The Front Of The Family

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Summary: A fresh voice on timeless questions
Review: These are the stories we hear too rarely. The central characters are middle-aged Jewish women, whose complexity as people and whose struggles to come to terms with both the past and the present are rendered thoughtfully and naturally. The book is an engrossing read but not an easy one, challenging the reader to reflect on the role each generation plays in the lives of those before and after it, a question made urgent in these years as the last Holocaust survivors die. The characters in this novel attempt to come to terms with a past that is simultaneously too present and deliberately obscured: ultimately, finding the truth is not so much the point as understanding the reasons why lies are told, an understanding which makes living honestly in the present finally possible.

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Summary: The other Singer for whom we've been waiting!
Review: This book caused me to lose a few nights of sleep - yes, because I didn't want to stop reading it, so I stayed awake to continue. I found the story delicously riviting, from beginning to end. It is too rare to read of the inner lives of this special subculture - Polish Jewish immigrants living in Australia. Oh, but these are not stereotypical Jewish immigrants preoccupied with suffering and the horrors of the Holocaust - these are vibrantly alive human beings, with sexual and intense, complicated interpersonal relationships and friendships. It's also a story of a middle aged assimilated Australian woman seeking out the personal mysteries of her recently deceased mother, paralleling against the backdrop of her own personal drama - coming to terms with her own sense of self and the changing nature of her own marriage, re-evaluating what she wants in her own life. Every person in her family and exended family plays a deep role. Yet, it reads so easily, so flowingly... Previously, I'd encountered some insight into part of the world of pre-WWII Jewish life, as *modern* assimilated intimate tales, only by reading certain of the novels and stories by the Nobel prize winner I.B. Singer (of no relation). After reading all the I.B. Singer I could get my hands on, finally comes "The Front of the Family." I hope Ms. SInger is writing another one. I can't wait.