Day for Night

May 09, 2010 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, four-star-fiction, domestic-and-relationship-fiction, miss-trees

"...I promise you that nothing, in the end, will seem conclusive. Stories are like dreams in this way. They happen. They do not happen. They are right here. They exist in some other place entirely."

This book has an unconventional format and may be mistaken for a short story collection, but I assure you it is a novel. The strange format is what kept me glued to the book, and I polished it off within 24 hours.
It's best to be mostly clueless going into this book, so I suggest avoiding reviews tha...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 5 of 5 stars

Frederick Reiken's Day for Night is an astonishing and magical book filled with mystery, history and compelling narratives. At its center is a supposed occurrence during the Holocaust wherein 500 of Lithuania's most educated and cultured jews were slaughtered by the Nazis. The novel is comprised of several linked narratives, each one told by someone else. At first it is difficult to see how these narratives are connected, but as the story unfolds, the reader is able to recognize the connections....more Frederick Reiken's Day for Night is an astonishing and magical book filled with mystery, history and compelling narratives. At its center is a supposed occurrence during the Holocaust wherein 500 of Lithuania's most educated and cultured jews were slaughtered by the Nazis. The novel is comprised of several linked narratives, each one told by someone else. At first it is difficult to see how these narratives are connected, but as the story unfolds, the reader is able to recognize the connections. They unfold beautifully like a field of flowers. Multiple plots and subplots meld together to create an indelible whole.

The novel takes place in 1984. It starts out with Beverly, her boyfriend Daniel, and her boyfriend's son Jordan, swimming with the manatees in Florida. Daniel is dying of leukemia and Beverly plans to adopt Jordan upon his death. Their guide for this trip is Timothy Birdsy a gangly young man in his twenties. When he is not guiding people to see manatees, he is part of a rock band. The lead singer in the rock band is a girl named Dee who comes from a horrific background - her family belongs to a cult where child abuse is prevalent. In the evening, after viewing the manatees, Beverly goes and hears the band play and experiences some magical moments with Timothy. Dee has a voice that can change people's lives.

Beverly is one of the narrators in this novel, as are Timothy and Dee. Their connections are not at first evident but become so as the book unfolds. Beverly has a daughter named Jennifer who has just been picked up by the police for blowing up her teacher's mailbox. Jennifer is one of the brightest students in her school but, obviously, her choice of after school activities is not too clever. Jennifer narrates a segment of the book as well.

Dee and Timothy go on a stealth trip to Utah to visit Dee's brother who is comatose after being in a motorcycle accident. They travel in secret because they do not want to run into Dee's horrible parents who will not allow Dee to see her brother. It just so happens that they are sitting in an airplane row next to a woman who the F.B.I. has been hunting since the 1960's. Because of this, they are questioned about their connection with her, if any. This woman has an amazing array of aliases and has managed to elude the police for over two decades. She also possesses some magical charisma that enriches this novel.

In Utah, Dee and Timothy get Dee's aunt Julia's identification so that Dee can pose as Julia and get in to visit her brother. Only eight people are allowed into the hospital room which is guarded 24/7. Julia is one of the eight people allowed in. Interestingly, the woman who is running from the F.B.I. is one of the others who has access to the room. Once in the room, Dee reads a long letter to her brother about their shared past. She believes that even though comatose, he is able to hear and feel what others have to say to him. Julia figures more prominently later in the book. In fact, most of the characters that are brought up have a larger part to play as the novel progresses.

This novel attempts to show that there is little degree of separation between all things and all people. Often using the ocean as a metaphor, Reiken goes into the symbiotic relationships of plant and animal life, developing that theme to show how his characters are often reliant on one another for the creation of history or the unfolding of events.

My only problem with the book is that some of the characters are given short shrift and we are left to wonder what becomes of them. They are so interesting and their stories so absorbing that we want them to continue. Often, they don't. But, that is probably Reiken's point. We are like dominos, leaning on one another and creating action that is often momentary and short-lived but may have a huge impact somewhere else - in this world or some other. Reiken's characters question life and death. They can be magical and otherworldly. What is for sure, however, is that somehow they are all connected.

