How to Make a Life

December 1, 2020
A debut novel focuses on the complexities of Jewish family life. Chaya Amdur is the mother of five children when a pogrom strikes her village in Kotovka, Ukraine. It's 1905, and only Chaya and two daughters manage to survive the attack unscathed--infant Feige and 10-year-old Beilah. Chaya's husband, three of her children, and her mother have all been murdered. Though invited to stay with her extended family, Chaya instead sets off for America. Once in New York, Chaya and her daughters need American names. Chaya becomes Ida; Beilah becomes Bessie; and Feige becomes Fanny. The girls start to learn English and settle in, with Bessie watching Fanny while Ida is at work. But tragedy continues to strike the family, and soon Fanny is dead, with Bessie to blame. Yet life goes on. Bessie thrives, marries, and has five children of her own, who grow up in the shadow of so much unspoken sorrow. Kraut's novel deftly follows the family line down five generations of weddings and early deaths, births and feuds, and the potential for reconciliations. While narrated in the third person, the tale is somewhat polyphonic, as each chapter delivers a different character's perspective. From the opening prologue, the author makes it clear this work will not pull any punches. In Ukraine, Ida sees the damage of the pogrom: "Beneath the piano a glimpse of her husband, Moshe, on his back, mouth gaping mid-scream, shirt and chest split, the white linen crusted with dark red." Examining the trials of Bessie and her family, the engrossing narrative begins to explore intergenerational suffering as well as mental illness through her firstborn daughter, Ruby. Kraut's master's in social work and former career as a family therapist are skillfully reflected in Ruby's moving tale, in which the girl speaks for herself. The novel's conclusion furthers the book's themes of pain and grief. An engaging and heartfelt portrayal of intergenerational trauma and hope.

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