THE BOOK FAIR
READ AND FULFILL YOUR LIFE
Gloria Goldreich
Leah's
Journey
Author: Gloria Goldreich
Published: 2012
Genre: Historical Novel
Cover: E-Book
Pages: 480
Review:
Gloria Goldreich’s sweeping saga of a Jewish family begins in Russia, after the Communist Revolution of 1917. Leah’s family, devastated by pogroms, finds hope in the new, communist Russia. However, after a horrific pogrom in which Leah’s young husband is murdered, and she, brutalized, the family decides to abandon Russia. Leah marries David Goldfeder, a friend, whose young wife was also murdered in a pogrom. David and Leah journey to America. Leah’s brother. Moshe, leaves with his wife for British held Palestine.
The novel encompasses the lives and loves of Leah and David, and loosely, that of their children who grow and marry. The novel offers some history of immigrants in New York, and the difficulties immigrants endured, particularly the horrific conditions working in the sweatshops. The novel tenders a superficial history of the family in Palestine and of Israel’s war of Independence alongside the briefly glossed over relationships of Leah’s brother, Moshe, and family members.
The novel is similar to Cynthia Freeman’s historical novel, “No Time For Tears”, also reviewed on this site.
The
Bridal
Chair
Author: Gloria Goldreich
Published: 2015
Genre: Fiction/Biography
Cover: E-Book
Pages: 496
Review:
The family of the famous artist, Marc Chagall, is examined in this semi-fictional biography. After a pogrom, Marc Chagall flees Russia, with his family, to Paris, the nightmares of which haunt his young daughter, Ida, for years. The book focuses primarily on Ida as an adult, and of the entangled, and at times, inappropriate and bizarre relationships she shared with her parents, particularly, her father.
Ida, smothered by her parents, never allowed to attend school, or have friends, at seventeen, finally receives a measure of freedom to attend an artist’s retreat with other Jewish teens. Away from her parent’s restrictions, Ida falls in love with Michel, a young man from Paris, and becomes pregnant. Ida, always the dutiful daughter, follows the advice of her parents, even against her wishes.
During WW II, Ida goes to great lengths to protect her parents from the Nazis, many times at the risk of her own safety. Neither of her parents appreciates her effort to save them, but maintain unwavering expectations of her complete devotion, and with chronic complaints, disregard the devastation surrounding them.
Years later, while in the U.S., Ida, a business savvy young woman, takes over her father’s works and finances, and manages which institutions will display her father’s art.
Ida’s own desires in her life take second place to that of her parents, even to the extent of her marriage. After the war, the Chagall family returns to France. Ida, as a beautiful woman, although still straddled to her parents, begins to gain independence.
The author uses a mix of historical as well as fiction characters. The storyline drags at times, bogged down in tedious detail and repetition.