As this book resolves, the story of the 500 men is told and the connection from the past made apparent in the present. This is one of the best books I have read this year. It kept me fascinated all the way through. The writing is compelling and beautiful. Reiken uses quotes from the great philosophers, Borges, theology, and the great thinkers to give substance to his characters' belief systems. The book is a page-turner for the thinking reader. It is hard to put down. It is a book I will think about for a long time and, most likely, read again.
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Feb 22, 2011 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 5 of 5 stars

The cover of the book, of a carousel submerged into an ocean, the tip visible, is a stunning metaphor of the book itself, as well as a literal scene in one of the book's early chapters. It represents our continuing, revolving narratives, partly hidden from our consciousness, the ocean a repository of life and death, a connection to all. The horse is totemic, an aid to self-discovery and understanding of our past, as well as glimpses into our future.

The title is undoubtedly taken from Francois Tr...more The cover of the book, of a carousel submerged into an ocean, the tip visible, is a stunning metaphor of the book itself, as well as a literal scene in one of the book's early chapters. It represents our continuing, revolving narratives, partly hidden from our consciousness, the ocean a repository of life and death, a connection to all. The horse is totemic, an aid to self-discovery and understanding of our past, as well as glimpses into our future.

The title is undoubtedly taken from Francois Truffaut's superb movie, whose theme is that movies are more important than life for those that make them. In the book's context, it is the narratives that make up our lives. And what are narratives but the integration of the deepest memories that have broken up like shards and scattered, or hidden in our deepest and repressed recesses? Our narratives don't exist in isolation; the stories travel, the voices make up our universal experiences and nourish our shared humanity. We are a latticework of voices.

Reiken's novel consists of ten narratives. In each one, a character is brought into focus, their individual story highlighted. Most characters reappear in several of the other narratives, sometimes in the background, or in counterpoint, or even as a parallel. The core story underpinning all of the narratives is a story of survival during the Holocaust. Five hundred Polish-Jewish men in Soviet-occupied Lithuania were promised jobs as intellectuals, as archivists. When they assembled, they were killed. The story has taken on a fable-like history, the fable being that two of the men have survived. These two men are related to the present-day narrators in some way, either directly or through six degrees (or less!) of separation.

Reiken writes with such a natural ease that the connecting lip into deeper consciousness is fairly imperceptible. You start out on the surface of things and spool almost dreamily, tranquilly into penetrating waters. The construct is Jungian and his concept of the collective unconscious is illustrated through the psyches of the narrators and their overlapping stories.

The motifs/symbolism is ripe and transcendent. The Shadow self (which Jung describes as the repressed/suppressed aspects of the conscious self that often appears in dreams as a dark figure) is particularly expressed and explored by different characters, but is centered on Beverly, whose father was one of the five hundred men "lost." It is this Shadow self that stalks her and forces her narrative to emerge more fully into the open and connect with other narrators.

This novel is unputdownable. It winds around the reader so effortlessly and pulls you down, down, down into the heart of mercy, of kindness, of compassion. Secrets and guilt are often toxins that prevent us from knowing ourselves and understanding our lives fully, and divide us from each other. How do we begin to love, and how do we forgive?

All of us with our separate narratives are part of a deeper, richer narrative, a story much larger than we know. "Only later did I realize that the question the story caused me to ponder more than any other was that of what it takes to find a thing that's hidden, a thing that lurks within whatever it is you're staring at each day. Perhaps the meaning of the story is that you must look deep rather than far if you want to unlock any of the secrets of the universe, that once unlocked a secret loses its power unless a part of it is withheld."

If this novel does not move you uncommonly, I would be surprised. If you are not astonished by the beauty and elegance and immeasurable compassion of this book, I would be confounded. What is this book about? It is about everything. Who is it for? It is for everyone. (less)

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May 11, 2010 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favorites

What an extraordinary and elegiac book! Frederick Reiken's provocative new novel meticulously and masterfully reveals the submerged connections among 12 seemingly disparate characters, devoting one chapter to each one.

