Alancraig, Marcy.
A Woman of Heart.
Jerusalem, Israel: Mazo Publishers, 2011.
Reviewed
by Gabriel Constans, Santa Cruz, CA
Marcy Alancraig has created a
wondrous story that focuses on the relationship between Shoshona and her
grandmother Rheabie Slominski, as Rheabie reveals the "truth" of what
happened to their family in 1920s Petaluma, California, where she and
Shoshona's grandfather were part of a large left-wing community of Jewish
chicken ranchers.
When Rheabie falls ill and her
daughter asks Shoshona to move in with her grandmother, Shoshana struggles to
believe her grandmotherÕs tales, which are in conflict with her mother's
lifelong aversion to and dismissal of "such nonsense". ÒBut probably
you know already, dolly, that in this life we are not always given the expected
stories,Ó Rheabie tells Shoshona, revealing that the family was haunted by
relatives killed in a pogrom during the 1917 revolution in Russia.
The Yiddish sprinkled throughout
and the sentence structure of Rheabie Slominski's speech is superb. Her cadence
comes naturally, as do the other characters, which are interspersed in both the
present and the past. Rheabie's "stories" makes one feel as if you
are a close family member or young child, who has snuggled up with your Nana on
the front porch and cannot wait to find out what happens next.
As she discovers her own abilities
to see ghosts and the "Guardians of the land", Shoshana also uncovers
deeper family secrets about alcoholism, adultery, sexual orientation, and
friendship. Slowly, Shoshana tries to heal what has been revealed, and make
real connections with people in her past, and present. Shoshana's questioning
of her own sexual preference, are subtly interwoven throughout, as she keeps
unexpectedly "running into" a woman her grandmother calls "That
hippie, flower-child lady".
A Woman of Heart has well-rounded and complex characters with which
one can identify and make their own. As the story progresses, you care about
what has, is and will happen to each and every one in it. This is a tale, which
readily falls into a number of genres (family, historical, Jewish,
contemporary, literary, environmental and/or lesbian fiction), yet stands on
its own without being labeled or categorized. The sounds of Toni Morrison,
Tillie Olson, Isabel Allende, Amy Tan, and Anita Diamant can be heard
whispering in the author's ear. It is not a stretch, by any means, to say that
Alancraig has written a work on par with some of the greatest writers of our
time.
Women in Judaism: A
Multidisciplinary Journal Winter 2011 Volume 8 Number 2
ISSN 1209-9392
© 2011 Women in Judaism, Inc.
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