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Summary: An interesting way to learn a little about Jewish history
Review: THE WHOLENESS OF A BROKEN HEART is Katie Singer's first novel, but you won't be able to tell it. This book, rich in Jewish history, tells the story of four generations of mothers and daughters, each telling her own story. The book spans through the 1800's to the present day. To Hannah, growing up in Cleveland in the 1960's and 1970's her mother's (Celia) love is everything. For Celia, her daughter is her redemption from an unhappy childhood. When Hannah goes off to college, Celia mysteriously shuts her daughter out, which hurts Hannah very much. As Hannah tries to understand her mother's rejection, Hannah looks into her Jewish European roots for some answers. Hannah must try to understand and get beyond the disturbing legacy of the Holocaust that her mother had to face. THE WHOLENESS OF A BROKEN HEART has characters that are three-dimensional and mesmerizing. Katie Singer has written a love story about family that should be read by every mother and daughter.
Rating: 
Summary: Silenced Voices?
Review: While admiring the writing, I found that some of the events (e.g. a certain character's suicide) seemed to be imposed on the characters, rather than developing from them. This may be to do with the fact that the space given to Hanna's voice and story didn't leave enough room for exploration of other character's stories. Since those narratives were relatively compressed, the events they touched on -- sexual abuse, genocide, etc -- came across as skidded over, almost as if they were included just for effect, as though the writer hadn't given much thought to them. (I don't think that this was the case, but think that the structure of the book may have forced the writer into 'editing out' some of her strongest material -- perhaps it was a case of too much control, and being afraid that the material would get out of control if she explored more of its possibilities.) Some of the voices and stories were extremely powerful and memorable, but seemed cut off in mid-sentence -- in particular, Leonard (and also Moe's mother in Riga, who seemed to have her own story that was never really brought out). Celia, while convincing in her bizarre tunnel-minded way, came across as hard and rather shallow, which tended to become monotonous as there was a lot to read about her. In all, it felt like one of those movies were you get about five minutes of brilliant 'guest stars', and the rest concerns the rather predictable antics of the bland leads. NB I suspect I'm not the only one who would love a book about the other characters.
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