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1-1998 More Nice Jewish Girls: Review of Beyond the Pale by Elana Dykewomon and The Escape Artist by Judith Katz. Meryl Altman DePauw University, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Altman, Meryl. "More Nice Jewish Girls." Rev. of Beyond the Pale by Elana Dykewomon and The Escape Artist by Judith Katz. The Women's Review of Books 15.4 (1998): 7-8.

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. of Joan Rivers, or Jane Fonda's enlarged breasts. Yet it is ordinarypeople, mostly female, paying cash, who keep cosmetic surgeons busy. As expensive as it is, only More nice Jewish giris 30 percentof patientscome from families by MerylAltman earning under $25,000, and another 35 percent earn between $25,000 and Beyond the Pale, by ElanaDykewomon. Vancouver,BC: ,1997, $50,000. 403 pp., $15.95 paper. These statistics supportHaiken's con- The Escape Artist, by JudithKatz. Ithaca,NY: FirebrandBooks, 1997, 283 pp., $12.95 clusion that cosmetic surgeryhas been de- paper. mocratized. What is also apparentis that this 65 percent of barely middle-income O F THE MANY SPIRITS workingtheir cosmetic surgery consumers are credu- wayout in lesbianfiction of thelast lous, receptive to popularmedia messages few decades, let me name two extolling the newest, most painless surgi- whichmay appearto be opposite:on the cal techniquesand vulnerableto the prom- one hand,a pulltoward real-life history, a ises inherent in physical transformation. driveto namespecific, often ethnic, expe- To attractlove, obtaina betterjob,to move rience,to touchthe groundwhere women ahead in America, Haiken believes "the have walked, whetherin strengthor in surgicalsolution has allowed us to hold on weakness;on the other hand, a utopian to an idealized self-image:...we are real- movementtoward imaginarycommuni- ists, pragmatists...benton creatingand rec- ties, betterworlds, which often involves reatingourselves in the most modernof all fantasyscripts or non-realiststyles. Lesbi- possible ways." ansare rooted (we werethere, we arehere, Plastic surgeon Jacob SarnoffWsvision Haiken definitely has an opinion of her thisis whowe are). float free (we of total transformation, 1936. From Ve- own about all of this. She is disappointed could be anyone, we could be every- nus Envy. that women, especially, turncultural poli- where). tics inward, abandoningcollective action Apparentlyopposite, but often we fmd futuresfor thou- making brighter for self-improvement: these two impulsestogether: in Virginia sands of girls and women. The ma- Woolf'sOrlando; in the odd tendencyof In the 1970s, women insisted that the tronwith too many crows feet science fiction futuresto resembleearth personalis political; they defmed ap- aroundthe eyes will have new hope pasts;in the ways we thinkabout Sappho. Judith Katz. and beauty as social issues and faith because of plastic surgery pearance In Jeanette_Winterson,though she has re- veterans. (p. 137) ratherthan individualproblems. A on wounded centlyshown a distressingtendency to let imaginedthere. Both are careful,responsi- decade later...popularconceptions of middle-aged go of the readableground entirely in reach- ble, educational presentations of Jewish Aging-in middle-class, feminism began to reflect the same of all these ing forthe postmodern sky. Inthe "biomy- history-Katz lists her sources, Dykewo- women-became the target emphasis on individualachievement unoccu- thography"of Zami. And in these two mon providesa Yiddish andyet surgeons apparently otherwise and fulfillmentthat swept through glossaryr writercalled cos- books,both of whichmarry a concernfor also have magical, spiritual,legendary as- pied. One contemporary the largerculture. (p. 275) metic surgerythe quintessentialproduct of detailedhistorical memory with a commit- pects. And both gave me lots to think postwarprosperity. Feminism, then, hasn't at all deflated mentto women's,to Jewishwomen's, to about. the desire to look better(or betterthan you ,possibility. Both are gripping and Both writersare able to make a familiar T nHAT THEREIS NO SELF-IMAGEcreated thinkyou look). Haikenmight well recog- enjoyable,the kind of booksyou pick up topos of Jewish fiction and life-the mas- outside a social context is probably nize that depoliticized feminism was cre- for a minuteand suddenlyit's hourslater sacre in which the parentsare killed-new the most importantlesson the reader ated by the