“The Last Witness,” a thriller by Jerry Americ. (The Story Merchant, 2014)
“How Sweet It Is!” by Thane Rosenbaum. (Mandel Vilar Press, 2015)
“Fugitive Colors,” a novel by Lisa Barr. (Arcade, 2013)
As we commemorate Yom HaShoah this year, readers will find these new works of fiction fascinating, each in a completely different manner. The authors look at the Holocaust and the Nazi horror from very unique points of view, each book adding something new to Holocaust history and the history of the survivors.
“The Last Witness” is set in 2039. Jack Fisher is the last living Holocaust survivor. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}This 100-year-old man is mourning the death of his beloved granddaughter Christine, who disappeared recently. The world has erased the events of the Holocaust from its memory and people like Christine have been trying to add Holocaust studies to school curricula with very little success. Whoever killed Christine is now stalking Jack. However, Jack didn’t outwit the Nazis for nothing. He still has 100% of his brain power; and in this page-turning thriller readers will hold their breath, rooting for Jack and a group of determined police officers to discover what has been going on, and bring the criminals to justice. This book is a must for anyone who wants to sit on the edge of his or her seat from page one until the final resolution.
Thane Rosenbaum, a child of the second generation, has written an utterly different novel of survivors making a new life in America. “How Sweet It Is!” is set in Miami Beach in 1972 where Sophie and Jacob Posner and their 12-year-old son Adam are making a new life. Sophie, who is an extremely skilled gambler, has become the right-hand woman to crime boss Meyer Lansky. Jacob, who cannot escape his memories, daily walks the streets, eventually having tea with I.B. Singer to whom he tells his nightmarish memories, which find their way into Singer’s stories. Their son, Adam is the fastest runner in his school, until integration changes the complexion of the competition.
The novel is filled with Miami’s famous residents — not just Lansky and Singer, but also Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra, Muhammed Ali and perhaps even Fidel Castro. This very funny novel is another page-turner; however readers beware. There are amazing similarities to a previous novel by Rosenbaum, “Second Hand Smoke.” In that novel, the survivor mother is also a gangster and certain other characters like a wacky rabbi appear. No matter, Rosenbaum is a very witty writer, but also very serious about what memories of the Holocaust can do to one’s life.
Finally, there is “Fugitive Colors” which examines the Nazis’ war on degenerate art and artists. The novel follows three young artists in the Paris of the 1930s. Julian Klein is an American who ran away from his Orthodox upbringing; René Levi is the son of a famous Parisian art dealer and Felix von Bredow is the son of a German baron who is an avid follower of Hitler. As the political situation in Europe worsens, and Felix’s jealousy of René’s and Julian’s artistic ability grows, readers learn what Hitler and his minions did to the creative artists in Germany and France. One also learns how clever, greedy art-loving individuals managed to secretly buy or steal the works of great artists from galleries and Jewish art owners and make fortunes of their own; by selling the works to unsuspecting museums and collectors in neutral countries. Even today stolen art makes the headlines. The discovery of the trove of stolen art hidden in Cornelius Gurlitt’s apartment in Germany or the fight to return a Klimt painting to the family of the original owners — now a movie titled “Woman in Gold” and starring Helen Mirren — make “Fugitive Colors” a timely novel as well as a fascinating one.
Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian who speaks throughout the community on various topics related to books and reading.{/mprestriction}