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September 13, 2002
From innocent to revolutionary
JOE WIEBE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Your Mouth is Lovely
By Nancy Richler.
HarperCollins, 2002. 356 pages. $34.95
My tape recorder doesn't stand a chance at the table by the window.
It's not so much the hissing and gurgling of the espresso machine
behind us, more the Italian opera music being played at high volume,
accompanied enthusiastically by the man preparing cappuccinos behind
the counter. Nancy Richler knows the Calabria Café well,
however, and immediately points out its quietest corner. The father
and sons that run this Commercial Drive coffeehouse know her by
name – understandable considering they have been making her
a cappuccino every morning for years. Richler starts nearly every
day at Calabria, writing by hand for a couple hours before running
errands and then working on the computer at home.
Richler's first novel, Throwaway Angels, was published in 1996 by
a small Vancouver press and shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award,
typically given to mystery novels. She points out that "it
wasn't really a mystery. For true mystery lovers, it would have
been a disappointment because I don't solve the mystery in the end."
After that first book, which she describes as "very modern,
spare, spare, spare and a bit sterile," she felt "hungry
for lusher language and a wider palette." This urge, along
with the spark of an idea formed in a 1986 class on Russian social
history, led to her second novel, which comes out on Sept. 21.
Your Mouth is Lovely is a literary historical novel set against
the backdrop of the ultimately unsuccessful 1905 Russian Revolution.
Generally given short shrift in textbooks and university courses,
this chapter of history is fertile ground for Richler's story of
Miriam, an Orthodox Jewish woman growing up in the Ukraine as the
final czarist regime is coming to an end.
The title of the novel is part of a prayer that can be found in
the Song of Songs (specifically in translations from the original
Hebrew). Richler explains that "in eastern Europe, there were
some women who would say it on the occasion of their child's first
words. It was a prayer that the child would use the gift of speech
for good rather than evil." Although the meaning of the title
is eventually made clear in the book, it initially brings to mind
more of a romantic story than the literary historical genre this
novel occupies. Hopefully, potential readers will not judge this
book too quickly by its title.
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In the novel, Miriam's mother disappears the day after giving birth
to her, distraught since the death of her firstborn son a year earlier.
Though it is widely accepted that she killed herself, her body is
never found. Thus, Miriam's father, Aaron Lev, is not allowed to
remarry for seven years and she is raised by the village midwife.
When Aaron does marry again, Miriam is brought up by her stepmother,
Tsila, a gifted seamstress with a tongue sharper than her needles.
In this way, Miriam has three mothers, her own dead mother whom
she never knows, the midwife who raises her from infancy and her
stepmother who gives her an education and guides her through her
adolescence. Throughout her childhood she feels haunted by the ghost
of her brother and seeks to know more about her mother, but in this
cloistered community, speaking of the dead is considered bad luck,
so she is left with little more than rumors and folk tales.
Richler breaks up the chronology of Miriam's childhood with letters
written by an adult Miriam from a Siberian prison to the daughter
taken from her at birth by the prison authorities. She has been
jailed for revolutionary activities, her life spared only because
she was pregnant when arrested. The letter writing is a useful convention;
Richler effectively contrasts Miriam's ignorance and confusion as
she is growing up with the cynical hindsight available to her imprisoned
adult self. Her growth from innocence to experience mirrors not
only Russia's transition from traditional to modern, but also the
birth of the women's rights movement and the beginning of the progression
of Jewish culture from universal oppression to nominal acceptance
in the Western world.
Your Mouth is Lovely is an absorbing and entertaining read
that will satisfy readers of historical and literary fiction alike.
Richler's attention to detail gives this book a documentary feel,
yet her rich characterization keeps the novel from being weighed
down by facts and dates. When Miriam travels from the nameless village
of her birth to Kiev, the reader shares her sensations of awe and
wonder at the modern world of electric trams, paved roads and streetlights.
One can taste the air "sweeping in from the steppe."
In Richler's own words, Miriam's move to Kiev was "a big transition
for her and the author." As a writer driven by a character's
voice rather than plot, she felt as lost as Miriam did. Reading
1906 guidebooks on Kiev helped, but she feels that "when you
do an historical novel you have to be careful not to let your research
overwhelm you. I found memoirs the best because they really give
you a sense of people. I didn't worry that much about complete accuracy
because memory is inaccurate. It's screened through so many layers,
memory is fiction anyway. The memoirs are their impressions and
they're as real as any form of reality."
This research method was clearly successful; the story of Miriam's
time in Kiev is fascinating. Kiev is where Miriam reluctantly –-
indeed almost accidentally – becomes the revolutionary "terrorist"
for which she is ultimately jailed. Though she sees the injustice
and economic disparity that sparks her compatriots to violent action,
she herself is not as convinced of the necessity of violence. Part
of her yearns to escape from Russia and live a simple life in Argentina
or Montreal, as many others from her village have.
Richler acknowledges that Miriam is unusual for a woman of that
era: "I thought this is so farfetched, but then I thought,
if the Orthodox Jewish community in Montreal could produce me, then
that community could produce her." Miriam is a refreshingly
original character for the historical fiction genre. Her growth
from folksy ignorance to revolutionary anarchist is captivating
and compelling.
The book's weakness, and this is only a small quibble, lies in the
choice of title and how it reflects the theme at the core of the
novel. The implication of the title is that Miriam will use words
and language to help make positive change in the world, as part
of the revolutionary movement in Russia. However, though she does
get mixed up in terrorist activities, she does not make speeches
nor does she write propaganda pamphlets. One gets the sense that
Richler started writing the book with the intention that her protagonist
would eventually become one of the leading revolutionaries, but
that just is not part of Miriam's makeup. Within the story of the
novel, this is not disappointing since the character stays true
to herself, but it does feel like the title's thematic promise is
not quite met.
Richler says finding the title was crucial to her writing process.
She likes it for the ambiguity it contains, pointing out that Miriam
is "not quite sure what she makes of her life, even at the
end." While this is true, ambiguity is not the strongest stamp
to put on the cover of a book and this title does not serve this
engaging novel as well as another might.
After spending five years working on this "labor of love,"
Richler is excited about its release. She will read from the book
and autograph copies at Chapters (Broadway/Granville) in Vancouver
on Sept. 21 at 1 p.m., and at Bolen Books (Hillside Mall) in Victoria
on Sept. 30, before heading across the country on a publicity tour.
Richler recently learned that Your Mouth is Lovely is going
to be translated for publication in Italy, and she is excitedly
anticipating signing an Italian copy for the father and sons who
run the Calabria Café, where most of this novel was written.
In the meantime, however, she can be found each morning at a table
by the window, sipping her cappuccino and writing by hand.
Joe Wiebe is a freelance writer who lives in Vancouver.
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