Lublin

Finished September 4

Lublin by Manya Wilkinson

This short novel is the story of a journey and a coming-of-age in early 20th-century Poland. Three Jewish teenagers set off from their Polish village for the town of Lublin. They carry with them a case of brushes to sell. Elya is the instigator of the journey. He is fourteen, and his father Usher was a shoemaker. Elya knows that his mother depends on him now that his father has died, and he also has a betrothal commitment to Libka. He is the one with a hand-drawn map of their journey, which, instead of town names designates places by attributes, such as Village of Lakes, Village of No Lakes, Prune Town, and the to-be-avoided Russian Town. 

Accompanying Elya on his journey are Kiva and his cousin Ziv. Ziv would like to organize the workers for better conditions and pay, and Kiva spends a lot of time reading religious texts and worrying about his health. 

As they travel they tell stories, horse around, and play pranks on each other. Enya often tells jokes, but the other two never laugh at them. They fear Cossacks, and hide if they think they are coming. They refer to God as Adoshem. 

The case of brushes is heavy, about eight kilograms and they argue sometimes over who should carry it. Kiva has brought luxurious items along with him, such as a pillow, extra shoes, and his father's gold watch. 

The narrator often makes references to the future of the boys as well as others from their village, other things happening in the world at the same time, as well as references to things that would be useful to them, but haven't been invented yet, or have but haven't arrived in their country yet. For example, when they camp for the night, the narrator references the Boy Scouts which are just forming at the time. Examples of things not invented are zippers and ball point pens. 

There are also many references to getting lost, and often they find themselves further from their destination than they were when they set out. 

This is a story of youth out in the world for the first time, not understanding the real dangers or opportunities, hoping for a better future, but sometimes waylaid by unexpected events along the way. This was a very different read, sometimes reminding me of Waiting for Godot in the sense of them never getting anywhere. 

Hannah's War

Finished July 30

Hannah's War by Jan Eliasberg

This historical novel is set near the end of World War II in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the title character, Hannah Weiss is one of the team working on the atomic bomb. Hannah was born in Austria and was working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany before the war. Over the course of the novel we see her backstory. As a Jew, she was relegated to a lab in the basement with little support. But she had a curious mind that did well with her tasks. As the likelihood of war drew near, and the threats to those close to her grew larger, she also grew worried about what any work of hers would be used for. 

In the time in Los Alamos, the other narrator is an American agent, searching for a spy in the small community. Messages have been intercepted that have drawn attention and concern that someone may be sharing data with scientists in Germany. The search quickly narrows in on Hannah, but the agent is drawn to her in a more personal way as well that may affect how he does his investigation. 

This was another interesting story about a smart woman, and this one inspired by a real woman who was key to the development of the bomb, a scientist names Lise Meitner. 

Although inspired by her, the story is largely fictional and I found the character of Hannah a fascinating one. It was also interesting to see the dynamic between the agent and this smart, yet vulnerable woman. The gradually revealed backstory to Hannah and her activities both before the war and now was well done and made sense to me. 

A good read.

Breathless

Finished February 14 

Breathless: An American Girl in Paris by Nancy K. Miller

This memoir is by a professor of women's studies looking back on her early adult years as she tried to follow a dream inspired by movies set in Paris. For her, this time was a time of experimentation, of rebellion against her parents' expectations, and a time of trying to figure her life out.

She began relationships with men, sometimes inappropriate ones. She taught and went to school, she wrote and read, she listened to music and learned about food. She explored her sexuality and tried to figure out what she wanted in a partner.

Not all her choices were good ones, but she threw herself into these things she tried, and made an attempt to look at them objectively. 

The time is the late 60s and early 70s, and she was not alone in her explorations. She met, became friends with, and had relationships with other expat Americans, some of whom she kept in touch with for years. She lived in a variety of housing situations, and visited other European places on occasion.

She is half a generation older than me, and some things she did I can't relate to at all, especially as we have quite different backgrounds. 

She grew up in a secular Jewish family who had a reputation to uphold, and friends in Paris. This gave her access to the life of real Parisians, but she also spent a lot of time with other students her own age, both Jewish and otherwise. 

