FOLLOW US ON...

CANDLELIGHTING

THE JEWISH VIEW

HOLIDAYS

JUDAISM 101

FEATURED JOBS
Post Your Resume

“This Beautiful Life” is a tragic tale of a teen’s impulsive action, a simple touch of a key in today’s technological world, can have major implications for a family.

The Bergamots have recently moved to the Upper West Side of Manhattan from upstate New York when husband Richard lands a job at a prestigious university. They enter an exclusive upper-class world; Coco, 6, and Jake, 15, are enrolled in an elite private school. Wife Liz is planning to take Coco to a birthday part at the Plaza Hotel. That same evening, Jake expects to attend a party in Riverdale.

When the initial party falls through, Jake and his friends find themselves at the home of 13-year-old Daisy Cavanaugh. There is plenty of booze, no supervision, and Jake “hooks-up” with Daisy. The following morning, Jake discovers a sexually explicit video Daisy made of herself sent to his email. Not knowing how to deal with it, he instinctively forwards it to a friend; soon the video goes viral.

The consequences of this seemingly small indiscretion are monumental and tragic. Jake, who could be anyone’s teenage son, suddenly faces disciplinary action by his school. Richard, moving up in his career and on the cusp of a major coup at the university, is deemed a public relations liability. The Bergamot marriage begins to fall apart.

Capturing each character’s motivations and feelings in a sensitive manner, the story touches a nerve in anyone who has teenage children — children who often don’t realize the consequences of their actions. It’s also a cautionary tale on how technology has transformed the outcome of these actions.

Though compelling enough to be read all the way through at one sitting, the novel “Displaced Persons” by first-time author Ghita Schwartz is the type of book that requires the soundness of mind to think actively about the words on each page, giving it full attention; this is certainly not the sort of book to read a few pages of before dozing off to sleep. Because the characters are usually speaking Polish, German, Hebrew, Yiddish, and sometimes other languages to one another, most dialogue is not wrapped in quotation marks, making the need for the reader to focus even stronger.

Once you are able to get into the rhythm of this style of storytelling, the pages will begin to paint pictures of lesser-known struggles that continued long past the end of the Holocaust for its survivors.

Beginning near the end of the war and finishing in the year 2000, “Displaced Persons” breaks out of the category of historical fiction and follows the lives of four people — Pavel, Fela, Chaim and Sima — as they first come together, then grow apart, and finally reconnect, leaving their pasts behind as they come to America with what little they have left to them.

This is a heavy, complicated story. It takes effort to fully absorb, but it is a satisfying feat to close the back cover. This particular Holocaust narrative sets itself apart in its staging and emphasis, and is one whose tale is universal, reaching across generations and cultures, as a lesson that the pain doesn’t end just because the war is over.

Previous Book Reviews