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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
"What was once valued there is not valued here.", 4 Nov 2004
Rose Meadows, an orphan needing a place to live and work, answers a vaguely worded newspaper advertisement in 1935 and is hired for unspecified household work by the Mitwissers, for whom "disorder was...a rule of life." Jews who escaped Germany in 1933, they now live in Albany, New York, a place they find vastly different from the intellectual milieu of Europe. Rudolf Mitwisser, the patriarch, spends his days closeted in his study, researching an obscure group of ninth century Jewish scholars, the Karaites, who reject Talmudic interpretations of traditional Judaism in favor of direct and literal interpretation of the Old Testament. Elsa Mitwisser, formerly a physicist and colleague of Erwin Schrodinger, is distraught that her family is now dependent upon others and regarded as "parasites." Unbalanced and confined to her room, she, like her husband, ignores the responsibilities of the family and their five children. The Mitwissers have been "adopted" by James A'Bair, a young man with an independent income. As the inspiration and model for the Bear Books, a children's series written by his father, James collects substantial royalties. Believing himself to be a Karaite, James supports Mitwisser's research, provides funds for the family, and occasionally participates in their domestic life. Moving elliptically through past and present, the narrative explores the backgrounds of all the main characters, traveling forward and backward simultaneously. Focusing on character and theme, rather than plot, Ozick creates an intense world in which each person seeks the fulfillment of personal dreams, which glimmer on the horizon like fireflies, fragile hopes that may die before they come to fruition. Mitwisser, regarded as a great scholar in Europe, finds his research of little interest to Jewish scholars here. Elsa Mitwisser, envious because her colleague, Schrodinger, ended up winning the Nobel Prize, believes history has wronged her. Rose tries to give "symmetry, routine, propriety" to her life, but her past keeps intruding. James does not know who he is, apart from his identity as the "Bear Boy." It is sixteen-year-old Anneliese who seems to have the best chance of capturing the "glimmers." Ozick's smooth narrative and rich imagery bring the story to life and show the characters developing. Anneliese is "an infant bird tapping with her little beak against the shell." Rose's father "robbed dailiness of predictability, so that [her] childhood's every breath hung on a contingency." Such strange characters, presented without sentimentality, may not fully capture the reader's heart or inspire a great deal of empathy, but Ozick's quiet humor and her sense of irony make their stories important to the reader. Mary Whipple
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