many incrediblyinsulting and and you forgot to have dinner,so fully and newly horrible.As it happens to new learns, though not for the first time, from silly women's magazinesshe has mined so have you entered the emotionalworld characterswe have not met before, we re- VenusEnvy. To paraphraseone surgeon,the successfully to bolsterher thesis-that the way we thinkwe look is reasonenough to American.movement toward individual- want to look different.The nut of Haiken's ism has resulted in a conformity to stan- historicalanalysis is thatthe culturewe live dardsof beautythat are as impermanentas the next consumerrage. Fashion prevails t...... :.:... in shapes those thoughts, and her re- ...... search-documented in nearly forty pages even in flesh: large breastswere needed to of notes so intriguingthat they are worth fill out the bodices of 1940s and 50s readingin theirown right-is most compel- dresses,the pertupturned nose job of those ling when she examines cosmetic surgeiy decades has been replaced by the (politi- * Possessions motivatedby race,ethnicity anid aging. cally correct)straight, assertive nose. Julia Kristeva ManyJews, especially after World War To appearunremarkable is paradoxical Translatedby BarbaraBray Two,sought rhinoplasty (nose job), either in a culturewhere individualism is a fetish. InJulia Kristeva's second novel-a sequel to The to avoid the assumptionsand prejudices Yet who woulddeny someone the right to OldMan and the Wolves-StephanieDelacour returnsto SantaVarvara to solvea murdermystery. they felt an obviousSemitic nose would "civilinattention" by correctinga defector Butas the truthunfolds, so do new questionsand attract, or, refiecting their own self- featurethat attracts curious stares? Can we hiddenlayers of meaningthat resonatethroughout loathing,to confoundstereotypes. These also understandthe wish to lift an aging Kristeva'swritings: mourning and melancholia;the whichnon-Jews face to reflectmid-life vitality?Are we powersof horror;psychoanalysis; and the complex NOWIN PAPERBACK arethe samereasons for identityof a womanwho is at once a motherand soughtto fix theirlarge noses and, fifty sympatheticwhen Jews and African an individualcapable of sexualpassion. >4EW New yearsearlier, people with congenitalsad- Americansundergo rhinoplasty, or Asians 256 pages * $27.50, cloth L ~~~Matladies dle-noses sought repair, lest their col- seekeye surgery? SOLof the a symptom The cultureof self was not createdby lapsedbridge be mistakenfor BodyTalk Soul of advancedsyphilis. cosmeticsurgeons; the altering of faceand PhilosophicalReflections on Sex and Gender Julia Kristeva An African Americanwoman' s re- body is, if anything,a shortcutto yearsof Jacqueline N. Zita JULAKRI$TEVA Translated by sponse to a friend'saccusation that she psychotherapy.There's nothing so alarm- JacquelineZita continues the discourseon gender Ross Guberman and sexualidentity that she began in her provoca- was tryingto "look"Caucasian with her ing hereto sendus to the barricades.For "Thesedays, who stillhas a soul? asksJulia tive article,"TheMale Lesbian and the Postmodern Kristevain this psychoanalyticexploration. surgically narrowed nose-"Why everyfeminist who would like to see posi- Body.'This collection of essays,which includes a Kristevareveals a new kindof patientin an age couldn'tyou feel that1 wanted my noseto tivemedia images of agingwomen, there' s revisedversion of thatarticle, addresses such issues of politicalupheaval, mass-mediated culture, as race,gender, and sexuality,and explores the body be like a sisterwhose nose was straighter anotherpraising cosmetic surgery as anact and the overhaulof familialand sexualmores. as a physical,psychological, and culturalconstruct. than mine?"captures the convoluted of self-esteem,an echo of the surgeons 242 p~e * S16.50 296 pages * $16.50, paper European P ~cn A Serks In Social Thoughtand ogy of stereotyping by who equatedvanity with mental weil- Between Men ~ Between Women:Lesbian and Gay Studies politic s andpsychol Cultwal Critidsm,Lowence a rma, Editor the observerand the observed.Were there being. LillianFaderman and LarryGross, Editors "overlarge" noses in a Europeanshtetl? VenusEnvy is a Ph.D.thesis in search EDINBURGHUNIVERSITY PRESS Arethere noses too fiatin Africa?Eyes too of a readershipbeyond an academic audi- WritingWomen in Modern China #> slantedin Thailand,or breasts too smallin ence, but despite that aspiration,it is AnAnthology of