The book begins with Beverly Rabinowitz, a doctor with two daughters, who escaped from perilous Europe during World War II. Her father was one of the five hundred Jewish intellectuals who believed they were hand-chosen to be saved; instead, they were all mercilessly murdered. Half...more
What an extraordinary and elegiac book! Frederick Reiken's provocative new novel meticulously and masterfully reveals the submerged connections among 12 seemingly disparate characters, devoting one chapter to each one.

The book begins with Beverly Rabinowitz, a doctor with two daughters, who escaped from perilous Europe during World War II. Her father was one of the five hundred Jewish intellectuals who believed they were hand-chosen to be saved; instead, they were all mercilessly murdered. Half a century later, she begins to feel her father somehow escaped and is nearby.

Gradually, other characters are introduced: a young man who is in a coma and at the mercy of his nefarious family; an elusive female fugitive from the 1960s; an American veteran who finds love on an Israeli kibbutz; an elderly and attractive Holocaust survivor; Beverly's great friend who is now an analyst; an Israeli sometime-soldier. All -- and then some -- will be part of an emerging picture. Reiken writes, "It is not my intention to speak in riddles, but I will suggest that it is very natural to see all of these things as a big puzzle you must assemble. I will suggest, as well, that certain pieces will not fit, not now or ever, and that you must learn to live with these ambiguities. You must also learn to trust these ambiguities. This is perhaps the most important thing I know."

This is NOT a book for someone who wants a linear story or all the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. Like all good works of literature, this one focuses on compelling themes: how we are all connected to a dazzling and elusive whole, how our shadow lives bring us to important truths, how those truths can take us far from ourselves and help us discover how to love, survive, and prevail. And perhaps how, most of all, nothing is as random as it seems.

There is, I believe, a slight nod to D.M. Thomas's The White Hotel here, but Reiken's voice is strikingly original and the reader is always aware that he or she is in the hands of a confident writer. The London Telegraph cited Frederick Riken as one of "10 rising literary stars of 2010", and it's an honor that's well-deserved. Read it and see for yourself.
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Sep 12, 2010 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

By the end of the book, all I can utter was: Wow. At times, especially towards the end, reading it was hard and I kept going back to earlier chapters to find how the stories and characters are linked, sometimes fully, other times tangentially.

There are ten chapters in the book, each with one character writing or telling the story. It is a compelling read that kept me up late on the weeknights I had read it. The location goes to Florida, Utah, New Jersey, New York, and even Israel. The time goes...more By the end of the book, all I can utter was: Wow. At times, especially towards the end, reading it was hard and I kept going back to earlier chapters to find how the stories and characters are linked, sometimes fully, other times tangentially.

There are ten chapters in the book, each with one character writing or telling the story. It is a compelling read that kept me up late on the weeknights I had read it. The location goes to Florida, Utah, New Jersey, New York, and even Israel. The time goes back to the present, the past, and in some instances, to the future. The focal point of the novel is the tale of the five hundred Jewish intellectuals who were misled to believe that they will be doing archival work, but were instead shot and killed. The tale went on that, out of those five hundred, two survived.

This book is about stories and lives, how small and interconnected the world is, and how stories go on for as long as there are some things to tell. I wouldn't call this an easy read. The author trusts the reader's intelligence. Like real life, it leaves some questions unanswered and it doesn't tie up everything quite nicely for all the characters. I guess this is typical of the author to leave things open-ended. Both his earlier works (The Odd Sea and The Lost Legends of New Jersey) didn't have neat resolutions, but left a lot of things unanswered or, as is the case in The Odd Sea, lost and not found.

