A Tangled Tree: My Father's Path to Immortality

by Aiyanna Sezak-Blatt

Literary Nonfiction. Jewish Studies. A TANGLED TREE: MY FATHER'S PATH TO IMMORTALITY begins in the summertime, as Aiyanna follows her father Moshe on their big adventures--living on a nude beach on Kauai, chasing the Grateful Dead in an old milk truck, offering prayers to the Wailing Wall, lighting candles in the Shabbas House in Massachusetts, which is always their base. Twelve years later and after years of distance, Moshe arrives at her door, barefoot, with a beard to his chest, a sage of Judah adorned in fine Indian silk. They have reunited with a shared vision: To record his life story and memoir. Born as a Polish Jew on the run from the Nazi invasion launching World War II, Moshe and his family barely escape the oncoming Holocaust. They find refuge on a kolhoz in Russia, return to Poland to encounter their deepest grief, move to a settlement in Israel, and eventually immigrate to Toronto. Despite his poverty and against the odds, Moshe becomes an academic, a Harvard professor, psychologist and rabbi. But by the age of 30, something inside him shifts, and he reaches for more. During the psychedelic intrigue of the '70s, he turns to a healer named Salvador, a man who gives him his first taste of LSD in a cathartic ritual. He travels to India, where a mystic named Osho introduces him to the love that heals. Across the world he seeks healing, traveling on an ever-morphing spiritual journey. Moshe fathers six children with five women. Aiyanna is his fourth, born out of wedlock to an astrologer with many names.

Moshe's epic personality, wisdom, stories, and memories suddenly collide into Aiyanna's life, filling her one- bedroom apartment, where they record together for a month, fighting, laughing, cooking dinners, ultimately rebuilding their lost relationship. When Moshe leaves, Aiyanna is left with a lifetime of pages to be written. But the book she writes is far from the reflection Moshe expected. Aiyanna's life experiences stand beside his; she writes of her siblings, their mothers, and the tangled nest of contention, love and disconnection between them all. From this portrayal, Moshe feels both betrayed and deeply wounded, confirmed that all women are only destined to hurt him. A TANGLED TREE is more than a memoir. It tells two conflicting but inseparable truths, painting a dynamic portrait of a man, of his parents' miraculous escape, of the six children he fathered, and of a daughter determined to tell their story, and carry it forward until the end.

408 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2017

Reviews

[Leni Zumas · Rating 5 out of 5]

In beautifully clear-eyed prose, Aiyanna Sezak-Blatt plumbs the complexities of her bond with a brilliant, unsettled father. Their story leaps across continents and generations to map a branching history of pain, betrayal, and devotion. Moshe Blatt is a hypnotic character—wolf and wise man, adorable and infuriating—but his daughter’s quest to understand her heritage is just as mesmerizing.

[JD Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is something that comes as quite a surprise to me. One of his kids wrote a book on their dad. I have a special fondness for the book as I crossed paths with the subject of this book 40 years ago. The author's mom was visiting his place at the time; I had little interaction with her. However two of the author's three older siblings were there. I'm giving this a high rating because the author took on a difficult subject and made a work that moves along well with apt figures of speech. Many of the subject's habits, topics of conversation, and figures of speech I have found to change little over the 30 intervening years. It is not only a biography but also a picture of a family reunion: meeting her grandparents, meeting the one brother, and a couple of the sisters.

I knew of his association with a psychic healer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The author saves that story for the end of the book; it was so tragic. She was alert enough to remember when the subject thought of an ending months before the conversations ended. It made for a good finish.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began reading this book at an AirB&B I stayed at in the Asheville mountains. What started as a quick thumbing through the cabin’s reading material, ended with me tangled up book in hand with A Tangled Tree. While I only made it to Chapter 8 in the signed copy at the cabin, I will absolutely be purchasing this book as soon as I’m back home!

The writing is powerful and poignant - I’ve stopped to reread more than a few sentences out loud because they flowed so well . The organization style emphasizes the inconsistency within the father/daughter relationship, and pulls you along for the ride.

I’m hooked and I can’t wait to read more! I was so surprised to see so few reviews!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aiyanna's book is a beautiful story within a story- a woman's journey of understanding her complex relationship with her father shared side by side with his unbelievable childhood and life. I would re-read it again and again treasuring the way she brings these characters to life in a way you love all of them, even while learning their secrets and inner thoughts. A stunning book!

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aiyanna is a really good writer and I am glad that she took on the task and adventure of writing this book.