My Mother's Wars

January 1, 2013
Faderman (Naked in the Promised Land, 2004, etc.) reconstructs her mother's experiences as a Jewish immigrant in 1930s New York. The author has a knack for tracking down details that bring a story to life, and her descriptions of her mother Mary's journey from a Latvian shtetl to the garment factories and Bronx apartment buildings of 1930s New York are vivid and memorable--as are her descriptions of the dangers faced by the relatives Mary left behind in Latvia. Unfortunately, the fascinating raw material falters under the weight of Faderman's ponderous prose. The author's overreliance on heavy-handed foreshadowing saps the narrative energy, and the constant invoking of her mother's "destiny" feels contrived. Faderman's simultaneous resentment of the father who treated her mother badly and gratitude for the man who helped make her is a tension worth exploring; however, the author merely (and repetitiously) asserts it. Faderman's scrupulousness in constructing a faithful historical narrative is admirable, but her writing is overheated and cliche-ridden: moments lead "inexorably" to "what she would pay for to her last rattling breath," the spread of the "cancer" of fascism is "inexorable," Americans turn "a blind eye and a deaf ear" to Hitler's aggressions, etc. Rich in source material and historical detail, the book suffers from the author's pulpy prose style. Still, worth reading for those interested in the lives of Jewish immigrants in New York and the spread of fascism in Eastern Europe in the 1930s.

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March 1, 2013
Drawing on the stories told to her when she was a girl, Faderman recontructs her mother's life, devotions, and tragedies in early 1930s America in a memoiristic tale. At 17, Mary Lifton leaves her shtetl in Latvia for New York City, where she takes up residence with her half sister. It's a short-lived arrangement, and Mary supports herself by working on and off in the garment industry. Eighteen years later, Mary, now 35 and never married, by chance meets the younger, charismatic Moishe, Faderman's father. The two embark on a passionate, tumultuous affair that lasts for years as Mary participates in a labor-union uprising and has a romance with another man, and, while barely making ends meet, two unplanned pregnancies. An affecting undercurrent is Mary's unending loyalty to her family left behind in Latvia. When the Nazi movement begins to gain ground in Eastern Europe, Mary's affections for Moishe are outweighed by her harrowing desperation to save her family. As Faderman vividly chronicles her mother's intense personality and complex experiences, she also freshly illuminates the Jewish immigrant experience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)