There are instances when the characters seem to be rambling, writing or saying words as they roll out of their mouths, like a stream-of-consciousness kind of narration; it makes the characters come alive and more real. And then there are passages, a lot of them actually, that are simply brilliantly written. Here's one mentioned by a character (which may as well be the author's way of saying that some stories don't have to end neatly): "I will suggest, as well, that certain pieces will not fit, not now or ever, and that you must learn to live with these ambiguities. You must also learn to trust these ambiguities."

Or this: "A man certainly does become confused, gradually, with the form of his destiny. Often this is because the form it takes is less extraordinary than what he has hoped for... But a man must take the part that he is given, and when it's done he must do his best to speak of it with dignity."

And this: "There is no happily ever after. Neither is there always a reversion to bleak reality. In the most basic of summations, what occurs is, simply, life in whatever form it takes."

There are a whole lot of things happening in this book. Some may call this a Holocaust novel, but it is not. It talks about the Holocaust, but it does not dwell so much on that as it dwells on individuals grappling with their own identity, their place in the world, and their part in a story bigger than themselves.

One day, I will come around to reading this book again, reading the stories about the characters and finding out links that I might have missed the first time. This is the kind of book that's affecting, poignant, and illuminating. The ties that bind the characters do not feel contrived and the revelations do not come like it's being spoon-fed and explained to the readers. Rather, the narrations unfold and it is up to the readers to connect the dots and realize, perhaps slowly, what has been said and what has been revealed.(less)

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May 18, 2010 Megan rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was very, very okay - which is too bad because I really wanted it to be good.

Each chapter represents the story of a different person's life that just happens to be interconnected to the life of one of the previous characters, and by the end they all are connected. This writing convention has become increasingly common since the movie Crash, and is therefore becoming increasingly hard to use well. And this book falls short, by a lot. It's not at all subtle and not at all surprising, and...more

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Apr 21, 2010 Alayne Bushey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Take the middle section of a puzzle apart from the whole. Imagine you’ve selected ten pieces. Break them from each other so that they’re no longer connected. Then put them back together again. It seems easy enough. Curves in the side of each piece match only with their corresponding partners. Details of the picture start to form. Now turn each of those pieces into a person, and put them in a book. That is Day For Night by Frederick Reiken. Each chapter is a piece of a much larger puzzle, and onl...more Take the middle section of a puzzle apart from the whole. Imagine you’ve selected ten pieces. Break them from each other so that they’re no longer connected. Then put them back together again. It seems easy enough. Curves in the side of each piece match only with their corresponding partners. Details of the picture start to form. Now turn each of those pieces into a person, and put them in a book. That is Day For Night by Frederick Reiken. Each chapter is a piece of a much larger puzzle, and only when you’ve finished the book, connected each piece to its partner, can you truly see the beauty of the whole, intricately designed work.

This is Reiken’s third novel and I will confess that I’ve had his second novel, The Lost Legends of New Jersey, on my unread bookshelf for five years now. I’ve had it ever since he gave it to me in a fiction seminar course in 2005. Time flies and I never read it and then I saw his name with a new book and I thought to myself, “I should review it.” But when I received Day For Night from Hachette I became afraid. Afraid to read it in case I wouldn’t like it. Afraid I would have to tell a former professor that I didn’t like his work. How silly I was.

I admired the cover first, and read the book description which summarized by saying:

"Gliding effortlessly across time and space, in settings that range from Florida to New Jersey to the Caribbean and the Dead Sea, Day For Night builds toward moments of revelation, when refugees from their own lives, or from history’s cruelties, come together in unpredictable and extraordinary ways."

Then I began the first chapter and thought, “I hope the rest of the book isn’t about this lady.” That might be an awful thing to think, but bear with me. The first chapter is about a woman who we later learn is named Beverly. She’s in Florida with her boyfriend (who has cancer) and his son. Through random circumstance she forms a friendship with a young boat driver who has taken them on an excursion to see manatees. I thought the book was going to turn into Beverly having an affair with the boat driver, which would have disappointed me which, in my defense, is why I thought what I did. But again, silliness.