It was an interesting read.

A Crime in the Family

Finished March 6
A Crime in the Family by Sacha Batthyany, translated by Anthea Bell

Even though he was born and grew up in Switzerland, Sacha's parent's, who escaped from Hungary, never really adopted Swiss ways of life, and yearned for their homeland. Once the wall came down and Eastern Europe became more accessible, his parents, although separated, both returned to Hungary. Sacha works as a journalist, and he began to hear a story about his great aunt's actions during the war. It is a story that horrifies, and Sacha finally begins to investigate the story as a tool to discover more about his own history.
When his mother died, he was given all her papers, but he hadn't looked at them until now. Shortly before she died, she had started to write down some of her memories of the war years, and he is drawn to an incident that seems to reappear often. The incident is of an encounter between her father and a local Jewish couple. This leads Sacha to try to find out more about this incident, and what really happened and he looks for people connected to it.
One of the children of the couple is still alive in South America, and he first makes a connection with one of her daughters, and finally with her in person.
The knowledge of this history is one that captivated Sacha for a long time, and led him to many insights. I found his story very interesting both on an historical and a personal level.

No One Is Here Except All of Us

Finished January 3
No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel

This novel feels so different from to me from the typical first person narratives. The speaker, Lena is a preteen girl in Zalischik, a small Jewish village in northern Romania. The year is 1939. The prologue sets the beginning scene for us. The villagers know of the impending war threatening them, of the pogroms, the hatred, but feel apart from it. The story begins on a Friday, late in the day. A storm has begun. At the evening service, the healer shows the newspaper from a few weeks earlier declaring war and calling for the extermination of Jews. The prayers begin and then a small silver airplane passes over once, then twice. The villagers clutch each other in worry, as an explosion goes off in the nearby mountains. The prayers continue, and the villagers wait. In the morning they go to the river, and find many fish in the raised waters, and then as the waters recede other objects: teapots, part of a piano, clothing, bowls, a doll, and a woman. And the woman is alive. The villagers take her in, feed her and warm her and question her. What happened they ask, and in her stilted statements find the terrorizing actions of soldiers, the escape of the river. She is now their stranger.
Lena speaks of this moment as a hinge, where all the past has led to this moment, a hinge between past and future. The past is described quickly, their village the haven from the last pogrom for this small batch of people. They talk and talk about what to do. Lena and the stranger declare the need to start over. They understand each other. The stranger says, "When there is nothing left to do and there is nowhere else to go, the world begins again." Lena clarifies, "No one exists but us and God? Everything is still to come?" And the answer is affirmative.
The village begins a new world, alone. They regroup, rearrange themselves. Some choose new partners, some choose new families. and life goes on, but in a way they define as they go, The stranger takes steps to ensure the cutoff from the outside world is complete. Life continues in a new way for days, months, years.
Until at some point the external world intrudes, and they know that this intrusion will not be the last. And Lena flees the village, hoping to find her young husband, taken by the intruders, and save her young children from the threats in the world outside.
The writing is lyrical, with a feel of magic realism to it. The situation is both one we know and one we don't know. The future is uncertain. This is a book I read slowly, savouring the writing, uncertain that I wanted to know what was coming. Highly recommended.

Invisible City

Finished September 29
Invisible City by Julia Dahl, read by Andi Arndt

This novel is the first novel in a series. Here Rebekah Roberts has moved to New York City from Florida to start her career as a journalist after getting her degree. Her perseverance has got her a position as a stringer for the Tribune, covering whatever story she is assigned. But when a story involving the body of a Hasidic woman falls to her, she feels a personal link. Rebekah's mother was Hasidic, from New York City, and rebelled from that life enough to meet Rebekah's father and have her. But she ran back to her Hasidic life when Rebekah was just six months old. Rebekah has always had conflicting feelings about this abandonment. She wants to understand, but she also resents her mother.
When someone that knew her mother offers inside information on the case, Rebekah doesn't stop to think about why she is being offered this information. Her personal feelings cloud her reporter instincts about looking at the motivation and actions of others.
As she follows the information from the scrapyard whether the body of Rivka was found, to the insular Hasidic community in Brooklyn where Rivka lived, to the Coney Island house where Rivka explored her questions about her religion with others, Rebekah learns about the special treatment the community has received from authorities, and the way this insular attitude puts the community itself at risk.
This is a story of Rebekah's personal questions, but also of a community not often visible in the larger world. A very interesting new series.