Women'sLiterature FeministDestinations Vietnam(that is, beforeAmerican military most likely to appeal to academics in fromthe EarlyTwentieth Century and FurtberEssays on women's studies,psychology and sociol- Translatedand Edited by Amy D. Dooling menbegan paying more for bar girls with and KristinaM. Torgeson VirginiaWoolf inter- breastimplants)? ogy. Many non-academicreaders "Animmensely informative and wide-ranging Rachel Bowlby Inthe 1990swe stareat somefaces and ested in this subjectare actualiy looking collectionof literatureby women writingin China "Anexciting volume from a distinguishedand very bodies becausetheir radicaltransforma- for consumerguides. Others,however, in the earlytwentieth century.This book will weilestablished critic of Wool',verymuch in touch tions,not their beauty, interest and repulse includingfeminists and amateurfans of undoubtedlybecome an indispensableresource withand a likelyinfluence on currentthinking." to all those doing teachingand researchon -Randall Stevenson,University of Edinburgh us-like the disappearanceof race and medical history, like me, will be fasci- modernChina in the decadesto come." 288 pages * $29.50, paper genderin the cadaverousface of Michael natedand horrified by thisbook, and per- -Rey Chow, author of PrimitivePassions: Visuality, ...... Jackson,the now unfamiliarvisage of haps betterprepared after readingit to Sexuality, Ethnography,and Contemporary Chinese Cinema 390 pages * 18 illus. * $1850, paper _& ColumbiaUniversity Press Cher(heralded in 1988on the pages of Ms. debatewith the increasingnumber of our ModernAsian Literature www columbia.edu/cu

The Women's Review of Books 1 Vol. XV, No.4 / January1998 7

This content downloaded from 163.120.1.91 on Wed, 8 Jan 2014 09:45:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions member that for each person the experi- grim the contours of the prostitutes'lives who could let her parentsdie; her religion ence of watching your parents die comes really were. I feel some unresolved am- is the strugglefor a betterworld for women as a personal experience, an individual bivalence about the criminals and gang- and workers. Gutke, though sceptical of outrage;if the stories often sound similar, sters: on the one hand, they're so much male ritual,fmds unbelief incomprehensi- it is the Tsar and the anti-Semiteswe must more interesting and lively and genuine ble-her belief in God is inextricablefrom blame, not the writers. Dykewomon and than the respectablepeople; on the other her belief in herself and her love for Katz fulfill a Passover-like obligation to hand, they treat one another appallingly. women. I don't usually find this kind of tell these stories over and over and to tell I'm not sure whether this was Katz' am- spiritualtalk convincing, but in the event I them in a new way, so that we will not be- bivalence or my own, and it's a reasonable had no difficulty lending myself to what come used to them, will not slip into find- thing to be broughtto think about;but the Gutke saw. Perhapsbecause her own con- ing them routineor merely legendary. shifts in tone made it hardto keep my emo- viction seemed so rooted and so strong, ' S~~~~~~~ tional equilibrium. perhapsbecause her strongest visions are T HE ESCAPE ARTIST introducesa history I was also sorry not to hear Han- visions of blood, and we know from his- thatwas new to me: the Jewish com- nah/Hankus'voice more clearly. Having -torythe blood was there. munities of turn-of-the-centuryAr- Sophia as single narratorworks brilliantly Along with the meditationabout Jewish gentina, which apparentlyincluded a re- in one sense-we see Hannahas beautiful, identity, Beyond the Pale is a meditation spectable bourgeoisie and a Zionist agrar- wonderful, magically desirable, in a fully about politics, a call to resistance and to ian utopia as well as the thriving criminal realized way. (The sex scenes are lovely.) commitmentin the forn of a reminderthat undergroundwithin which the book is By the standardsof Polandand the brothel, we have not always been victims only. But mainlyset. We firstmeet Sofia Teitelbaum the couple's final escape is to a lesbian it never cheats or oversimplifies. Chava is in 1913 Warsaw, where con artist and (and a Jewish) utopia;but Hannah'smagi- a fighter. But Rose and her mother are in "slick weasel" Tutsik Goldenberg tricks cal energies do not find much of a place searchof daily life, even in searchof pleas- her parentswith a promise