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Day for Night
"If you look hard enough into the history of anything, you will discover things that seem to be connected but are not." So claims a character in Frederick Reiken's wonderful, surprising novel, which seems in fact to be determined to prove just the opposite. How else to explain the threads that link a middle-aged woman on vacation in Florida with a rock and roll singer visiting her comatose brother in Utah, where he's been transported after a motorcycle injury in Israel, where he works with a man whose long-lost mother, in a retirement community in New Jersey, recognizes him in a televised report about an Israeli-Palestinian skirmish? And that's not the half of it. In Day For Night, critically acclaimed writer Frederick Reiken spins an unlikely and yet utterly convincing story about people lost and found. They are all refugees from their own lives or history's cruelties, and yet they wind up linked to each other in compelling and unpredictable ways that will keep you guessing until the very end.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
31 people are currently reading
1087 people want to read
About the author
Frederick Reiken
12 books36 followersFrederick Reiken is the author of Day For Night (2010), The Odd Sea (1998) and The Lost Legends of New Jersey (2000). His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker. He has worked as a reporter and columnist and is currently a member of the writing faculty at Emerson College.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
May 9, 2010
"...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 that might set up expectations before you start. With that in mind, my review will be deliberately vague.
Each chapter is narrated by a different character who describes an experience or series of events in his or her life. All of the events are in some way connected to the experiences of all the other characters, but this is not readily apparent. Finding out how all the people's lives intersect, and how those meetings alter outcomes, is the fun of starting each new chapter.
The book is a mystery, but not in the traditional sense. More like a mystery of life, and how a random event in your life could lead to a major change in someone else's life. Might even make you think about woo-woo stuff like the six degrees of separation and the nature of what we choose to call reality. As one character puts it: "...what we comprehend about this world may always be called into question."
Outstanding writing quality throughout the book. There's a lot of interesting Jewish lore sprinkled here and there. Some of it no doubt went right past me, goy that I am. There's also a bit of an exotic wildlife theme---not central to the story but I really enjoyed reading about the various animals. The first chapter made me want to go swim with the manatees!
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 that might set up expectations before you start. With that in mind, my review will be deliberately vague.
Each chapter is narrated by a different character who describes an experience or series of events in his or her life. All of the events are in some way connected to the experiences of all the other characters, but this is not readily apparent. Finding out how all the people's lives intersect, and how those meetings alter outcomes, is the fun of starting each new chapter.
The book is a mystery, but not in the traditional sense. More like a mystery of life, and how a random event in your life could lead to a major change in someone else's life. Might even make you think about woo-woo stuff like the six degrees of separation and the nature of what we choose to call reality. As one character puts it: "...what we comprehend about this world may always be called into question."
Outstanding writing quality throughout the book. There's a lot of interesting Jewish lore sprinkled here and there. Some of it no doubt went right past me, goy that I am. There's also a bit of an exotic wildlife theme---not central to the story but I really enjoyed reading about the various animals. The first chapter made me want to go swim with the manatees!
February 22, 2011
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.
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.
May 26, 2012
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.
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.
May 18, 2010
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 it leaves lots of unanswered questions about the fugitive ex-Weatherman, who is definitely one of the book's most interesting characters.
Though the writing is enjoyable, and its relatively fast-paced, I almost find myself wishing Reiken had aimed a bit lower. If he hadn't tried to make it part of the innovative nested story genre that others do so well (like David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas), then this might have been a more enjoyable endeavor.
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 it leaves lots of unanswered questions about the fugitive ex-Weatherman, who is definitely one of the book's most interesting characters.
Though the writing is enjoyable, and its relatively fast-paced, I almost find myself wishing Reiken had aimed a bit lower. If he hadn't tried to make it part of the innovative nested story genre that others do so well (like David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas), then this might have been a more enjoyable endeavor.