The second chapter picks up from the boat driver’s experience some time later. He’s on an airplane with Dee, the girl who sings lead in their band. She has a story as well. They all do. Every new chapter picks up a connection with the previous chapter’s characters and leads off in a new voice and a seemingly new tangent. Soon you are following Dee’s story, her traumatic childhood and comatose brother, and where her brother was before he was in a coma, and who helps him, and where they came from, and more. So much more. But the best part is that the tangents all start to come together. And it’s beautiful, and enigmatic, and ebullient, and tragic, and vastly confusing in the best ways possible.

This book has people running from persecution to escape the holocaust, and people who were tortured by Nazis. It has people dying of cancer, and people finding each other after months of separation. It has old loves, and secret loves, and reunited loves. It is heartbreaking and hopeful, intriguing and suspenseful. It’s simply fabulous. And you should read it.

I would say this book really kicked in for me around the third chapter, which is from Dee’s point of view. There’s something I really like about Dee, she is sensual and strong and independent, but also vastly traumatized and empty inside. Her character really spoke to me. And I think her story, along with her brother’s, was the glue holding the puzzle together. Most of the other characters somehow spun from their narrative. This is not to say that the other characters aren’t as important, because they are. Separate from Dee and her brother, they form beautiful stories in and of themselves.

This book doesn’t get five stars because it’s well-written (which it is), or because the author is an old professor of mine. It gets five stars because I could barely put it down, but also wanted to read it slowly so I could enjoy it. It gets five stars because it’s incredible. It gets five stars because I will absolutely, one-hundred percent, read it again.
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Jul 23, 2011 Kurt rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a beautiful book that weaves moments of interconnected mundanity with a subtle and ethereal mysticism. The structure is a series of short stories, each with a different narrator, but each having some area of overlap with the other stories (for example, the reader gets a story from the perspective of Beverly, one of her daughters, and her boyfriend's son, as well as her aunt's new husband and a guy who guides her on a trip to swim with manatees, and the lead singer of that guy's band, and...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book on impulse, not even bothering to read the blurb and after finishing it I am thrilled! This book is amazing. Once I picked it up I couldn't put it down and took it with me everywhere I went for the whole day. It took me a long, long time to figure out that this book wasn't like many others. I kept expecting a linear kind of plot, for there to be a goal, a point, a solid obstacle blocking the path for the hero to vanquish, but this book is not that. It is intangible; more like...more

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May 05, 2012 Bonnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-of-the-best, literary-fiction

I was fascinated by all of the underwater imagery here since I felt like I was diving as I read. Just as when I dive everything seemed slowed down, contained, intimate, I was conscious of my breath, the humming of machinery (in my own home, but somehow also in the places the charcters inhabited.) To be able to create this feeling with language ... wow! Beyond the craft though, this story is wonderful, complicated, layered. Does time change everything, or does it change nothing? Are bonds ephemer...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those "puzzle books," where a whole bunch of seemingly unrelated characters have ties to each other that get revealed throughout the book. Although this can sometimes be gimmicky, I generally love it. This book did it well--although, it did warn early on not to "force meaning from coincidence." Although, then it did, so I'm not sure what the warning was about!

The book came off like a series of short stories, each narrated by a different character. I enjoyed that approach, although...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Nora rated it 5 of 5 stars

So far I can't put this book down! It's a book in which all of the characters are somehow connected and it switches from character to character as you slowly start to see the connections, but so far can't figure out what the overall thing is. I started it basically Sunday morning and after one and a half days I'm about 3/4 through it. It's riveting. I'm so looking forward to seeing what the ending is and what is really happening. It is rather confusing to follow all the characters at times, but...more

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Jun 09, 2010 Mum rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: worth-reading, wonderfully-written, thinking-required

