Two tales: Betrothed & Edo and Enam, by S.Y. Agnon; translated from the Hebrew by Walter Lever

 

These are two novellas written by celebrated Hebrew novelist S.Y. Agnon, who was the recipient of the Nobel prize in Literature in 1966. Betrothed is about Jacob Rechnitz, a botanist who immigrates to Palestine. Unable to find work in his field, he takes a position teaching Latin and German, in which he does very well. He lives a comfortable existence, and is friendly with a group of six young women with whom he walks and talks regularly. One day he learns that his benefactor is visiting; Herr Ehrlich was a neighbor to Jacob during his youth, and helped fund his education. Ehrlich's daughter Susan accompanies her father on the visit to Jacob, and reminds him of their childhood promise to marry. Jacob promises to keep his pledge, but Susan becomes sick with an illness she picked up on her travels. Jacob goes for a walk with his six women friends, and they propose a race with the winner being the one who would marry Jacob. As they race across the sand, they are overtaken by Susan, who wins the race. Edo and Enam tells an even stranger tale. The narrator visits his friends, Gerhard Greifenbach and his wife Gerda, who are planning a trip abroad. They've taken in a lodger, Dr. Ginath, but he's not often there. They're concerned about their house being broken into while they're gone, so they leave their keys with the narrator who promises to visit occasionally and make sure everything's OK. The narrator's family goes to visit relatives out of town, so he decides to spend a night or two at the Greifenbach's. While there, he's visited by his friend Gabriel Gamzu, a rare book and manuscript dealer. Gamzu tells the narrator about his wife, Gemulah, who is sickly and unless Gamzu uses charms to prevent it, sleepwalks at night. He reports that he lost the charms he uses, and she has disappeared. The next night Gamzu shows up again and tells the narrator that his wife has returned. Even though he doesn't have the charms, he's using another trick to keep her from leaving the bed while sleepwalking: leaving a wet cloth on the floor next to the bed. Apparently, this is meant to wake her up if she gets out of bed. While talking, they overhear something in the next room and find Gemulah talking to Dr. Ginath, whom they didn't realize was there. Ginath sends Gemulah home with Gamzu. A month later, the narrator sees a death notice, and learns that Ginath and Gemulah have died; Ginath saw Gemulah on a roof, and trying to save her, they both fell to their deaths. The story ends with the funeral and the return of the Greifenbach's.

I found both stories interesting, but strange. There are a lot of digressions from the main narratives, and some strange, magical sequences. There's no sense of history in these stories, just a feeling of provincial life in what seems like a backwater locale. I liked reading Gamzu's stories about hunting down books and manuscripts; in many cases, he's buying books from wealthy people who are unloading their families' religious texts. And why did all the names in Edo and Enam begin with a G?

You're doing great! ... and other reasons to stay alive, by Tom Papa

I'm a big fan of Tom Papa's standup, which led me to this book of essays. Papa is very funny, and the essays included here cover some of the same material from his stand up routines, but there's a lot of new material in here as well. The essays are just 4-5 pages each, and I read most of them while on the stationary bike at the Y. They were highly diverting and entertaining and made the time fly by.
 

My year of rest and relaxation, by Ottessa Moshfegh

I have to admit that I approached this book with some skepticism since I disliked her earlier book, Eileen. I'm sorry to say that I didn't like this book any more than that one. My year of rest and relaxation is the story of a mid-20s woman who has lost both of her parents and is living on her inheritance, having squandered her job working at an art gallery. Describing herself (over and over) as model thin and pretty, she has decided to sleep as much as possible for a year. She finds a cartoonishly-unethical psychiatrist who prescribes what seems like dozens of mind-altering pills which she mixes and matches for months. She treats her "friend" Reva terribly, and continues to stalk her former boyfriend. She has contempt for everything and everyone. Ultimately, none of the characters in this book are relatable or likeable. While the writing is good, and the main character's backstory is sad, the events of the novel itself are ludicrous, ultimately leading up to the events of September 11, 2001, which seems out of place in this narrative.

The panic zone, by Rick Mofina

 

This is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that follows a young woman who's lost her husband and son in a car crash (although she swears she saw someone take her son), an investigative reporter (Jack Gannon), and an international conspiracy involving a deadly manufactured pathogen. This is the 2nd in the Jack Gannon series; it's fast-paced and entertaining.

Maybe you should talk to someone, by Lori Gottlieb

 

This was a really interesting book in which the author Lori Gottlieb, a therapist, writes about her own need for therapy when she experienced a loss. Gottlieb interweaves her own story with the experiences of a half dozen or so of her patients. Often she demonstrates that what they're experiencing is something that she also encounters in her own therapy sessions, and it's interesting to see her recognize and deal with those situations herself. It's really well written and a fast read. It also serves to take the mystery out of what therapy entails, and I would guess that a lot of people would consider therapy for themself after they read the book.

The thread collectors, by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman

I enjoyed this historical novel, based loosely on the two authors' family histories, that tells the story of a Jewish Northerner, Jacob Kling, and his wife, alongside the story of an enslaved woman in New Orleans and her lover, an enslaved man who runs away to join Northern forces camped nearby. The story alternates between the four narratives. Jacob is a musician who befriends William, a classically trained flutist. Lily is Jacob's wife, a fervent abolitionist who sews quilts and rolls bandages to support the Union war effort. Stella is an enslaved woman kept as her owner's mistress in the French Quarter in New Orleans; she is in love with William. She uses her embroidery skills to provide maps on fabric for men leaving bondage and seeking the Northern army encampments to volunteer for the Union army. The plot bogged down a little in the middle, but when Jacob is injured and stops writing to Lily, she decides to travel across country to find him, and the book picks up for the second half. The stars align and eventually all the main characters meet. The ending is not without tragedy, but is hopeful.
 

James, by Percival Everett

 

I really liked this retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the enslaved man Jim's viewpoint. I found the story to be alternately funny and devastating. Written by the author of Erasure, the novel that the film American fiction was based on, you can imagine that James will be provocative and challenge the reader's perspectives about the events that took place in Huck Finn. Everett doesn't disappoint with this book. Telling the story from an adult's perspective and leaving out the many swaths of the original book in which Jim and Huck were separated, the result is a shorter book, but one that is piercing in its insight. I found James both riveting and unforgettable; I couldn't put it down. I read this over the summer for my September book club meeting. We chose to re-read Huck Finn first, which I think was a good approach, given that I hadn't read Huck Finn in 40 years. Reading them in order (Huck Finn, then James) draws your attention even more strongly to the way the stories are told and the emphases placed on specific events by the respective authors.

The cure for women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever, by Lydia Reeder

 

In the 19th century, women who wished to become doctors had limited opportunities to study because they were not welcome in most American universities. Many women resorted to attending university in Europe or one of the women-operated medical schools in the United States. Author Lydia Reeder spotlights a prominent woman doctor, Mary Putnam Jacobi, and her efforts to provide medical education to women in the U.S. Jacobi was trained in Europe but returned to America to teach and manage her own medical practice. She was a published medical researcher who pioneered scientific methods of conducting research with human subjects. As her influence grew, she played a key role in funding the Johns Hopkins graduate school for medicine, which was the first to provide a co-educational environment for medicine. Reeder also profiles many prominent women doctors as well as male doctors who were notorious for their opposition to allowing women to study medicine and others who became allies. In her later years, Jacobi became active in the suffrage cause and motivated many of New York City’s distinguished and wealthy women to support women’s right to vote. VERDICT This is a fascinating account of women’s rights issues that has continuing relevance today.

 

A version of this review was previously published in Library Journal here.