Joy Comes in the Morning

Finished July 8
Joy Comes in the Morning by Jonathan Rosen

This novel is centered around a young woman, Deborah Green, a Reform rabbi in New York City. She wasn't raised in an observant household, and both her mother and sister aren't thrilled about her choice of profession. She has had relationships in the past, but nothing that lasted or really connected for her. A lot of her duties are to visit with people in hospitals and nursing homes.
She aims to help both the person in the home or hospital as well as their family. One such family is that of Henry Friedman. Henry has undergone a few health setbacks recently, resulting in a major change in his lifestyle, which he finds difficult to face.
It is in the hospital that Deborah meets his family. As she becomes closer to the various members of this family, she develops a more intimate relationship with them, but she also goes through a crisis of faith. She is a complex character, and shows both uncertainty and humour as she grows here.
This is a book steeped in the Jewish faith and I learned a lot about prayer and ritual that I wasn't aware of. It is also about living that faith in a real life where people aren't perfect, but where they all try to manage as best they can.
A very enjoyable, enlightening read.

Last Train to Istanbul

Finished August 28

Last Train to Istanbul by Ayşe Kulin, translated by John W. Baker

This historical fiction novel is set before and during World War II. It centers around two Turkish sisters, Sabiha and Selva. They are the daughters of Fazil Reşat Paşa, one of the last Ottoman pashas, educated well, and raised to be enlightened. Sabiha, the oldest, does what is expected of her, marries Macit, a young man of good background who has a promising government job as a member of the general staff working in foreign affairs under President Inõnü. 

Selva is more intelligent, the pride of her father, and knows her own mind. When she falls for a young man from a good family, Rafael Alfandári the problem is that he is Jewish. Both families are opposed, but Selva is determined. Once her family realizes that she won't do what they want, they agree to a civil marriage, but Fazil cuts her out of his life. Feeling ostracized, the young couple decide to start their lives in Paris, But when the Nazis move in, their situation becomes dangerous. They move to Marseilles where Rafo puts his money into a chemist shop where he also works, and Selva gives English and piano lessons. But their situation becomes more difficult, and now they have a child to consider as well, young Fazil, named for his grandfather. 

Back in Turkey, Sabiha is very worried about her sister, trying to get Macit to intervene in some way, pleased when Tarik Arica, the young man from the diplomatic corps she has been tutoring in French gets a posting in Paris, hoping he can do what her husband Macit seems unable to and bring Selva home. The two sisters' stories work together to bring the real history of this time to life. We see the Turkish diplomats in Ankara, Paris, Vichy, and Germany working to save their citizens from all religious backgrounds, looking back at their long history of tolerance, and trying to stay neutral to keep their own country safe. We see the plight of other Jews in France as well, and how some of their histories entwine with those of the Turks. 

A good read that will have your emotions involved with these characters. 

The Secret Purposes

Finished May 18
The Secret Purposes by David Baddiel

This novel is set in Konigsberg, Cambridge, the Isle of Man, and Auschwitz, most of it during World War II. The main story follows Isaac Fabian, son of a rabbi, who rejects his religion and becomes a communist while at university. He also marries outside his religion, to Lulu, a woman he meets at university.
As Hitler's persecution of Jews grows more blatant, Isaac and Luly emigrate to Britain, on their way to their final destination of America.
While living in Cambridge, working menial jobs to get by, the British government begins rounding up Germans, including Jews, and interns them on the Isle of Man. Lulu manages to escape this fate, but Isaac does not and the two are separated even more than the couples where both are interned.
While Lulu struggles to make ends meet and look after their daughter Rebecca, she also looks for ways to work towards Isaac's release. Isaac, meanwhile, adjusts to his life in restricted quarters, angry at the lack of understanding of a government that would round up Jews as suspects of possible German espionage.
June Murray, a translator at the Ministry of Information is also struggling with the government's view of Jews, and makes it her mission to find the proof she knows exists of the terrible suffering that the Jewish people have undergone by the Germans. Her unauthorized trip to the internment camps brings her in contact with Isaac and makes her more personally involved than she intended.
Again with an historical novel, I learned much I didn't know about historical actions. While I knew there were internments, I hadn't realized that the British interned German Jews as well. Some were living in poverty like Isaac, but the experiences varied widely, and some were working in their fields and well respected before their internment. There is much to ponder in this novel, from the nature of ethnicity and culture, to the outcomes of fear during wartime, to individual human behaviours and motivations. This is an intense book, that looks at an experience seldom talked about.

