The Far Euphrates

Rating:
Summary: rhythmic and enchanting
Review: exquisite rhythmic prose takes one along a journey of a child's growth spiritually and in reality a delicious read

Rating:
Summary: short, lyrical, well written
Review: I agree with most of the positive comments made about this book (and even some of the negative ones- though the fact that the central character is essentially passive did not make this book any less enjoyable). One difference between this book and many Jewish writers from the past century or so- it is written from within Jewish Diaspora tradition, rather than about the purely secular Jews of a Phillip Roth novel.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating, yet subtle...
Review: I initially picked up this book (at the Salvation Army used books section) because on the back cover it had the following evaluation by Rebecca Goldstein (one of my favorite American authors): "The Far Euphrates is a beautiful book. Its radiance is not of the sun but of the moon:delicate, mournful, mysterious". And after having read the book in one sitting, I vehemently agree! I very much enjoyed it, and I felt a somewhat sweet and "fragile" connection to the characters. The main character, Alexander - or Aryeh, is the only son of a Rabbi (educated as a physicist) and a worried and embittered wife. The rest of the world is mainly composed of the Cantor and his wife Berniece, as well as the colorful and tragic figure of Hannalore - the cantor's twin ("sister"). There is also Marla, a very freaky yet strong and captivating presence in Alexander's life. We follow Alexander's narrative as he balances between sanity and mental turmoil, which is described so gently, yet vividly. I really like this "Jewish" book. I had never read much Jewish litterature before; however, after my discovery of Rebecca Goldstein and now Aryeh Lev Stollman, I find myself being drawn towards these unique writings...

Rating:
Summary: So what?
Review: On the first reading it seemed to be a book about boy, different from others, a Jewish boy in a Jewish family. It was about faith, god, religion, nazi's, mental illness, PTSD... I finished the book on the plane. The title character shares a first name with the author (Although the work is stated to be fictional with the exception of the truth about the twin characters that were survivors of the Holocaust). The twins were brothers, one of whom was surgically changed to a woman. How this affected his/her life, we're not sure; she converted to Christianity and was a servant who spoke French, English and German. Her/His brother became a Cantor. So much that could have been done with her experience was not included in the book. Was it because the author couldn't go there because they were real people? Did he not go there because it was too painful?

In the beginning of the book we're introduced to our strange narrator, although you wouldn't know he's strange except that his mom appears to be very anxious about his behaviors (behaviors that seem normal to me). His odd behavior became apparent when he was 16 and sequestered himself for a year of studying and getting closer to God. His mother ends up having a nervous breakdown. His father was disowned by his parents when he chose religion (to become a Rabbi) over academia. As kind as the father was, he seemed to be unable to live a settled life, raise a normal child, have a loving nurturing wife. What kind of Rabbi was he to his congregation? We don't know. His best friend was the cantor, whose brother was surgically changed into a woman, yet who never spoke about it nor showed any signs of problems stemming from surviving the Holocaust.

By the end of the book, everyone, except the Narrator, was dead. The narrator had a noticeable lack of personal sense of loss or emotion. Rather he appeared to have a religious synthesis of sorts: A vision of his Father and the other characters in the book; a coming together of the languages he'd studied during his year of seclusion.
This revelation underlined the lack of connection that was rampant through out the book. Was that the point of the book? To illustrate the disconnection people have in their lives to reality? Is it a way of pointing out that there are some events, some peoples that because of mass trauma have to be different to survive?

What I want to know is - do these issues of anomie, insanity, isolation, etc. really exist in families who have survived mass trauma? Is there a sense of an incomplete and empty life? Even the Narrator's father, the kind, even-hearted Rabbi, he who chose his own path to the disowning by his parents - he who studied his whole life only to publish a fraction of his dream - even he died before fulfilling his life's dream. The story begs the question - So What? Is this book a classic Existential novel, full of angst and meaninglessness? It seems to be.

