Lives Turned Upside Down
A group of Jewish writers have been rounded up for execution on the order of Josef Stalin. In the blink of an eye, everything about their life is transformed. Tossed into darkness both literal and figurative, a single bulb is all that provides illumination. In a brilliant use of imagery, perspective is ironically reverse to demonstrate how imprisonment turns life upside down:
“The bulb glowed. And with light came relief. What if they had been left in the darkness? They hated the bulb for its control, such a flimsy thing.”
Obsession
“The Wig” is a story not so much about a wig as about the wig maker. Ruchama is her name and her story is one of several about unhappy marriages, one of a few about the effects of growing old and one of two that is about obsession with hair. For Ruchama, the obsession runs much deeper than mere vocation or career pursuit and it is this obsession that sends her down this story’s contribution to the collection’s overall obsession with irony. A single passage of imagery is the pivot upon which the story turns and seal her fate:
“He has, unconditionally, the most beautiful hair she’s ever seen. Completely tamed, completely full. He has a mane of curls the color of toasted bamboo that runs down to the middle of his back and ends in a deep, blunt ridge. The curls are singular, full and moist, and they stack well. A head of hair with personality…obsessed, she knows…obsession that makes her take notice of hair when she has nearly been bowled over by an amuck and wayward tree.”
Marriage
The theme of marriages gone bad is prevalent and an apathetic husband figures well into Ruchama’s weakness to submit to her obsession, but perhaps the single most startling imagery related to this motif occurs in “Reunion.” The husband is once again back in the psych ward that has almost become his second home, chatting with a fellow patient identified only as a John Doe and his stream-of-consciousness autobiographical confessions lead to a moment of epiphany preceded by poetic imagery that had better lead to only one conclusion:
“I walked into the house after synagogue, same as always. Table set, wine and challah, four small plates of liver, each with a little slice of carrot on top. Hardly in the room a second and the plate is up in the air, headed toward me. And there’s this moment when I’m watching it high in its trajectory, hanging in an arc over the table. Robin’s looking at it, the kids are looking up at it, we’re all watching this plate hanging there. A perfect little moon that is all the sadness and anger that is my home. Once the dishes start to fly, it’s not long until I’m back in here. Something’s gone very wrong in my life.”
Tragicomedy
Occasionally, it is very difficult to determine whether these stories are going for full-on tragedy or merely treading in the dark irony of black humor. Ultimately, that decision will likely be left up to the reader since the author blurs the distinction beyond recognition in most cases. Once or twice, the tragic tone is clear enough. As for the comical, the only thing absolutely clear is the highlight, “Reb Kringle.” And the highlight of the highlight is imagery which combines the horrific and the absurd to the point where one isn’t sure whether to laugh out loud or look away in disgust:
“The elves scurried, cursing and shrieking, unprepared by their half-day course for such an emergency. And one elf, the undercover security elf, clasped the earplug in his pointy ear and began to whisper furiously into his green velvet collar, an action that brought on the entrance of two more elves, one big and black, the other smaller, stockier, and white as the fake snow.
The pair tackled the Jewish Santa, the impostor, only kept on by the store out of fear."