A Jew Must Die

Finished January 17
A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex, translated by W. Donald Wilson

This short novel is based on a true story. On April 16, 1942 a group of five men led by Fernand Ischi lures a man to a stable in the Swiss village of Payerne, kill him and dismember his body.
Ischi is a man unhappy with his own life, who has eagerly come under the influence of a pro-Nazi clergyman and is eager to prove himself and send a message to the Jews in his community of what he believes will soon come to them all. He has found eager assistants in two brothers who have lost their own-mismanaged farm and thus resent those farmers and the men who buy their product, the brothers' farmhand who follows them blindly, and the apprentice mechanic from Ischi's family's garage. Ischi's character is shown to us also in his relationship with women, as despite having a wife and two children, he engages in affairs, including a sadistic one with a very young woman. We see him for what he is: a man hungry for power and revenge, with a deluded sense of his own worth and entitlements.
The author of this book grew up in Payerne and was eight years old at the time this murder took place. He went to school with Ischi's daughter, the son of the local policeman, and the son of the judge that presided over the murder trials. Part of this story is his own reaction to the events and why he felt compelled to share them in this book, decades later. Chessex is one of Switzerland's most famous writers and has won both the Prix Goncourt and the French Literature Grand Prix of the Académie Française.

The Lion Seeker

Finished May 13
The Lion Seeker by Kenneth Bonert

This novel is set in South Africa, and follows a family of Jews who immigrated there from Lithuania between the wars. The father, Abel, came first and established a business repairing clocks and watches, and the mother, Gitelle and two children Rively and Isaac followed a couple of years later.
Some of the story is from Gitelle, but the main part of the story is from Isaac. Gitelle has a secret, but we don't find out the full extent of it until the very end of the book. She longs to be able to bring the rest of her family to South Africa from Lithuania, but first finance stands in the way, and later the laws enacted agains such immigration. Her hope is for a better home in a nicer area with her entire family and she instills this drive in Isaac.
First she discourages Isaac from playing with the black children near them, and encourages him to find ways to earn money, whether legitimate or not. This drive sometimes leads to success by Isaac, but more often his actions lead to him losing jobs or opportunities. His Jewishness is always a factor in his success or failure. Even when he defies his mother to take a job working for someone else, his hard work there doesn't overcome the issue of race.
Bonert's South African roots make the story come alive through the use of language throughout the book, and one really gets a sense of place from this. I read this book in only a couple of days, not being able to put it down once I got into it.

Letters from the Lost

Finished February 9
Letters from the Lost: a memoir of discovery by Helen Waldstein Wilkes

This book is a compilation of letters from Helen's relatives that never made it out of the Czech Republic to safety and most of whom died in the Holocaust. There is also a few letters from an uncle that survived the camps, but was utterly changed by them. More than the letters, the book describes Helen's parents' own flight to Canada, their struggles to make a living in their adopted country, and the silence they maintained about the lost family. Helen describes this well, including her own experiences with exclusion and her gradual interest in the past. She talks about her research, her visits to the Czech Republic, searching for news of her family and revisiting family homes and memories. A moving book, open and honest about the difficulties and the rewards of such a search.

