Tag: SparkPress

Shadows We Carry by Meryl Ain

Publication April 25, 2023-SparkPress-Historical Fiction-296 pp

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

In Shadows We Carry, Meryl Ain continues the life stories of Second-Generation Holocaust Survivors introduced in The Takeaway Men. “Second generation” refers to the children of Holocaust survivors who were born after the great cataclysm and grew up in its shadow.” Meryl Ain’s sequel is set in the U. S. during the turbulent ‘60’s and ‘70’s as the fraternal Lubinski twins, Bronka and JoJo, navigate marriage, family expectations and face quotas for women in professional careers. Readers are enveloped in the social and political unrest after the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the implications of the Viet Nam war. These events have a great emotional impact on Bronka, JoJo, their work cohorts, friends, and neighbors. The theme of gender identity is also dealt with through Bronka’s longtime boyfriend Ned as he searches for answers and portrays only the socially acceptable side of being gay in the 1970’s. 

 Meryl Ain weaves the heavy inherited guilt of these young men and women with the emotional trauma their parents and neighbors have survived. How do the daughters deal with the family responsibilities, the guilt, and the truth of their lineage? Through layers of emotionally charged dialogue between parents, father-daughter, and budding relationships, the prejudices of the times come to the surface. Catholic and Jewish concepts are treated with an empathetic, omniscient view, as Father Stan, a Catholic priest explores his Jewish heritage.  The common themes of captivity, freedom, and covenants in the Christian and Jewish religions are highlighted.

Meryl Ain deftly weaves the rich tradition, culture, and beliefs of a Jewish family throughout the narrative but especially poignant are the Seder meal and Passover celebrations.  A glossary of Jewish terms along with a cast of characters and background from the first novel is included.

Meryl Ain’s novel finally transports Bronka and JoJo, as second-generation survivors, to the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in 1983 for a Lubinski reunion. As Aron Lubinski reminds his family, “Each generation must learn to live with the Shadows We Carry.”

Meryl Ain is a writer, author, podcaster, and career educator. The Takeaway Men, her award-winning post-Holocaust debut novel, was published in 2020. Her articles and essays have appeared in numerous publications and she is the author of two nonfiction books. A member of The International Advisory Board for Holocaust Survivor Day, she is the host of the podcast People of the Book, and the founder of the Facebook group “Jews Love To Read!” She holds a BA from Queens College, an MA from Columbia University, and a doctorate in education from Hofstra University. She and her husband, Stewart, a journalist, have three married sons and six grandchildren and live in New York. https://merylain.com/

The Sorting Room by Michael Rose

“A moving and evocative tale, sweeping in scope- Its depiction of Depression-era New York City is vivid and haunting.” Amazon

Publishes: September 21, 2021

https://www.amazon.com/Sorting-Room-Novel-Michael-Rose/dp/168463105X

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sorting-room-michael-rose/1138488965

Michael Rose was raised on a small family dairy farm in Upstate New York. He retired after serving in executive positions for several global multinational enterprises. He has been a non-executive director for three public companies headquartered in the U.S. The Sorting Room is his debut novel. He lives and writes in San Francisco.

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

A game of marbles led to an accident leaving ten-year-old Eunice Ritter’s older brother mentally impaired. In 1928, New York City, Eunice is forced to support her alcoholic parents and her siblings, as punishment for the accident. The spunky Eunice convinces David Welles, owner of an industrial laundry, to give her a chance at a job in his “sorting room.” Against his better judgement and not expecting her to last 15 minutes, Eunice begins her life’s work.   With Gussie as a mentor and Mr. Welles’ gambling brother, Martin, and cousin Alfred as enemies, Eunice not only survives the stench and grueling shifts, but eventually becomes a supervisor. Michael Rose stirs the melting pot of Prohibition-era New York City with Swedish immigrants escaping tragedy and Native Americans escaping the reservation.

 As the saga slowly unfolds Rose’s characters evolve with clarity and depth so readers will be cheering for Eunice and Gussie, hopeful for Joshua and Jackson from the reservation and despising Eunice’s father and JP, the wicked man she’s forced to marry.  Rose lends a much-needed lift with a clever sense of humor in reference to Eunice as a witch and uses a mirror in a bar scene to give readers a different and interesting view of patrons. Eunice plods through her life with perseverance, enduring her marriage of “slavery” since women still need a husband’s signature for a lease. Rose adds suspense with a kidnapping and continuity with the thread of the ‘annual Mother’s Day trip to Grammas.’  Readers will develop sincere empathy for Eunice and the family she creates as Michael Rose’s debut novel opens with foreshadowing of a life to come- a spunky ten-year-old girl lands a job with the ‘dirty dirties’ in The Sorting Room.