of prosperous there. Would she really have been happy ElanaDykewomon. ure. Certain specific historical points are marriageand whisks her off to his sister's giving up the stage andthe world?But that being argued,among them the importance bordelloin Buenos Aires. Sofia encounters very question reveals that Katz has suc- the period,every heroime of the Women's of the EuropeanJewish experience to the every variety of sexual exploita- ceeded in makingme think of these as real TradeUnion League. birthof the Americanlabor movement; the tion-largely at the hands of women people, which in itself is no mean conjur- What such summarycannot convey, importanceof lesbian activists to all femi- -whilebecoming "wise to some of the re- ing trick. what I most admire,is the smooth,emo- nist social movements, even before "les- luctantpleasures of [her] own body." Fi- tionallypersuasive way all these familiar bian" could be named as a political iden- nally she is rescued by "Hankus"(really EYOND THEPALE, set at the tum of the elementsare drawntogether. The precise tity; the importanceof ordinaryworkers Hannah)Lubarsky, the escape artistof the century, goes over a terrain that andenormnous achievement of the bookis and everyday life to social struggle. title and the girl of her dreams. may at first seem more familiar.In to take these facts, witness to them and Kishinev and Essex Street are real "Sweet Hankus"is not only a dazzling the town of Kishinev within the Russian makethem round and real. The book has places, the pogroms and the strikes hap- juggler, a circus conjurorextraordinaire, a Pale, we are introduced to the midwife the textureof a memoir,though it tells pened as the book says. Oddly, some of the Houdinion the brinkof professionalfame. Gutke, of the steady hands and the wise muchin stroyethat most memoirs si e frtbo,telsleave out, andit most utopianand novelistic moments tum bianclassic Riverfinger Woman,the writ-~~~~~~~~~~~~ She has also managedher own flight: first heart, a better rabbi than the rabbi and a seems completely right that the cover out to be drawn from life: the children's from the pogromthat destroyedher family betterdoctor than any doctor,who has dis- shows both a real mapand an individual spontaneousstrike at the box factory; the and her whole village to Cracow, where a covered in the mikvehthat she is not the dreamingface. housewives' rent strikegrowing out of the pair of lovable gay men who run a kosher only woman-loving woman in the world. Beyond the Pale has its funnyand de- workinggirls' idyllic summercamp on the restaurantfeed her up and teach her to We also meet Chava, the restless and im- lightfulmoments, its lovely sceneswhere Palisades; tiny seamstress Clara Lemlich cross-dress;and then, threatenedwith in- pulsive daughterof a ratherlimited but re- womendiscover each other'sbodies and standingup and overrulingcautious male duction into the Tsar's army, to the New vered rabbiand his ratherbrilliant but un- theirmainnaratosown. ayewm A particu'lar ukd. n delight hvais the ca-h leadersto call for a generalstrike... Butjust World. dervalued Miriam. Gifted or cursed with denceof Gutke'svoice, recognizablyand as there is no romance of Jewish identity In Judith Katz' first novel, the highly second sight, Gutke can see a child's fu- Yiddischeand filledwith here (Jewishgirls die in sweatshopfires, as shelfauthenticallyanrid, again asihierfing fteryet Woman,s acclaimed Running Fiercely Toward a ture at the momentof birth.Often she sees her individualvision. "Sometimesit just they did in real life, because equally Jew- High Thin Sound, the bitter realities of a vast ocean; at first she's not sure why. goesphartsoth thatway. story You start are calmostwalking u around onbearby, in ish owners locked the doors), conflicts madness and the harm that family mem- But after one devastating pogrom too shad,btyourmother's Ina hontadie,sbig shoesway.,th and the nexttime mo within the radical movements are not bers can do to one anothermet some hys- many, therewe are in the nauseatingsteer- you look down,your feet are all swollen glossed over. Readers who want to know tioalHersuDaIsMv wayallbt these booksia terically funny caricaturesof both lesbian age, the humiliation of Ellis Island, the andsore, the shoesbarely fit. Thenit's too more about these issues may want to tum elmnsarerotdrais ditogctlyrwoman prcse and Jewish modernlife. The Escape Artist cramped and filthy apartment on the late