June 12, 2016
Re-Joining
I had several different reactions while reading this intriguing book, as its nature began slowly to reveal itself. First came wonder at the beautiful evocative opening chapter, "Yesterday's Day," which the author had previously published as a stand-alone story. Beverly, a New York doctor holidaying in Florida with her boyfriend and his eleven-year-old son, visits the Homosassa River where the men go swimming with the manatees. Sleepless and worried by the health of her friend, who is in remission from leukemia, and the troubles of her own children back home, Beverly revisits the river by moonlight. Though Reiken's prose is simple and straightforward, he is a poet of images and ideas. His evocation of this scene is magical (as magical as its book-jacket representation is crude), touching a mystery that complements and completes the experiences of the day before, bringing (as the title suggests) day and night into a balanced whole.
Each of the other nine chapters has a different protagonist and a different setting. The book appears to be developing as a novel of linked short stories in the manner of Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women, Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, or Tom Rachman's recent The Imperfectionists. But the stand-alone quality of the other stories gradually diminishes, and the linkages become increasingly fascinating—not because of any linear progression, but rather because the links are so oblique. An apparently minor character in one chapter can become the leading figure in another, always in unexpected ways not immediately revealed. It is left to the reader to build the structure that holds the sections together. The chapters differ greatly in style also: romance, mystery, a personal journal, even a formal FBI report! The comparison that now came to mind was with David Mitchell's brilliant Cloud Atlas, which also links wildly disparate sections in surprising ways. But Reiken has a sharper focus, centering his action around the year 1984 (yes, Orwell does come into it!), though with flashbacks and leaps forward.
I was concerned, however, that Reiken was moving away from the emotional realism of the opening to introduce elements that seemed extreme and fantastic: multiple personalities, satanic cults, and a fugitive sixties radical who appears sometimes as an avenging angel, sometimes as a healer. And then I realized that the point is precisely because these things are outside most normal experience, in a word fabulous. This is a very Jewish book, not merely because of its mostly Jewish characters and occasional sprinkling of Yiddish, nor even for the distant shadow of the Holocaust, but in its approach to storytelling. Specifically its links to the Yiddish fabulist tradition (think Sholem Aleichem or Isaac Bashevis Singer), spinning fantastic stories as a means of addressing the deepest issues. This of course is not unique to Reiken; you see it in writers as diverse as Michael Chabon ( Kavalier & Clay ), Dara Horn ( The World to Come ), or Nicole Krauss ( The History of Love ). But what seemed so special to me, at least through three-quarters of the book, was that Reiken was using his images less to lead back towards the Holocaust than to lead away from it. This is a Holocaust story told in metaphor, with other nameless horrors standing in for the unfathomable evil of that time. But by being moved forward by forty years, it offers the possibility of a new day for that dark night. And Reiken's technique, of bringing disparate people together, finding a place in each other's stories, is a potent symbol for the reversal of the diaspora, the rejoining of what had been sundered.
One of the characters at the end of the book warns that "certain pieces will not fit, not now or ever, and that you must learn to live with these ambiguities." Personally, I wish that Reiken had left more of the pieces unaligned. The last chapter or two ties the story up just a little too neatly, making the book into a more conventional Holocaust story than it had at one time promised to be. But it is still a magnificent achievement, and that promise will remain to be developed in future novels by this highly talented young author.
I had several different reactions while reading this intriguing book, as its nature began slowly to reveal itself. First came wonder at the beautiful evocative opening chapter, "Yesterday's Day," which the author had previously published as a stand-alone story. Beverly, a New York doctor holidaying in Florida with her boyfriend and his eleven-year-old son, visits the Homosassa River where the men go swimming with the manatees. Sleepless and worried by the health of her friend, who is in remission from leukemia, and the troubles of her own children back home, Beverly revisits the river by moonlight. Though Reiken's prose is simple and straightforward, he is a poet of images and ideas. His evocation of this scene is magical (as magical as its book-jacket representation is crude), touching a mystery that complements and completes the experiences of the day before, bringing (as the title suggests) day and night into a balanced whole.
Each of the other nine chapters has a different protagonist and a different setting. The book appears to be developing as a novel of linked short stories in the manner of Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women, Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, or Tom Rachman's recent The Imperfectionists. But the stand-alone quality of the other stories gradually diminishes, and the linkages become increasingly fascinating—not because of any linear progression, but rather because the links are so oblique. An apparently minor character in one chapter can become the leading figure in another, always in unexpected ways not immediately revealed. It is left to the reader to build the structure that holds the sections together. The chapters differ greatly in style also: romance, mystery, a personal journal, even a formal FBI report! The comparison that now came to mind was with David Mitchell's brilliant Cloud Atlas, which also links wildly disparate sections in surprising ways. But Reiken has a sharper focus, centering his action around the year 1984 (yes, Orwell does come into it!), though with flashbacks and leaps forward.