My favorite chapter was Chapter 5. The weaving of the threads was an ambitious project, and caused some rough passages, and some seemed to flow, as if the threads were always meant to be together. Where it flows, the novel is five stars, but the bumps were rough enough that it was not a 5 star, I love it. I was not sure I would read it more than once, so I read with care to keep all the players straight, and would re-read a passage if I thought I missed something. I felt this book was one the au...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book came so highly recommended that I was wary of reading it for fear of being let down. By the third chapter I knew I was not going to be disappointed. This is 10 different narratives by 10 different characters, each interesting on its own, but intertwined and important to the others in ways not always immediately apparent. The underlying event is a massacre of Jewish intellectuals in Lithouania during the Holocaust, but the book itself is set in 1984. Dealing with issues of fate vs choic...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reiken interweaves multiple stories and characters beautifully in the book, Day for Night. This was selected as a book club book and I am excited for the opportunity to discuss the details of all of the different stories. Overall, it is a fast moving series of stories that I thoroughly enjoyed.

What I found so brilliant is that Reiken, through the various narratives, creates questions and sometimes, provides answers - but as one of his characters states (about a Borges poem): "All we [the readers...more

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May 23, 2010 Tattered Cover Book Store added it

Shelves: from-the-indienext-list, linda-recommends, staff-recommends

Linda says:

This is an intelligent, skillfully written, sometimes complex and challenging novel that invites the reader into an awareness of the myriad ways we are connected. In ways we know of but don't full understand; in ways we may only be dimly aware of. It's about families, past and present, and families to come. There is heart in this novel, as well as questions to ponder. "We are complicit in all we see and comprehend that what we see will never coincide with absolute reality." It's a boo...more

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Jul 31, 2010 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I seem to be drawn more and more to novels such as Day for Night. Interconnected stories told by many different narrators, this novel could be hard to follow but instead becomes one I want to pick up again just to catch things I missed the first time around. Reiken is a very good story teller, and I find myself re-reading passages instead of my usual skimming to get to the good parts. Day for Night has wonderfully developed characters which, considering the sheer number of them, is a great accom...more

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May 12, 2011 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Day for Night is a meditative novel. Written with beautiful prose and imagery that made me feel like I was in a dream. It's a cerebral read...but with such suspense that I could not put this book down. It is actually 10 different stories with 10 different voices that eventually begin to weave together. At first I wasn't sure there would be a connection...but I felt pulled in deeper and deeper appreciating where these characters were taking me. A day later, I am still feeling very moved and feel...more

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Sep 13, 2010 Gil rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not a bad read, but it took a bit of brain power to keep things straight. The deal with this book is that there is a basic story, and each chapter sheds light on the story from the perspective of a different character. I bet it was very fun to plan out how the author was going to reveal information and construct perspectives, but alas that could mask the story. The story itself was good, but I guess I was hoping for more. There were many loose threads. In all, something that you have to read in...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Patricia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-book

I was prepared by a reviewer to wait for the connections between the characters to be revealed, so I stuck with reading 'Day for Night." But it is not at all one of my favorite books. The characters seemed to be under water or surrounded by a heat mirage that prevented me from knowing them. Hence, I din't like or dislike or understand any of them. In addition, the connections between the characters were unbelievable and contrived. But, it was an interesting and unusual way to present a story and...more

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Aug 30, 2011 Lynn Dolven rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book illustrates the concept that there aren't six degrees of separation between a broad and diverse group of characters. The main character is Beverly Rabinowitz and the story follows the introduction of other characters that are connected to her in varying degrees of closeness. It is well-written but the plot didn't motive me to "not put it down." Kinda blah despite reviews with adjectives like "wondrous . . . irresistible . . . profound . . . hypnotically compelling." Now you understand...more

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Dec 04, 2010 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow...powerful...a single story told in the voices of all of the characters...sometimes hard to figure out who is talking at first since each chapter has a different narrator. Could have used a schematic to keep track of the different elements, too! If you read this book, don't read anything else...you'll lose track of the characters like I did...I had to re-read some to get back into the flow. But flow it does...and pulls elements in from the author's book Lost Legends of New Jersey, although i...more

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Apr 08, 2011 ATP rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was an atypical read, unlike most novels, there is no main protagonist in this book, except for a single cord that binds the disparate characters together. Reiken has a remarkable way of weaving the two tales together such that they collide in the most poignant manner. A worthwhile read if the readers can accept a fair level of ambiguity stemming from the loose ends.
Perhaps an apt quote found towards the end of the novel '..certain pieces will not fit, not now or ever, and that you must lea...more

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Jul 06, 2011 Eddie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

A blended family takes a vacation snorkeling in Florida. Then each chapter explains, to a lesser degree, about something that was discussed earlier in the novel. These seemingly disconnected chapters reveal a little more about the connectedness of the individuals whose stories we hear about. The final chapter shows us how interconnected all of the characters are and how events from the Holocaust lead to these connections. Wonderfully written. You really care about these characters. No wonder thi...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Lori rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was really wierd. From a literary standpoint you could say it is creative and in parts really well written, but I never quite figured out the "point" of the book. The book is 326 pages broken down into ten chapters. Each chapter is from the viewpoint of a different character in the book, which in some ways is interesting, but frustrating in others. In each chapter it took a while into each chapter to figure out who, exactly, is narrating this time as the author never comes out and says...more

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May 26, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Julie by: Jill

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, usa-contemporary, read-2012, past-and-present-setting, war-conflict, usa-historical

Written as a series of discrete, first-person stories, Frederick Reiken weaves a narrative built from the nexus of the Holocaust. In August 1941, five hundred Jewish intellectuals gathered in Kovno, Lithuania under the pretense they had been selected by the SS for specialized research and archival work. Instead, these men were taken outside the city and shot. A suggestion that two may have survived the massacre becomes the foundation of Reiken's ambitious, complex and often-lovely novel.

An atte...more Written as a series of discrete, first-person stories, Frederick Reiken weaves a narrative built from the nexus of the Holocaust. In August 1941, five hundred Jewish intellectuals gathered in Kovno, Lithuania under the pretense they had been selected by the SS for specialized research and archival work. Instead, these men were taken outside the city and shot. A suggestion that two may have survived the massacre becomes the foundation of Reiken's ambitious, complex and often-lovely novel.

An attempt to summarize the story would detract from a reader's discovery of its many layers and nuances. Each chapter leads the reader deeper into a mystery that includes a 60's political fugitive, Katherine Goldman, who eludes capture by CIA Agent Sachs, a cult of wealthy sadists engaged in the torture of children, a dramatic reawakening from a coma, stories of love and cuckoldry in desperate times, an escape to the Negev desert from a mold-infected home on the Atlantic seaboard, a gifted young woman whose intellectual curiosity forces open the infected wounds of a buried past. Music, manatees, martyrs, moonlight and multiple personality disorder make for a novel that will drain and exhilarate. If you take too long to read Day for Night, you may find yourself flipping back through chapters to reorient your understanding of the many characters and their connections. But I can't imagine lingering - you will be compelled by the narrative's tension and pace to push through to the bittersweet end.

It is impossible not to compare Day for Night to the contemporary masters of interlocking narratives: David Mitchell and Michael Cunningham. Reiken's writing doesn't exhibit the same ethereal lyricism of these writers. By contrast, his characters are far more earthbound in language, emotion and action. But like Mitchell and Cunningham, Reiken writes deftly from multiple perspectives: children, women, the elderly, American, Israeli, Eastern European, the hunter and the hunted.

There were enough threads left dangling and a few grasps into a black hole of metaphysical speculation to hint at an overreach of plot. I'm still trying to determine if the many inspired parts build a coherent whole. But if a story lingers and teases at my consciousness long after I have read the end page, I know I've encountered a bit of literary magic.

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Jun 22, 2010 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

From My Blog...[return][return][return][return]There are books to make the reader think and then books that make the reader want to think and Day For Night by Frederick Reiken does not disappoint the intellectual reader. Day For Night is not a light read, and despite the length of the book, Reiken has written a book to make the reader stop, pause, reflect and continue on. Day For Night shows just how interconnected we are with people we deem strangers. How a middle-aged woman, in this case Kathe...more

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Jul 28, 2010 Kyle rated it 2 of 5 stars

Let me begin by saying that I did not intend to read this book in one day. It was more that once I started it and realized what it was, I figured I might as well push through to the end. I utilized some convenient insomnia to finish up, which was pretty easy to do at a little more than 300 pages.

This also makes the second book this year about the Holocaust that I feel I've sort of been tricked into reading (the first was Beatrice and Virgil) and there's nothing wrong with reading on that subjec...more Let me begin by saying that I did not intend to read this book in one day. It was more that once I started it and realized what it was, I figured I might as well push through to the end. I utilized some convenient insomnia to finish up, which was pretty easy to do at a little more than 300 pages.

This also makes the second book this year about the Holocaust that I feel I've sort of been tricked into reading (the first was Beatrice and Virgil) and there's nothing wrong with reading on that subject or anything, but it definitely colors a reading.
Not that I think a book needs to let you know that up front (insert comment about books and covers), but it would be nice to be able to emotionally prepare for such a horrific subject.

What's more is that Reiken doesn't exactly do anything that I haven't already (and recently) come across with this subject, except humanize both sides of the action. Not to cheapen it in the least, because it's an important subject, but the story is not going to change, and the only thing that we can come away with is either going to be despair or hope. Reiken's writing still drew me in during several parts, and I have to admit that I was sad and upset at all the right places, but it probably would've gone over better if there wasn't as much allusion to some long-hidden family secret or such for several characters.

The book is billed as a web of short stories bringing several unsuspecting characters together through life events and relationships they never thought to consider. I was continually frustrated through the book looking for a surprise connection, but only finding several people who might've come into contact with each other for any number of meaningful reasons. The speaking cast is almost all women, almost all Jewish, from the same places and families. Some parts of the book came off as a Hebrew rendition of The Joy Luck Club to me.

I really, really hate to be the "gender studies" guy, but there are so few men in this book. Only four get their own stories (out of about 12 in the book, I think), and only three of them have names. With the exception of one or two both speaking or non-speaking, they are either inept or maladjusted, and almost all of them die. By contrast, the women are brilliant, emotionally involved, bond together and reach out and are put into danger and grow as people and, as before, a web of humanity bringing hope. The "superhuman" character in the book is even female, though I don't have an issue with that in general, just in terms of the huge imbalance in the stories. I'm not certain it was an intentional writing choice, but it hampered the reading for me.

The most frustrating part of the whole thing for me is that the early stories in the book hit such high notes and brought up genuinely interesting characters and conflicts, and we have to move on without almost any resolution. Reiken gives us a glimpse into some stories and events that draw us in, and then abandons them and drags us along the rest of them as his stories begin to get a more and more narrow focus on Israel. I feel as if Reiken started a few really interesting short stories that were great on their own, and then an editor sparked a few connections between them and promised it would sell. I would love to see these first few stories expanded into their own worlds, and maybe a little less connected to the rest of this web of history.(less)

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Mar 05, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Near the end of Frederick Reiken's powerful novel Day for Night, one character says of another, "... if I thought hard enough, I'd come to understand her purpose." With Reiken's novel, I feel the opposite. The harder you ponder and try to make all the many story threads come together, the more elusive it all becomes. Yet when you don't try so hard to figure it out, it all flows and comes together like elegant artwork or music.

In Day for Night, each of the ten chapters is told from the point-of-...more

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Jan 10, 2012 Micki Meadors rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book very much, although the story was told from so many different voices in non-sequential time frames that it was occasionally a bit confusing trying to figure out who was actually speaking. The premise of the story lies in our unknowing interconnectedness, kind of a six degrees of separation thing. The author excels at painting beautiful and sometimes disturbing pictures full of mysticism and power. This is not for the faint of heart or those easily disturbed by sexuality in th...more

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