My question for the author: So what? So you can write some beautiful passages and create bizarre characters with unexplained and seemingly unwarranted sorrow and suffering in their life. So you gave the narrator a peculiar disposition that posited him as an observer of life rather than the participant... how convenient for you. Here's my challenge for you. Tell me the story from the Dad's point of view: He's the one I can relate to. He's the one with the passion for living, the career, the family, the experience of having made hard decisions. Reading the story of disconnected family, unfulfilled dreams, personal tragedy, from the father's perspective would be much more powerful than reading it from the perspective of a boy who lives in fantasy, a boy who has the luxury to lose himself in isolation for a year when many around him suffered life in the concentration camps. Writing that story would be much more difficult than through the eyes of a boy who has fantasies and experiences that make for beautiful analogies and conjecture. Tell me the story from the point of view of someone who has made hard choices in his life. Engage me on that level. Challenge me with facts instead of possibility and unreality. Challenge me with hope instead of angst.


Rating:
Summary: rhythmic and enchanting
Review: The Euphrates River, in historical contexts, conjures up Mesopotamia, the origins of Judaism and all that. Unfortunately, this book only conjured up a disfunctional family in North America and barely even scraped the surface of the many ways in which an author could use the symbolic nature of the longing for Eden and paradise. The only paradise for the main character was the time he sequestered himself in his bedroom, unable be openly gay with his family. I kept waiting for the Euphrates part and was terribly disappointed to finally hear about it as a hypothetical journey of a relative's inner longings. Oh, well. The Jewish-gay literary scene is fantastic, and more needs to be written, but not more ho-hum faux Portnoy-esque novels.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant beginning and promising future...
Review: There is something unusual in this book in terms of plot and the idiosyncrasies of the characters involved. The main character, Aryeh Alexander, is a small boy, intellectually gifted, who is surrounded by eccentric individuals: a neurotic mother, a loving father obsessed by Ancient Mesopotamia, a cantor and his sister both victims of the holocaust, and an ill-fated girl destined to die at an early age. Aryeh is involved in the misfortunes of all characters as an outsider, an a spectator. When reaching his coming of age, he secluded himself from the rest of the world in order to settle the confusion in his mind, life, and world. The author is master of a clear, beautiful, and poetic prose. The reader is left with the impression that this novel might represent the beginning of a future literary production with an overall more embracng depth and weight.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant beginning and promising future...
Review: There is something unusual in this book in terms of plot and the idiosyncrasies of the characters involved. The main character, Aryeh Alexander, is a small boy, intellectually gifted, who is surrounded by eccentric individuals: a neurotic mother, a loving father obsessed by Ancient Mesopotamia, a cantor and his sister both victims of the holocaust, and an ill-fated girl destined to die at an early age. Aryeh is involved in the misfortunes of all characters as an outsider, an a spectator. When reaching his coming of age, he secluded himself from the rest of the world in order to settle the confusion in his mind, life, and world. The author is master of a clear, beautiful, and poetic prose. The reader is left with the impression that this novel might represent the beginning of a future literary production with an overall more embracng depth and weight.

Rating:
Summary: THE SUBTLETY OF HORROR
Review: This is an ordinary book reaching for the stars: the normality of the author's narration doesn't prepare you for the ultimate message this work conveys, a message of horror for the cruelty of man. The modern world and modern sensibilities are increasingly complex; but it is not the function of the writer to complicate the complexities; if anything, it should be to unravel them. For many nowadays what is taken as a criterion is not the meaning, but a skill in hinting at meaning. Certainly not the case here: in this novel meaning becomes unraveled gradually to your shocked surprise and you are left dismayed and unbelieving. Is it true that man can be so gentle, and yet so brutal? I cannot expose the denouement of Stollman's story, but I can certainly affirm that it left me changed.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful example of prose
Review: What has been called "Jewish-American literature" has largely been a misnomer -- it is really American literature with a here-and-there stereotyped "shtick" of Jewish ethnicity. Aryeh Lev Stollman's novel is a brilliant exception -- sensitively written, infused with a richly Jewish spirituality, haunted by memory, woven with love. This is a masterpiece of a first novel and one of the most moving I have read for a long, long time.