Night Train to Mother - Hardcover
From 1895 to 1984, members of four generations of women in a Jewish family journey from Romania to Israel and back again
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly:
Appropriating the tragic history of pre-Holocaust Eastern European Jewry, this generational saga is a U.S. debut for Lentin, an Israeli native residing in Ireland. Through the travails of the Laxes, the author spotlights the singular lifestyles of well-to-do Orthodox Romanian Jewish families of the era, which were often headed by strong-willed, bread-winning matriarchs. Wed to a scholar at the turn of the century, Dora Lax becomes a successful businesswomen but is sexually unfulfilled; her street-smart daughter Rosa likewise finds that her lovemaking is devoid of an erotic "flutter." The political events of the two world wars and rampant anti-Semitism will displace and impoverish the Laxes and their children; Rosa and her husband immigrate to Palestine in 1940 and become members of a lost generation, forever guilt-ridden that they avoided Hitler's slaughter while friends and family suffered or perished. Lentin treads familiar fictional ground as the bland Lax clan reveals itself through personal and political attachments. The novel displays verve and freshness only when Lentin moves to 1975 to describe the lonely, spartan existence of Rosa's younger sister, Hetti, a disaffected Communist and reluctant Israeli.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal:
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A patriarchal Jewish tradition is challenged by the archetypal faces of the goddess--virgin, matron, and old woman--disclosed in this fictionalized memoir of journeying. The setting is primarily pre-World War II Romania, the theme one of moving--both away from and toward. Returning to her mother's birthplace in Romania to try to discover the truth of her history, so shrouded in secrecy, narrator Ruth finds that she is also testing herself in a journey back in time. What she finally discovers on this journey is the state of exile common to her family, her race, and her sex. The reader most often accompanies her willingly, for as she travels she recalls three characters engaging in their own right: mother Rosa, grandmother Dora, and aunt Hetti. Pertinent to current events in Eastern Europe, this novel is easily recommended for public libraries and for academic libraries supporting women's studies or comparative religious studies.
- Joyce M. Latham, Southern Maryland Regional Lib., Charlotte, Md.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Joyce M. Latham, Southern Maryland Regional Lib., Charlotte, Md.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherAttic P.
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 0946211809
- ISBN 13 9780946211807
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages256
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