to say you werejust pretending,am I as I did to Annelise Orleck's (1995) Com- rndeligon-thetabhie,emnoto the syna-i too weaves together extremes of tone and Lower East Side, with the now-orphaned right?"Dykewomon's language catches mon Sense and a Little Fire, a non-fiction goueisk thee fceterofwituals lifethem n feeling. Partsare very, very funny. It's the Chava, her gentler (and rounder) cousin the cadence,not the mannerisms,of account which is also a read. mokether'coundlsik just matterel more than thes great (She sort of book often referredto as a "romp," Rose, who becomes her , and Rose's these women(and thereare more) tells what happenedto some of these same scrollseofuteTorahGuk meearns manyfromgi thell or enough a circus, fast- once-prosperous family, now penniless who approacharchetype without becom- women the end of appropriately oucdthrmidwfe memircs thae Tomy, tonfear later;by the novel, you paced, with ever-more extravagant cos- greenhorns learning to survive however will want to know.) tumes, characters,subplots, motivations, they may. tionsthomghlertdaly wrkgh wtha the powers I didhave one "difficulty" in reviewing wisecracks; and yet the underside is here Plot summary inevitably makes this Beyondthe JPale-I kepthaving to putthe "bhol." both ThreaEsapeAts and Be-niida too: sixteen-year-old Sophia's moments sound like yet anothergenerational saga, bookdown to cry. WasI cryingover his- alone on the ship, the seductions/rapes,the and indeed there is a drive toward the Byondtheae criicie pastriarcha asp et tory?Maybe, but I canalso still get a good pogrom in which Hannab/Hankusloses encyclopedic-in the old country, one of oftaigtionlJoewt,itsh cltorely sophias fahere cry out of Riverfinger Woman,an impor- her whole world,~her wanderings as an Chava's brothers becomes a Zionist, the accientaldscoer herc othprostiuinbutdhesn tantbook of my youngyouth, which does animal-likewild child in the streetsof Cra- other a socialist printer;in America, one woldhave soldparticumarrdeiaget he inh cany nothave the Triangle shirtwaist fire in it, or cow. cousin becomes a policeman, the other a cae,ndcte samute'faie,hng overmanizbyofd pogroms.Maybe Dykewomon has always I found Katz' managementof these two contractor dreaming of owning his own athewmntofaleyontidshe Pale,yespeciallyd with hadthis talent for conveying a specialkind strandsa bit less surefootedthan in the ear- sweatshop.And throughthe eyes of Chava theroldiword.utkacnle vision.Smtms, but jshe of absoluteloss thatcontains in it the un- lier novel; sometimes I found myself gig- and Rose (who works in the needle trades) iosnoat permtte toustayt Kaddish aton her bearableand naive hope that everything gling with delight over some clever ab- we encounterseemingly every majorevent yormothersferasbgshelndtenettm could be rescued and become totally surdity, then had to remind myself how and political nuanceof the laborhistory of better-and that illogicallypreserves the seedsof future rgt"Dykewomon'smtileaontsaof fcuths hopein the ashesof abso- lute disappointmentover whatthe world tenabeaoe kind ofnt-deciin abouGayode does to dreamersand lovers.I closedthe andJuaismoachavaetp won' otbeciv i om- bookwith the same feeling as at theend of Tillie Olsen's"Tell Me a Riddle.""Still Donrt miss an issuef you believed?These things shall be?" Historyis a spaceof possibility,since we knowabout it butwe don'tknow eve- Pleasegive us six to eight weeks'notice of your rythingabout it. But it is not a spacefor changeof address. We need your OLDaddress purefantasy, as boththese writers know. (on your mailinglabel, if possible) as weil as your Jewishhistory particularly involves an ob- ligation,a dutyto remember.Suddenly the NEWone. Send the informationto: Address choice of "magic realism"makes more change,The Women'sReview of Books,Wellesley senseto me. Butthe bestexamples of this genre (Song of Solomon, One Hundred College, Wellesley,MA 02 18 1, or phone toll- Years of Solitude)make clear that the free 888-283-8044/ fax 781-283-3645/ email magic is only as magic as the realismis rootedand real. Especially if, likeme, you [email protected]. tendto get yourhistory (and' or your Juda- ism)mainly from novels, you couldnot do betterthan these two serious and enjoyable newbooks. mO

8 The Women's Review of Books / Vol. XV, No.4 1 January1998

This content downloaded from 163.120.1.91 on Wed, 8 Jan 2014 09:45:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions