AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Lyle RockIer for the degree of Master of Arts in Englishpresented on May & 1997. Title: Chazzonos. Redacted for Privacy Abstract approved: I Tracyba Chazzonos, as presented here formy thesis, represents three chapters of what will be a novel of thesame name. Chazzonos is about Hal Perimutter, a cantor, who at the outset of the novel, isresigning his position of twenty years. The novelprogresses as Hal decides where he will go after Mirthgate Temple and what will be meaningfulto him. Hal's decision is complicated by the opposing forces thatrun through him: the conservative side that is attracted to ritual, tradition, and, especially, themusic of the ancient and respectable art of the cantor; and the liberal,neo-60s, almost anarchic nature of his personal life. In these three chapters, the dilemmas of Hal's lifeare introduced. He deals with the implications ofan inheritance that has allowed him to resign; he struggles with the mystery ofa relationship that is developing between his homosexual son anda new lover; and he is challenged by his long-time girlfriend to make the ultimate commitment of marriage.Throughout the narrative, Hal is affected by his attachment to the musicof chazzonos (the cantorial art) and by memories of family and tradition,nostalgic as well as painful. The questions these three chapters introduceand thatwill develop as the entire novel progressesare those of love, tradition, obligation, and how one struggles with opposing forces in one'snature. CHAZZONOS Lyle Rockier A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfifiment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Presented May 8, 1997 Commencement June 1997 Master of Arts thesis of Lyle Rockier presentedon May 8. 1997. APPROVED: Redacted for Privacy Major Profesor, representing Redacted for Privacy Chair of Department of English Redacted for Privacy Dean of Grad I understand that my thesis will become part of thepermanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signature below authorizes release of my thesis to any reader upon request. Redacted for Privacy Lyle Rockier, Author 1 CHAZZONOS Prologue Henry Perimutter, Hal, a boy four years old andsome months; a boy with an adult name: Hal Perimutter. He isan only child, in the companyof adults muchofthe time. Already, he sings and performs for the neighbors and the relatives, the songs his mother listens toon the radio while he plays with his toys on the kitchen floor. Doris Day. Vaughn Monroe. Eddie Fisher. His mother, Hinda, dotes on him, smothers him, talks without end about the family left behind in Moldava. Shefillsthe childheart with something slavic and black that sticks to his tiny ribs like tar. He hears hersay she could have married better. His father Issac, not evena butcher, but a cutterofdeli meatsbrisket, corned beef,pastrami,tongue. He hears them barking, snarling, growling at each other. Theycurse, cajole, regret, complain, rail at their fate, frighten the boy. His father shows hima more measured love: he takes him out on the boat fishing, laces him intoa life preserver, tells him that they're Minnesota boys, fishing the ten thousand lakes. At home,Issac smoothes the boy's fine dark hair as they sit on the couch and listento Zaida's records, the records Issac calls chazzonos. The recordsare thick glass, round like pies, a thin hole in the middle to placeover the little finger on the turntableofthe phonograph. They have red or green or black labels which Issac explains announce the nameofthe famous cantor singing. They listen together the way Zaida and Issac did when Issacwas a boy. Hal loves the soundsofthe deep full male voices, the rich instruments in the background which he cannot yet name. He hums the haunting melodiesin his head. Hinda likes the chazzonos toobut she cries when she hearsit. She sees her 11 father in frontofher, his long white beard combed out for Shabbos, sittingat the table with a volumeofthe Talmud spread out before him. "Where they are now my family?" she asks,"killed by chayas, by wild animals." The soundsofthe cantors, their chazzonos stays with Hal. He doesn't understand the Hebrew words, but he feels the power and the poetryas much as a boyof four can. But his head is also filled with the other sounds. Thesounds of Hinda and Issac threatening, screaming, cursing. He understands theYiddish words: Hang yourself, burn in a fire, get flattened, explode,meet with a horrible end. One day he opens the brown metal closet in the diningroom where Issackeepstheglassrecords. He looksup andseesclothes hangingjackets, coats, sweaters. He imagines they belong to the dead Jews, the family killed by Hitler that his mothermourns. At the bottom are the records, Issac's chazzonos in black round stacks. He picksup a record and flingsit across the room. The record hits the wall, fallsto the floor and shatters. The sound, the destruction gives Hala thrill he can feel all through his small body.It makes him tingle, even in his tiny penis. He throws another anditalso shatters,thistime even louder. Another and then another. Until Hinda comes into the room, screaming. Shattered glasscovers Hinda's polished wood floor. He is punished, made to stay in hisroom, but he does it again on another day. Issac nevermoves the records to a different, safer spot. So, even though he is punished again and again, Halreturns to the records until there are only a few left. His daddy's records that had been leftto him by Zaida, the gorgeous, plaintive soundsofchazzonos, are gone. and he her told Buteven haven't I Mirthgate.yet. in years these all for friend his been she's all, After opinion. her ask in, go he'll maybe thinks he house, Dumbroff's Anna passes he When thing. turn wholeand thearound forget should he if wonders He up. himself eating He's empty. rumbling,on even are guts his breath, of short he's heavy, feel legs his morning this But Lake. Mirthgate follow that streets the around hike to plans he when this like on mornings mornings, Shabbos on nights, Friday on years; twenty in times a as thousand has he Temple Mirthgate to blocks two He the walks Deutch. Fred Temple, the of president the to addressed night, left helast where table coffeeit the on lying still is letter resignation it's after walkHis to plans he and slushdone. muddy of full still are lake the around streets The boots. hiking his laces he room, living the In thinks. he care, better taking start might I to. as easilyused it as close doesn't jeans the on buckle the jeans. and noticesshirt flannel He a plaid puts he in, slept he underwear back. getsthe he until wait can Over or that wash, shave doesn't He up. turns he heatfeet, his on Finally the off." little a been always I've off, I'm off, "I'm answers: He winter. of start the at him bought Mimi comforter under sidethick the on his curled He's off? you aren't Cantor, early, so in you brings What finger. a arm, stubby pointing her from dangling bracelets desk, at front one the nosy fat the Lea, pictures He questions. to want doesn'tany he and o-clock answer at nine- office the in secretariesbe The willleft alreadyhouse. has son His the urge bed. in thestay fighting he's andto off day Hal's Wednesday, It's I. Chapter MARCH 1 2 Mimi have been through it for weeks. So he keeps moving. He has the sensation of being pushed by fate herself in her newest outfit. At the double glass doors to the Temple offices, he fishes for his key. He checks and double-checks to see if the envelope is still in the inside pocket of his coat. Still there. Once inside the building, he almost forgetsto punch in the numbers that de-activate the alarm. Wouldn't that be nice? he thinks.So much for doing this quietly. He unlocks the door to the main office, walks behind the counter and with trembling hands that feel like those ofa stranger or some agent other than himself, he places the envelope in the president's box. Severaltimes he pulls the envelope back and then places it again. He looks at the frontonce more: Fred Deutch. He places it the last time and moves quickly out of the office, locking the door behind him. As he locks the front doors again, he remembers to go back and re-set the alarm. His walk begins just around the corner. As he climbs the first hill, he moves to the side to let cars pass. From some of them, congregants on their way to the train wave and he absently waves back. From one, he just barely misses some splashing mud. This is one morning I could have used David, he thinks. At the crest of the second hill, out of breath, he stands inan empty lot and takes in the panoramic view. The water is shimmering undera rising sun. All around is a wide arc of houses in the hills, fancy and plain, huge and modest, houses of people he's known for twentyyears. Far below, on the other side is the beach, and the clubhouse, the landscaped groundsacross the street from the Temple. Twenty years ago, when he first told his family in Minnesota that he had taken a position in New Jersey, they asked him if it 3 was ugly there. His answer was, "Not where I'm going. Mirthgateis beautiful." He starts walking againon the long flat stretch. Fear shoves him, mentally, into a cold and emptyroom where a refrain keeps going through his headtwenty years, twentyyears.