora communities.

Such details are matters of an author's taste but the true test of a cookbook is the taste of the food. The Bulletin's test kitchen was redolent with the aroma of Reiss's simple and surprising cauliflower corn chowder. Reiss's pepper pot soup is a thankfully vegetarian (dairy) variation on the traditional, which usually calls for tripe, an acquired taste at best. The special relationship between Jews and Chinese food is not overlooked as Reiss offers a mouth-watering hot and sour soup recipe.

Reiss will lead a cooking demo (that will include lunch) on Tuesday, Nov. 23, noon, in the Wosk Auditorium. The cost is $12/$10 and advance reservations are required.

Dealing with the past

Memory is the theme that runs through Would You Hide Me?, Prince Edward Island playwright, poet and short story writer J.J. Steinfeld's 10th book of fiction. Whether told from the perspective of a struggling academic, a lonely woman, a man on trial for murder or Scrabble-playing men in a seniors home, Steinfeld writes about how the present is influenced by past events. The Holocaust features prominently in many of Steinfeld's writings, some stories reflecting its far-reaching negative consequences, others portraying people's ability not only to survive such horrible tragedy but to eventually enjoy life again.

Steinfeld reads from Would You Hide Me? on Wednesday, Nov. 24, at 7 p.m., in the Dayson Board Room.

Life's good and bad

The festival closes with the unlikely pairing of poet and author Susan Glickman and novelist Edeet Ravel.

Glickman's most recent collection, Running in Prospect Cemetery: New and Selected Poems, is a thought-provoking compilation of selected poetry from 1978 to 2004. Intelligence, compassion and wit permeate Glickman's writing. She seems to have more of an understanding than most people of what life is all about and the scope of topics – about which Glickman seems quite knowledgeable – is impressive. For example, the poem "Two Cats" (from The Power to Move) is a commentary on poverty and class status in Mexico; "Running in Prospect Cemetery" (from Hide & Seek) is about how our bodies fail us, a barren woman mourns her inability to have children as well as the death of a friend from cancer; "The Woman Beside the Lake is Reading" is about a mother trying to read but who is continually distracted by her children playing.

No doubt, Glickman will be an interesting and even inspiring speaker at the closing event. Ravel, however, will likely be more controversial.

In Look for Me, Ravel relates the story of Dana Hillman, an Israeli woman who writes romance novels to earn a living and also photographs protests against Israel by Palestinians and peace activists. Although Hillman has moved on with her life, she has never given up the hope that she'll one day find her husband, who mysteriously disappeared 11 years earlier.

While the search for a long-lost husband and a romantic affair are the focus of Look for Me, Ravel mixes in politics with her descriptions of what it feels like to be in a protest as tear gas and gun fire fall around, and how it feels to be arrested at a checkpoint. Ravel's sympathies obviously lie with the Palestinians and activists – in "real life," she divides her time between Canada and Israel, where she does political peace work – but she manages to avoid demonizing the Israelis and the Israel Defence Forces soldiers.

The closing event, which includes a tribute to community volunteers, will take place at the Norman Rothstein Theatre on Thursday, Nov. 25, 7 p.m. The event is free but people must call and reserve their tickets in advance by calling the Hadassah-WIZO office at 604-257-5160.

In addition to the authors' readings, there will also be writing workshops on Nov. 21. And festival-goers will be able to load up their trunks with new and used books that will be for sale throughout the festival. They also can get a headstart on Chanukah at the Temple Sholom Sisterhood gift shop. For more information about the JCC Book Festival, visit the JCC, call 604-257-5111 or log on to www.jccgv.com.

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