I am Forbidden

Finished August 28
I am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits

This novel draws from the life of the author. Markovits was raised in the Satmar tradition, an ultra-conservative Jewish sect. She left it at the age of nineteen to avoid an arranged marriage and went on to further education, eventually earning a doctorate.
The novel follows three characters and begins in Transylvania, Romania near the end of World War II. Josef, a young Jewish boy, survives the murder of his family and is taken in by the family's Gentile maid, passed off as her own child. Another Jewish family is killed rushing to meet the Rebbe they believed would save them, leaving a young daughter, Mila. Josef helps Mila reach the Jewish community her father wanted her to go to, and she is raised by a family there, but never forgets Josef. Years later, Mila's story leads to Josef being taken back into the Jewish fold and sent to a religious life in the new world. Mila and her adopted family flee to Paris.
Mila grows close to her adopted sister Atara, just a year younger than her, but while Mila feels compelled to be a good Jewish woman and to one day reunite with her murdered family, Atara is full of questions, questions she is told it is not her place to ask. As these three characters' lives converge and separate we see how the question of faith becomes central to their relationships, and ultimately leads them to join together at one final crisis point.
I learned a lot about this Jewish sect, and about Romanian Jews, that I didn't know before. I found the characters interesting and would have liked to have more of Atara's story.

The Midwife of Venice

Finished January 10
The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich
This historical novel is set in Venice and Malta in the sixteenth century. Hannah Levi is a midwife in Venice, renowned for her skill in difficult births. Her husband Isaac is being held for ransom in Malta, caught as he was making a sea voyage to buy merchandise. After years of trying the couple has no children themselves. When Hannah is asked by a Christian nobleman to assist at a birth, she is torn between her humanitarian impulses to save lives and the papal decree against medical treatment by Jews to Christians. With the hope to obtain money to free Isaac, she decides to assist in the birth. This decision changes her life forever. Hannah has overcome her natural fear of risk to deliver this child, and must fight prejudice, criminal behaviour, and difficult circumstances to save her own life. Meanwhile in Malta, Isaac must fight against his natural argumentative tendency and work to save his own life with the skills he has as a literate, educated man.
The reader is sympathetic to Hannah and her plight, caught between a rock and a hard place as it were. Hannah's family history also comes into this story and her rabbi isn't presented in the best light. There are good and bad of every religious persuasion here and that adds to the realistic nature of the novel. A story of love, honour, and survival, this novel tells a good story.

The Far Side of the Sky

Finished November 20
The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla
This is a story that is based on the reality of the German Jews in Shanghai just before and during World War II. The story begins in Vienna on Kristallnicht, when Franz, a young surgeon, finds his brother killed. It is made clear to Franz that his best hope is to leave, and he, wanting to take his daughter, his brother's widow, and his father with him finds that Shanghai is his only choice. Franz is also a widower and he dotes on his young daughter Hannah.
In Shanghai, Sunny is a nurse. Her father is a doctor and he encourages her in her medical career, believing her capable of more. Sunny feels herself an outcast in her society, child of a Chinese man and a white woman. Life in Japanese-controlled Shanghai is not an easy one, but Sunny drives herself harder by volunteering at the Jewish refugee hospital as well as working as a nurse in the County Hospital. Franz also works at the County Hospital, although he is not given the surgeon's role he deserves. He spends a large amount of time at the Jewish refugee hospital, doing what surgeries he can with the limited supplies he can find. Franz makes contact with the local Japanese officers and Jewish community, and as the war is brought to Shanghai struggles to use the contacts he has to protect his family once again.
This is a saga and a love story, and the tale of a Jewish community seldom told. Interesting history and interesting characters.

The Free World

Finished October 15
The Free World by David Bezmozgis
Set in 1978 in and around Rome, this book looks at one family of Russian Jews on their way to a new life. The family is comprised of three generations: Samuil and Emma, their sons Karl and Alec, Karl's wife Rosa and their two sons, and Alec's wife Polina. Samuil is not a practicing Jew, he served in the Red Army and was a card-carrying Communist who had a car and driver. Their life in Rome is one of limbo, waiting for immigration papers for their chosen country and adjusting to life in the West. We see love, responsibility, opportunity, and friendship. Alec is a playboy, always with an eye for a pretty woman. Polina, aware of his weakness has still given up her life to follow him, leaving her family behind. There is a whole community of Soviet Jews, all waiting for life in a new country: Australia, Canada, the United States and, of course, Israel. We see the how this search affects the various family members, and how priorities change as they wait. This is a snapshot of a point in history, done with a close-up of one family caught up in it. Those with good health and sponsoring family members in their destination country move through more quickly, others wonder if they are making the right choices.