I was concerned, however, that Reiken was moving away from the emotional realism of the opening to introduce elements that seemed extreme and fantastic: multiple personalities, satanic cults, and a fugitive sixties radical who appears sometimes as an avenging angel, sometimes as a healer. And then I realized that the point is precisely because these things are outside most normal experience, in a word fabulous. This is a very Jewish book, not merely because of its mostly Jewish characters and occasional sprinkling of Yiddish, nor even for the distant shadow of the Holocaust, but in its approach to storytelling. Specifically its links to the Yiddish fabulist tradition (think Sholem Aleichem or Isaac Bashevis Singer), spinning fantastic stories as a means of addressing the deepest issues. This of course is not unique to Reiken; you see it in writers as diverse as Michael Chabon ( Kavalier & Clay ), Dara Horn ( The World to Come ), or Nicole Krauss ( The History of Love ). But what seemed so special to me, at least through three-quarters of the book, was that Reiken was using his images less to lead back towards the Holocaust than to lead away from it. This is a Holocaust story told in metaphor, with other nameless horrors standing in for the unfathomable evil of that time. But by being moved forward by forty years, it offers the possibility of a new day for that dark night. And Reiken's technique, of bringing disparate people together, finding a place in each other's stories, is a potent symbol for the reversal of the diaspora, the rejoining of what had been sundered.
One of the characters at the end of the book warns that "certain pieces will not fit, not now or ever, and that you must learn to live with these ambiguities." Personally, I wish that Reiken had left more of the pieces unaligned. The last chapter or two ties the story up just a little too neatly, making the book into a more conventional Holocaust story than it had at one time promised to be. But it is still a magnificent achievement, and that promise will remain to be developed in future novels by this highly talented young author.
September 9, 2017
Impressive, the construction is very obvious, but also extremely well done and the writing is just clever. Couldn't put it down.
However (1), at the end I got a bit lost - too many loose ends were still loose, and I wanted to know what would happen, or why things had happened. I'm not sure whether I should just accept that not everything needs to be told, but I had a suspicion the author didn't really know how to tie them all up without making it too much of a standard novel so just left them like.
However (2): therefore it's not a standard novel, and that's a very good thing.
However (1), at the end I got a bit lost - too many loose ends were still loose, and I wanted to know what would happen, or why things had happened. I'm not sure whether I should just accept that not everything needs to be told, but I had a suspicion the author didn't really know how to tie them all up without making it too much of a standard novel so just left them like.
However (2): therefore it's not a standard novel, and that's a very good thing.
February 29, 2012
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.
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.
April 21, 2010
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.
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.
September 12, 2010
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.
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.
April 26, 2012
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 it. Which, I guess, is extremely creative. But I've read books like this before but other books have more than one chapter dedicated to the voice of a particular character. Because this book didn't, it didn't feel like there was real resolution to a lot of the issues of the book. There were a lot of questions left unanswered or plot lines left hanging. There was also a part in the book that was really disturbing to me and left a "not so great" taste in my mouth. Overall, the book was not what I expected from the synopsis on the back of it. It felt more like a collection of short stories that, though the characters were all connected in one way or another, it just wasn't cohesive enough for me.
July 16, 2013
I still don't completely understand what I've read. Everything centers around a Holocaust story about 500 assassinated Jewish men, of whom allegedly one or two escaped. We follow 10 different characters that are all connected somehow, as the story unfolds and it becomes clear what is the central story.
Or so it seems. One of the characters that appears in the story of nearly every other protagonist, does not get her own story. We get to know her under many different names, in many mysterious circumstances, yet we hear nothing of her. She appears to be some sort of spinster, taking the strings that represent people and connecting them. A goddess of some sort, which is reflected in one of the names she uses. It is curious that a novel mostly about Jews figures a goddess-like character, and as I said, I still don't understand.
