Ask for a Convertible by Danit Brown | Fiction | DONNE TEMPO
Ask for a Convertible by Danit Brown
August/15/08 05:31 PM Filed in: Fiction
By Cecei O’Bryon England
What is it to be an Israeli immigrant to the United States as a young teenager?
In Ask for a Convertible (Pantheon. ISBN-10: 0375424547. $15.61) Osnat, a thirteen year old with an Israeli mother and an American father is newly transplanted to Michigan.
Staring
in the mid-1980s, Osnat evolves through a series
of short stories that focus on her life as well
as those of other intersecting Michigan
characters. It is the question of displacement,
and finding a sense of home, that anchor this
tight knit tale of growing up as the “other.”
This collection of story focuses on the meaning of Jewishness in the Midwest and a preparation for the future holocaust. The core of finding and making one’s own home feature largely in this collection.
With the characters all facing their own ideas of home, safety and family the question of “How does anyone belong?” arises.
There is the American father who longs to have his wife and daughter realize how much better, safer, more comfortable life is in the American Midwest. There is the mother who questions her own commitment to the marriage and the place she is in. There is the child who cannot reconcile the idea of safety to the horrors of the past. There are the Israeli relatives who are making their own choices in the changing markets of Israel. There is the adult daughter who moves back to Israel. There are the Israelis she meets in America.
Ask for a Convertible is a collection of stories tied to an era and the unique position of being an Israeli in America.
Danit Brown seems to ask how do the stories we tell about ourselves, and where we come from, shape our selves and our future. Her message is that we must all make our own way home and find our comfort there.
What is it to be an Israeli immigrant to the United States as a young teenager?
In Ask for a Convertible (Pantheon. ISBN-10: 0375424547. $15.61) Osnat, a thirteen year old with an Israeli mother and an American father is newly transplanted to Michigan.
This collection of story focuses on the meaning of Jewishness in the Midwest and a preparation for the future holocaust. The core of finding and making one’s own home feature largely in this collection.
With the characters all facing their own ideas of home, safety and family the question of “How does anyone belong?” arises.
There is the American father who longs to have his wife and daughter realize how much better, safer, more comfortable life is in the American Midwest. There is the mother who questions her own commitment to the marriage and the place she is in. There is the child who cannot reconcile the idea of safety to the horrors of the past. There are the Israeli relatives who are making their own choices in the changing markets of Israel. There is the adult daughter who moves back to Israel. There are the Israelis she meets in America.
Ask for a Convertible is a collection of stories tied to an era and the unique position of being an Israeli in America.
Danit Brown seems to ask how do the stories we tell about ourselves, and where we come from, shape our selves and our future. Her message is that we must all make our own way home and find our comfort there.