Reflections

The Invisible Wall By Harry Berstein

297 pages

Publisher: Ballantine Books

The is a true story about the life in the early 1900’s on a street in a small English mill town.  On one side of the street lived the Christians and on the other side of the street lived the Jews.  Even though the Christians and Jews live only a few feet apart from each other, there is an invisible wall that socially separates the street a very great distant.  This wall at times seems insurmountable.

Harry’s father does not interact much with his family.  He hardly provides enough for the family to live on.  Harry’s mother is devoted to the family.  She survives on the dreams she has for her children and hopes that one day the family will be able to go to America where everything will be better.  Harry’s sister Lily does the unthinkable – she falls in love with Arthur.  Arthur is the Christian boy that lives across the street.

During World War I, the invisible wall seemed to crumble.  The families were friendly toward each other.  During the war, a girl named Emily would bring the telegrams to announce to families who had died in the war.  Whenever, Emily brought the bad news to a family it did not matter if the family were Christian or Jewish.  Everyone, could feel the loss of the loved one and gave comfort to each other.   However, once the war ended the wall was back in place.

This wall becomes most evident when Lily and Arthur get married and then tell their families.  It is not acceptable for a Jew to marry a Christian.  For the Jewish family, it becomes like the person has died.  And that is exactly what Harry’s family did – conducted a funeral for Lily.  This funeral offended the Christians on the street.  On the Sabbath the Jewish families had Christians that would come over to light their cooking fires.  Because of this funeral, the Christian who regularly attended the fire would not come.  Arthur’s mom comes over to do it but it does not alter the wall.  Personally, I was thought it was very neighborly for Arthur’s mom to do this.  During the newlywed stage only Harry had contact with his sister.   That is until the baby was born.  The baby made it possible for the wall to come down a bit.  The Christians and Jews celebrate the baby with a big party.

Another amazing thing about this book is the author – Harry Bernstein.  He wrote this book when he was ninety-six years old –  after the death of his wife Ruby.  I found his memoirs to be most interesting and moving on what it must have been like to live the life of the working-class people in the 1900’s.

I liked this book very much.  This may be because I am (as the book calls the Christian) a “goy” married to a Jew.  Fortunately, for me a funeral was not conducted.  However, I do believe that relations with family members were strained for many years on both sides of the family.

This fictional book has 292 pages.  It is Lisa Genova’s first novel. Lisa also holds   a      Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University.  She is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer’s Association.

This is a story of a fifty year old woman named Alice who has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.  Alice is a very successful psychology professor at Harvard when she starts experiencing moments of forgetfulness and confusion.

I was very moved in the story over the  agony that Alice experiences when first diagnosed with this disease.  Alice believes that Alzheimer’s  is worse than cancer.  With cancer there is an enemy that you can fight, but with Alzheimer’s there just the inevitable loss of one’s mind.

I could feel the pain that Alice experiences over finding the right time to tell her husband that she has Alzheimer’s.  Alice knows that her husband loves her for her mind and wonders if he could love her this part of her that makes up her thoughts, feelings and person.  This is such agony for Alice that she contemplates suicide.

Before reading this book, I did not really understand much about Alzheimer’s disease.  I knew it was a form of dementia but I did not really understand what all that might entail.   I knew that a person with Alzheimer’s might forget a person and things but I did not realize that it also affects perception.  The part of the book that most illustrates this is when Alice thinks that there is a hole in front of the front door but in reality it is just the rug.

Toward the end of the book it was sad when the family was discussing Alice as if she was not present and Alice was only vaguely aware that her loved ones were discussing her.

I would recommend this book very highly to others to read.

The book has 401 pages and was published by Spiegel & Grau.  It is Janelle Brown’s first novel.  This book is about three women who only ever wanted everything – money, status, popularity, being the best.

Janice is the mother and wife who has devoted her life to her family.  Her husband is a successful executive in a company that is going public.  Janice has devoted her whole life to her family and the success of her husband.   However, on the day the stock goes public and the family finances would increase substantially, Janice discovers that her husband is filing for divorce.  To make matters worse, he is leaving her for her best friend and tennis partner.  During the summer Janice hides her pain by experimenting and becoming addicted to Crack.

Margaret is Janice’s oldest daughter.  She has been living in Los Angeles with her boyfriend and is the publisher of a feminist magazine called Snatch. Margaret believes that her magazine is very successful and hoping for the sale of the magazine to help with her finances.  However, Margaret is dumped by her boyfriend when he makes it as a Hollywood star. To make matters worse, the sale of her magazine falls through.  She goes home to hide from her creditors and to try to find a solution to her money problems.

Lizzie is fourteen years old and  on the swim team.  She has struggled with acceptance from her girl friends and wants to liked by her peers.  Lizzie has sex with several of her male classmates.  She believes that she has gotten what she has always wanted – acceptance by her peers.   Much to Lizzie’s horror, she discovers that her name is written on the bathroom wall and she really is the school slut.

All summer long these three women live in the same house but are unaware of the struggles and sorrows that each are facing.  Fortunately, as the summer ends each become aware of the others “problem”.  Because of this, they become somewhat closer to each other.

This book made me sad for these three women.  They could not confide in each other about their hurts and failures.  It makes me sad when family cannot confide in each other because they are afraid of being judged as lacking.