Another thing Reiken has gracefully managed to do is write a novel with so many unanswered questions, loose ends that you only think about a day after you finished the novel, because the main story does seem to be concluded. When remembering the individual stories, I still want to know so many things!
A very compelling read, and a book I will definitely read again.
Or so it seems. One of the characters that appears in the story of nearly every other protagonist, does not get her own story. We get to know her under many different names, in many mysterious circumstances, yet we hear nothing of her. She appears to be some sort of spinster, taking the strings that represent people and connecting them. A goddess of some sort, which is reflected in one of the names she uses. It is curious that a novel mostly about Jews figures a goddess-like character, and as I said, I still don't understand.
Another thing Reiken has gracefully managed to do is write a novel with so many unanswered questions, loose ends that you only think about a day after you finished the novel, because the main story does seem to be concluded. When remembering the individual stories, I still want to know so many things!
A very compelling read, and a book I will definitely read again.
March 5, 2012
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-view of a different character. They are structured like individual short stories, yet all the stories are linked in some way, and they all build a larger tapestry. With topics as far ranging as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, marine biology, the Nazi's persecution of the Jews, and environmental sensitivity syndrome, and a cast of characters that span continents and generations, Day for Night has mystery, romance, history, adventure... even a little science fiction when looked at from a certain angle. It's the kind of tale that sticks with you for hours or days after you've read it, and haunts you in the best of all possible ways.
I loved it.
In Day for Night, each of the ten chapters is told from the point-of-view of a different character. They are structured like individual short stories, yet all the stories are linked in some way, and they all build a larger tapestry. With topics as far ranging as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, marine biology, the Nazi's persecution of the Jews, and environmental sensitivity syndrome, and a cast of characters that span continents and generations, Day for Night has mystery, romance, history, adventure... even a little science fiction when looked at from a certain angle. It's the kind of tale that sticks with you for hours or days after you've read it, and haunts you in the best of all possible ways.
I loved it.
February 14, 2014
Ironically, at the end of the novel the narrator states, "some of this story may seem puzzling or may not fit". That was how I felt throughout the novel. I stuck with it though so the story was compelling enough even though I found it very difficult to figure out what was going on (I never did except for the broad strokes). It's a woven tapestry if you will where characters are tangentially connected and the narrative switches from one narrator to another, added to that is this strange supernatural element/magic that is never really explained.
The underlying "plot" if there can be said to be one is the story of Beverly Rabinowitz who seeks to connect with her father once thought to be killed in the holocaust. At the ending, there is an attempt to more "tidily" wrap things up but that part is actually more unsatisfying because it's too didactic. Letters are discovered, people are run into, etc. to tell us how to make (partial) sense out of the book.
Maybe it requires greater attention then I gave it to figure it out.
The underlying "plot" if there can be said to be one is the story of Beverly Rabinowitz who seeks to connect with her father once thought to be killed in the holocaust. At the ending, there is an attempt to more "tidily" wrap things up but that part is actually more unsatisfying because it's too didactic. Letters are discovered, people are run into, etc. to tell us how to make (partial) sense out of the book.
Maybe it requires greater attention then I gave it to figure it out.
June 9, 2010
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 author thought he had to write, rather than one he longed to write, which in my mind accounts for the rougher passages. The parts he longed to write flowed.
My advise is pay attention to words, names, and subtexts, they do matter by the end. It is not a beach book. It is a thought provoking book, worth reading.
My advise is pay attention to words, names, and subtexts, they do matter by the end. It is not a beach book. It is a thought provoking book, worth reading.
December 29, 2011
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 inevitably, you wind up liking some much more than others. Some were kind of a slog to get through and some I didn't want to end. I also grew tired of the stories of escape from Eastern Europe during WWII--not that this wasn't interesting at all, I just got tired of it. But overall, I found this to be an engrossing read.
The book came off like a series of short stories, each narrated by a different character. I enjoyed that approach, although inevitably, you wind up liking some much more than others. Some were kind of a slog to get through and some I didn't want to end. I also grew tired of the stories of escape from Eastern Europe during WWII--not that this wasn't interesting at all, I just got tired of it. But overall, I found this to be an engrossing read.
