Sunday 12 December 2010

The Frumkiss Family Business

Finished December 12
The Frumkiss Family Business by Michael Wex
I found this book a bit odd and disconnected at first (but then I am not Jewish, despite living in Thornhill). It got better as it went along and I got interested in the characters and their interactions and motivations.
We change points of view often, which makes the story more interesting to me. We have Faktor and his second wife Chana as two of the main characters. Faktor is a Jewish writer who grew up in Poland and emigrated to Canada after the Second World War. The next generation includes his daughter Tammy from his first marriage (who marries Earl Frumkiss, hence the book's title), daughter Ava, and son Niven. Tammy's children are also main characters: Vanessa (who marries into a hasidic family in Israel), Rachel (married to Howie) and Randall (who memorizes many of his grandfather's stories). We see the family dynamics, the sibling interactions, and the inner world of the Jew in Toronto.
I found it very interesting and liked the character Rachel the best.

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