The Dovekeepers

Finished October 2
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
This is a dense book with lots of plot, character, and insight. Inspired by the true events when Roman soldiers laid siege to the fortress of Masada in 70 C.E., Hoffman has told the story of four women who worked as dovekeepers at the fortress. Each woman takes her turn in telling her story, and each story also picks up where the previous one left off in the story of life a Masada and the women's relationships with each other.
First we have Yael. Yael's mother died in childbirth and her father has resented her all her life. She has grown to be self-reliant, and her journey across the desert from Jerusalem to Masada has taught her many things and given her both a burden and a gift. Her life at Masada is also a journey, where she acquires more knowledge and skills.
Second, we have Revka, the oldest of the women. Revka fled her small village with her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons after her husband, a baker, was killed by the Romans. Her life changed again in her journey across the desert, with the death of her daughter turning her son-in-law into a different man and silencing her grandsons. Her life at Masada begins with silence, but she gradually becomes close to the other dovekeepers and their children, and finds a new life.
Third we have Aziza, daughter of a warrior, lover of a warrior, and secretly a warrior in her own right. Aziza has be born three times and has had two names. She is a child of metal, and is unflinching when facing danger. She knows her own limitations and isn't afraid to be true to herself, even if it means defying those who love her. Aziza must rediscover her true self in Masada and play the role she is destined to play.
Fourth, we have Shirah, born in Alexandria to a woman dedicated to the priests and with a secret that determines her life and the life of those she loves. She has been far in her life, travelling to Moab and then to Masada. She is a woman of water, and of power and uses her powers judiciously. She loves her children and tries to defy their destinies even as she fears she cannot.
This book tells not only the history of Masada, a fortress where only two women and five children survived the siege, but also of women's roles, their relationship with other women and with men, and the struggles and courage all the players in this historical event underwent.
This book took longer than I thought it would to read, because there was so much to it, a depth of meaning that wouldn't be rushed. Wonderfully written, with complex characters and a great story, it is a book that will stay with me.

Two Babushkas

Finished June 8
Two Babushkas: how my grandmothers survived Hitler's war and Stalin's peace by Masha Gessen
I've started to go back to one of my earlier book lists and read books that I put on the list years ago. This is one of them. Finally tracked down a used copy.
Masha was born in Russia, but emigrated to the United States with her parents and younger brother when she was a young teen in 1981. She had fond memories of her grandmothers and went back to Russia as a young journalist to spend time with them. She became intrigued with their stories and managed to get a grant to write this book. She has moved back to Russia now herself.
This book follows her grandmothers from the 1920s to the 21st century. Her grandmother Ester was born in Poland and moved to Russia to study after the beginning of World War II. Her grandmother Rozalia was born in Moscow. They are both ethnic Jews, not religious but labelled different by the Russian government.
The book follows them from girlhood, through World War II hardships, marriage, children, job hunting, widowhood, social ostracism, and much more.
Masha has been able to coax an amazing amount of detail out of her grandmothers and adds historical research and personal papers to her resources to fill out the stories. These are very interesting women who have had very interesting lives.

The Hare with Amber Eyes

Finished February 27
The Hare with Amber Eyes: a family's century of art and loss by Edmund de Waal
My mother-in-law lent me this book, and said it was great. She was right.
Edmund finds out that he will be inheriting a collection of netsuke from his great uncle. This causes him to wonder about how the netsuke came into the family, and he ends up tracing back his family history, the collectors over the generations, and the wonderful things they collected. From Odessa to Vienna to Paris to London to Tokyo, he follows various trails, and makes his family come alive for us. There is much art history, history of Jewish intellectuals and their place in the arts world, and social history.
Edmund tells us how he starts with one question and gets interested in some of the other things he finds along the way. He spent a couple years of his life following this trail, and the world is richer for it.
A very interesting book

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.