February 17, 2020
I was fascinated by all of the underwater imagery here. 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 characters 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 ephemeral or inviolable? What is love, and does it matter more or less than duty. Is anything objectively right? Somehow the book does not lend itself to grey answers, but it is impossible to settle on the black or the white option -- as if every important thing about being a human being is a paradox. I will be thinking about this book for a very long time.
December 5, 2010
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 if you haven't read that one it won't make a difference. I really enjoyed this, it was a thinking book.
April 8, 2011
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 learn to live with these ambiguities. You must learn to trust these ambiguities. This is perhaps the most important thing I know.'
Perhaps an apt quote found towards the end of the novel '..certain pieces will not fit, not now or ever, and that you must learn to live with these ambiguities. You must learn to trust these ambiguities. This is perhaps the most important thing I know.'
July 15, 2013
It's like A Visit From the Goon Squad with less rock-and-roll and more Jewish mysticism. This is not usually the type of book I get that into...I have a low "weird and confusing" tolerance, but it sucked me in, like a dream. Made me think deep thoughts, question my place on the planet, all of it. Plus it's got a fair amount of page-turning plot, without which the lyrical dreaminess may have been too much for me. Definitely interesting and a book I will probably continue to think about for a while.
December 7, 2013
The more I think about this book, the more I feel as if my head will explode. There is just so much to think about, connections to make (the point), even though there are also a lot of loose ends (also the point). I really should write a review, if only for myself. I'd need to read it again, though. I'm sure that many details and sentences would pop out, on second reading, as more significant or telling than they at first appeared.
December 28, 2016
I have long been a believer in the metaphor of life as a tapestry, an apparently random interweaving of textures and colors representing life experiences. It! is a tapestry whose whole will not become clear until the last strand is in place.
As the 10 individual stories of this novel are exposed, I was frustrated at times that one fascinating or mysterious narrative was cut short and off we go to immerse ourselves in an equally intriguing storybwhose thread is apparently snipped at chapter's end.
S lowly it began to dawn on me that these seemingly disparate narratives were being interwoven into a whole. The last chapter lays out the connectedness of those we have met, though the image at book's end is not a clear, sharp one that perhaps is a reality-based tapestry.
An underlying, repetitive theme is the Holocaust and its impact over time and distance on many apparently random lives. The author as weaver surfaces this thread in a Jewish nursing home, a kibbutz in Israel and, more obliquely in a Florida swamp and in a Utah definitely out of normal experience. The roots of the story stem from a seminal event in which 100 Jewish intellectuals are deceived into a mass murder from which one or two may have miraculously escaped. Thehe search for the answers to the question of a possible survivor is a dominant thread pulling the reader closer to the emerging truth.
This was an interesting, if occasionally frustrating, literary experience which left me inclined to read the novel again in the interest of finding overlooked threads and linkages.
As the 10 individual stories of this novel are exposed, I was frustrated at times that one fascinating or mysterious narrative was cut short and off we go to immerse ourselves in an equally intriguing storybwhose thread is apparently snipped at chapter's end.
S lowly it began to dawn on me that these seemingly disparate narratives were being interwoven into a whole. The last chapter lays out the connectedness of those we have met, though the image at book's end is not a clear, sharp one that perhaps is a reality-based tapestry.
An underlying, repetitive theme is the Holocaust and its impact over time and distance on many apparently random lives. The author as weaver surfaces this thread in a Jewish nursing home, a kibbutz in Israel and, more obliquely in a Florida swamp and in a Utah definitely out of normal experience. The roots of the story stem from a seminal event in which 100 Jewish intellectuals are deceived into a mass murder from which one or two may have miraculously escaped. Thehe search for the answers to the question of a possible survivor is a dominant thread pulling the reader closer to the emerging truth.
This was an interesting, if occasionally frustrating, literary experience which left me inclined to read the novel again in the interest of finding overlooked threads and linkages.
April 5, 2018
I randomly picked this book up at the library, and it was shockingly fantastic.
