Recent Reviews
A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti
Jai Chakrabarti’s impressive debut novel, ‘A Play for The End of the World’ speaks to the power of art and literature to console and give strength. Taking place over decades and set in Bengal, Warsaw, and NYC, Chakrabarti’s finely drawn characters reveal his understanding of guilt’s heavy burden. The book would have benefitted from a narrower scope. Nonetheless, Chakrabarti evocatively speaks of existential themes that transcend ethnicities and religions.
The prologue’s date is July 18, 1942—the place: an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto. True to history, Dr. Janusz Korczak (Pan Doktor), a Polish-Jewish educator, staged a play casting orphans as the actors. The play Dak Ghar (translated as The Post Office) was written in 1911 by Indian Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore. The play’s plot revolves around a dying child who is quarantined. He experiences life by living imaginatively, a perfect topic for the Warsaw ghetto.
In Part 1 of the novel, we meet Jaryk Smith. The year is 1972, and Jaryk has left his girlfriend Lucy in NYC to travel to Calcutta, India, where his best friend Misha has died under mysterious circumstances. Misha and Jaryk were friends when they were children in the Warsaw ghetto. It was before the Nazi’s horrific deportations began that Jaryk was assigned the lead role in Tagore’s play Dak Ghar. Soon after, Jaryk escapes the death train traveling to Treblinka. After a few years, he makes his way to New York City.
Over the next three decades, he cobbles together a life making money as a bookkeeper at a synagogue. He often spent time with his old friend Misha. Jaryk is plagued by guilt, knowing that the Pan Doktor and the other orphans perished at Treblinka. Given his guilt and self-loathing that he escaped, his ability to sustain a relationship with his girlfriend is in doubt. “What he’d wanted to tell her-what he hoped she now understood-was that he’d left his only family, everything he loved in this world” when he jumped off that train. He is not sure he can psychologically recover from all he experienced.
His gratitude to Pan Doktor for staging the play during the cruel circumstance has stayed with him. He says, “I remember what that play did for us. It made our days bearable, all that ghetto heat, all that feeling that reminded us just how unloved we were any time we stepped a foot from Pan Doktor’s house. We knew we were meant for death.”
While in eastern India, Jaryk learns that the local politics are turning violent and ‘Dak Ghar’ will be performed again. He slowly comes to terms with his choice so long ago and allows himself to feel the power of love and even a shred of hope. Chakrabarti’s ambitious novel reminds us that telling stories can redeem and heal us all. 4.5/5
The Violin Conspiracy
‘The Violin Conspiracy’ is a page-turner—a “who done it” mystery like a Walter Mosley or John Grisham novel. Instead of who killed the victim, the question is, who stole the violin? And not just any violin, but a rare, valuable Stradivarius violin made in the 19th century. This is Brendan Slocum’s debut novel, and it is a great read.
The novel opens in a hotel room in NYC. We meet talented violinist Rayquil McMillan. Ray is Black and one of the finest musicians in the world. He has worked relentlessly and overcome many obstacles. He is days away from flying to Moscow to compete in the Tchaikovsky competition when his violin is stolen. The violin had become his prized possession well before it was appraised at over $10 million. His grandmother had given it to him when he was young. Ray loved the sound he created and the feeling that emanated when he played classical pieces.
As the pages turn, the reader begins to witness the persistence of prejudice, even in the classical music world. “You work twice as hard. Even three times. For the rest of your life. It’s not fair, but that’s how it is. Some people will always see you as less than they are. So, you have to be twice as good as them.” Though mysteries are generally not my genre, this glimpse into the world of a Black classical musician seemed noteworthy.
Once the worth of his beat-up violin becomes known, members of his unsupportive family assert that it is their instrument. And the descendants of the white slave owner who initially owned the violin say the same.
The novel traces the chain of events leading to the theft while describing Ray’s journey from a small boy to a stunning virtuoso. He is underestimated and ostracized by fellow musicians and arrested while driving to perform with a symphony in the South. He tries to stay positive, but he feels, “No matter how nice the suit, no matter how educated his speech or how strong the handshake, no matter how much muscle he packed on, no matter how friendly or how smart he was, none of it mattered at all. He was just a Black person. That’s all they say, and that’s all he was.”
I rooted for Ray on every page and admired his resiliency. Though the mystery of who stole the violin is the book’s focus, the themes around bigotry, classical music, and family loyalty are compelling and provocative. Slocum’s debut novel reverberates long after the story ends. 4/5
The Half Wives
I do love a book set in San Francisco. Hometown pride, I suppose.
Written by Stacia Pelletier and published in 2017, ‘The Half Wives’ is gripping and even hypnotic. Pelletier’s evocative descriptions of turn-of-the-century San Francisco are so immersive that the City feels like another character. It does take a couple of chapters to acclimate to the second-person narrator. But as the complex emotion of the characters emerge, the story crescendo toward a sad but satisfying conclusion.
The entire novel takes place on May 22, 1897. It was on May 22, sixteen years ago on that day that Henry and Marilyn Plageman’s 2-year-old son Jack died. Marilyn and Henry commemorate their son’s death yearly with a ritual at the San Francisco cemetery on Lone Pine Hill. But this year threatens to be different. The City of San Francisco intends to move the graves to Colma, a new cemetery south of the City. Because of the sweeping ocean views, the City believes the current cemetery could be used for homes and businesses. Jack knows that Marilyn can’t bear the thought of moving Jack to a new plot of land. So, Henry does what he can to stop the move. (Read the author’s note at the end of the book first. She explains how most San Francisco cemeteries were moved to Colma.)
After Jack’s death, each privately mourned Jack. Marilyn focused on charity work for an orphanage. And Henry started a relationship with a woman named Lucy, with whom he has a ten-year-old named Blue. He stays with them once a week.
Jack and Marilyn love one another. But like the San Francisco fog, Jack’s death hovers over them. His death is like an invisible string that connects them and restrains them from processing the reason Jack died. ‘The Half Wives’ is a unique and engaging read.
