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REVIEWS Fiction

the U.S. She captures her believable protago- father teaches her to read and write and study over the inmates he left behind. And sur- nists’ thoughts and frames their circumstances Talmud, something not common at that time. rounded by people who ignored the evil in in beautiful prose with a sharp eye for detail. But Shira finds her life constricted by Jewish tra- their midst, he is forced, in this poignant, In “The Melting Pot,” Sadka describes dition and must struggle with her primary role morally challenging, and beautifully written what life was like for Iraqi after they as wife and mother, and only serve as a helpmate novel, to make wrenching choices between made aliya, and the differences and conflicts to her husband. While she can never be his vengeance and forgiveness. GS they had with Ashkenazi Jews in the Holy equal, she finds happiness in this secondary role. Land. In “The Crossroad,” Naiim, an Iraqi The author places Shira at the center of some of Jew in Israel, marries a younger woman and Jewish history’s great calamities, such as the watches in frustration as she transforms her- burning of the Talmud on June 17, 1244 in self from a dutiful wife who cooks, cleans, and Paris. We know from historical accounts that irons his clothes, to one who enjoys going out Rabbi Baruch witnessed the destruction of and socializing with friends. The longest of twenty-four cartloads of Talmudic volumes and Sadka’s stories, “The Crossroad” clearly con- through Shira’s eyes and heart we come to veys the cultural differences between the Iraqi understand the pain of this crime against Jews. Jews and the Israelis living alongside them in The novel gives the reader a unique and Israel. The reader can feel Naiim seethe and personal view of Jewish life in the Middle THE JUMP ARTIST convulse with anger as he considers that his Ages and the adversities Jews faced as the Austin Ratner wife and her friends are mocking him and power of the Inquisition spread throughout Bellevue Literary Press, 2009. 252 pp. $14.95 (pbk.) robbing him of his honor. the world. BA ISBN: 978-1-934137-15-4 (pbk.) Each story in this collection offers a peek into the mind of an Iraqi Jew. Sadka’s ability young Latvian man and his father are hik- transcends generations. Read Farewell to Dejla Aing in the Tyrolean Alps when disaster to catch a glimpse of Jewish Iraq with its wealth strikes. The father is murdered out of sight of of traditions, foibles, and complexities. LK the son who is accused, tried, and found guilty of patricide. That the accused was a Jew had much to do with the injustices perpetrated by both prosecutor and judge in the anti-Semitic Austrian court. Philippe Halsman was jailed THE GAME OF despite the intervention of such Jewish notables OPPOSITES as , , and other Norman Lebrecht Jewish intellectuals in this Austrian version of THE FRUIT OF HER Pantheon Books, 2009. 324 pp. $24.95 the Dreyfus Affair, as it came to be known. HANDS: THE STORY ISBN: 978-0-307-37725-8 Weak, ill, guilt-ridden in spite of his inno- OF SHIRA cence, and filled with anger, Halsman is par- OF ASKENAZ lie Wiesel has always insisted that a novel doned after serving part of his sentence by the Michelle Cameron Eabout the Holocaust is not a novel, or, if it more sympathetic Chancellor Johann Schober, Pocket Books, 2009. 436 pp. $25.00 is a novel, it is not about the Holocaust. Nor- and then is released from the wretched jail that ISBN: 978-1439118221 man Lebrecht, winner of the 2003 Whitbread had housed and almost destroyed him. The First Novel Award, proves Wiesel wrong with foregoing part of the story occupies more than his compelling first novel is based on the The Game of Opposites. In an unnamed coun- half of this historical novel. Tlife of Rabbi Meir Ben Baruch. Rabbi try at the end of a unnumbered world war, Halsman’s recovery in Italy, travels to , Baruch, known best by his acronym, inmate Paul Malinowski leaves a labor camp, love affairs, discovery of his penchant for pho- MaHaRaM, was a universally noted Talmud which his captors have just fled in the face of tography, and escape to America, and then his scholar who lived in 13th century Germany approaching American liberators. Paul’s task is rise to fame as a superb photographic artist, and France. While he wrote no one single to determine whether it is safe for his fellow occupy the second half of this book, imparting a large work, his commentaries on the Talmud incarcerates to flee, too. But his withering jour- distracting imbalance to the treatment of Hals- were solicited throughout the Jewish world at ney ends with his collapse in a nearby village man’s life. Only the last few pages touch on the that time. He was also a noted religious poet whose residents had for years watched stone- significance of the title, explaining how Halsman who wrote many piyyut (religious poems) for faced as some of their neighbors were selected has discovered the value of obliging his subjects Jewish worship. for eviction and death. Alice Hofman, a young to jump before the taking of their portrait. Cameron, a descendent of the MaHaRaM, woman, takes Paul in and nurses him back to Although the novel is based on the results of has constructed a novel that blends history and health, by which time the war is over. His Ratner’s considerable research into Halsman’s private speculation on the life of Rabbi Baruch home and family destroyed, Paul decides to life and times, it is clearly a fictional work, as in a time of great anti-Semitism in Europe. stay where he is, marries Alice, has a family, the author himself has noted. His purpose has Rather than revolve around the Rabbi, the story and eventually becomes the mayor of the vil- been to explore his subject’s inner life, mirror- is a fictional account of his wife, Shira, who is lage. In Lebrecht’s hands all of this is perfectly ing what Halsman has done visually in his por- portrayed as the daughter of one of Rabbi credible to the reader. Paul, although adjusting traits of the movie stars, politicians, and other Baruch’s teachers and a scholar herself. Shira’s to his newfound happiness, is haunted by guilt notable performers on the world’s stage. CR

32 Jewish Book World Winter 5770/2009 www.jewishbookcouncil.org