The writing...the writing...ah, the writing. You know those books where you just re-read sentences because they are so well-crafted? Get ready to re-read. It's not over-the-top, though, not pretentious or overly precious.
It tells the stories of a number of people, each narrating their own tale, revolving around the following:
- a crazy cult family
- Jews who escaped the Holocaust
- Jews who did not escape the Holocaust
- Jews who physically but not emotionally escaped the Holocaust
- children of all of the above
It explores:
- love
- devastating loss
- the interconnectedness of life
To me, it seems to be a wonderful exploration of the incredible coincidences that tie people together.
It's got magical realism features, so if you don't like that, you've been warned.
The writing...the writing...ah, the writing. You know those books where you just re-read sentences because they are so well-crafted? Get ready to re-read. It's not over-the-top, though, not pretentious or overly precious.
It tells the stories of a number of people, each narrating their own tale, revolving around the following:
- a crazy cult family
- Jews who escaped the Holocaust
- Jews who did not escape the Holocaust
- Jews who physically but not emotionally escaped the Holocaust
- children of all of the above
It explores:
- love
- devastating loss
- the interconnectedness of life
To me, it seems to be a wonderful exploration of the incredible coincidences that tie people together.
It's got magical realism features, so if you don't like that, you've been warned.
June 5, 2017
This novel is very interesting but it can also get very confusing. There is no one protagonist. Each chapter follows a different person and that person is somehow connected to one of the characters in the chapter before hand. The reader does not know the connection until they are finished reading the chapter because it will become clear somewhere in the chapter. This book was very interesting to read because I found myself constantly trying to find the connections and then I would find myself surprised when the connection was revealed. I found that most of the book showed different family dynamics and it was interesting to see the different functions of each family. This book keeps the reader on their toes since there is always a new connection to be made. I suggest this book to anyone who loves fiction as well as anyone who likes to figure things out while reading.
April 13, 2018
This isn't a standard novel, nor a series of short stories. Yet each long chapter has is it's own story and, which connects to the others. It may take a few pages to figure out who is now speaking and how that person connects to the what came before, but that doesn't distract too much from the overall book.
I liked the structure and the writing was good. I also enjoyed the subtle mystery throughout, a suggestion of something more. What I didn't like is some of that was left open and not complete. There is a little closure for the stories, slightly, but I do not want to say much as that would ruin the experience of finding out for yourself.
I liked the structure and the writing was good. I also enjoyed the subtle mystery throughout, a suggestion of something more. What I didn't like is some of that was left open and not complete. There is a little closure for the stories, slightly, but I do not want to say much as that would ruin the experience of finding out for yourself.
August 6, 2017
Bargain book picked up for a dollar on holiday. Really good actually. Intersecting stories that follow the lives of people who have a connection to each other. But the book is clever in the way it does this. It has a haphazard quality but it fits together as a novel. At the time of reading only a week ago I enjoyed it. Now I come to review I can't remember a thing about the plot. Just the feeling it left me with - that we are more connected than we realise.
October 4, 2017
I really enjoyed it until about two-thirds of the way through when I reached my capacity for meeting new characters who didn't seem to fit into the narrative. Of course they did eventually fit into the puzzle, but it was work to keep track, and I sometimes lost track. (This coming from someone who likes Russian novels!)
October 29, 2019
I will always cherish this book for personal reasons. It is a thing of wonder. I didn’t love every scene, and there are some dark Plutonian themes in a few places. Under normal circumstances, not often in the mood for facing the worst shadows in our humanity, I might have put the book down but I’m glad I didn’t. It’s well balanced and beautiful.
May 26, 2017
I listened to this book, which actually was very well done by several different people, but I think would have been less confusing if I'd held the book in my hands.
Good story, very interwoven characters.
I'd recommend it.
Good story, very interwoven characters.
I'd recommend it.
July 30, 2018
This was like reading the author's disconnected notes for a novel. Instead of crafting his ideas into a cohesive whole, he does the lazy thing and makes his reader put it together. It might have been a powerful story if he had put in the work. As is, an entirely forgettable book.
August 21, 2018
I couldn't put it down. There's a Readers' Guide at the end, and I haven't actually read that yet, so I'll save my longer review for later... but for now, just WOW.
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