Book review: A Day of Small Beginnings

A Day of Small Beginnings by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum is a lovely meditation on religion, prejudice, and change. Spanning three generations and major world events, this work of approachable prose will make you think and touch your heart.

In 1906, the childless widow Friedl Alterman is but a year in her grave in the small town of Zokof, Poland. One night she is disturbed when a boy of 14 comes crashing into the cemetery. It is Itzak Lieber, known as "the Faithless One" because he refused help from the synagogue when his father left his family. Awakened, Friedl listens and hears something unexpected -- Itzak praying with all his heart and soul for God to help him, his arms wrapped around her gravestone.

Friedl thinks God is answering her own prayers in finally giving her a child to watch over, and her soul flies from its resting place. Desperate to help Itzak, she leaves the cemetery and sees it blocked to her return. She follows him as he runs and helps him as much as she can, but when he moves beyond her sight, she is banished.

Itzak escapes to America and changes his name to Isaac. He marries, has children. His son Nathan, who changes his last name to Linden, becomes a constitutional scholar and has a daughter, Ellen, who is a dancer and choreographer. Both Nathan and Ellen are raised as atheists and know nothing of Isaac's past. They each get professional invitations to Poland, where they encounter Friedl and Rafael, a man who has dedicated his life to helping Friedl find peace.

This remarkable novel addresses the Holocaust without taking it on directly. Rosenbaum concentrates on the surrounding cultural climate in Poland, both before and long after the World Wars. Anti-semitism sets the story in motion, and the characters reactions to it form the major action of the book.

It is also a story of American Jews discovering and reclaiming their religious inheritance. In reaction to his horrible experiences, Isaac gave up on religion and kept his family from learning their ancestry. Nathan, a generation removed, experienced an American brand of anti-semitism growing up in Brooklyn, and really cannot embrace his heritage. Ellen, two generations removed, is curious about Judaism and open to learning how to pray, whatever that means.

Talk of God is prevalent in the book, but nobody every hears from God directly, not even Friedl. The characters are left to deduce His will from their experiences. Nathan, the academic, is particularly interested in Raphael's understanding of God. Through his relationship with Friedl, Raphael returned to living and worshiping as a Jew, when the temptation had been to curse God in despair and never follow religious practices again.

For a book about such weighty subjects, it is a sweet and easy read. The writing has a lightness about it that is very inviting, and one can't help rooting for Friedl from the start. While the ending is telegraphed, I was still surprised by the form the it took. This book has many profound things to say, and I am still thinking about them. I am particularly taken with Raphael's relationship with God.

There is no need to shy away from this book despite its serious themes. A Day of Small Beginnings is just that -- a small beginning toward healing some of the worst hurts of the twentieth century. May the world take notice.

Cross-posted Blogcritics.

Book review: The Serotonin Power Diet

How would you like to snack your way to weight loss, on carbs, no less? Your response might be, "Are you kidding?" Drs. Judith Wurtman and Nina Marquis are not kidding; snacking is an integral part of The Serotonin Power Diet. Before you get excited, though, the snacks are pretty uninteresting, at least at first (rice cakes, anyone?). And this diet depends on good old approaches like portion control, low-fat food, and exercising. There is no magic bullet.

The idea behind the diet is that when our brains are not making enough serotonin, the nuerotransmitter made famous by Prozac's effect on it, we crave carbohydrates and can't control our appetites. Why would that be? Because brain chemistry, rather than the stomach, tells us when to stop eating. Serotonin also plays a role in mood regulation, and when we have enough, we are content and calm. Hence "comfort food" has a biochemical basis as well as an emotional one.

The key to managing serotonin requirements is how we eat. Serotonin is made from the amino acid tryptophan. According to the book, when carbs are eaten with protein, tryptophan has to compete with other amino acids in order to pass the blood-brain barrier. When carbs are eaten alone, the other amino acids clear the blood more quickly allowing more of the slow-poke tryptophan to reach the brain and the brain to make serotonin. Hence, you feel better.

All this translates into snacking on carbs that are not high in calories in order to control cravings, and modifying how much protein you take in to promote tryptophan production. The snacks are prescribed as to type, amount, and timing. In the first two weeks of the diet, there are three snacks a day and no protein is consumed at dinner. In the second phase, two snacks and some protein at dinner are allowed. In the third phase, one snack and more protein at dinner. Along with the food regime comes exercise, which is just as important. So, yes, you can snack, but you also have to get off your butt. A lot.

Does this diet work? I'm sure it does, if you follow it. Any approach that causes you to expend more calories than you take in makes you lose weight. The unique part of this diet is the snacking, and it makes perfect sense. Have a small snack an hour before dinner, and you're less likely to pig out.

Is the science sound? The authors have strong bone fides (MIT, Columbia, George Washington University, NIH), and the references they cite come from respectable academic journals. These are good indicators.

Is the book helpful? I would say yes, quite. There are lists of acceptable snacks, meal plans, and recipes. (I tried a curry recipe, and it was pretty good.) I particularly liked Chapter 8, "Now What Do I Do?" The authors present real-life situations and describe how to stay on the diet in the face of them. Also, the plan is geared towards not having to do a lot of complicated cooking.

One must take any book about lifestyle change with a grain of salt. After all, if books worked, there would be no need for psychotherapists or the diet centers the authors run. People often need to be in the company of people in order to make big changes, which a diet is. The book is also chock-full of suggestions along the lines of, "Too much to do? Get your kids to help with the chores." To me, such advice sounds a bit flip, like the authors are not taking personal roadblocks seriously, even though I'm sure this isn't the case.

The Serotonin Power Diet is aimed at people who have gained weight back after being on a low-carb diet and people who have gained weight on antidepressants (for some reason, they increase carb craving). It's applicable to anyone, however, and has the allure of snacks. Sounds like a winner to me.

Cross-posted to Blogcritics.

Book review: Lisey's Story, by Stephen King

Lisey's Story by Stephen King is not just one novel; it's a fantasy, a mystery, a horror story, and a love story. At 509 pages, it's long. It's also confusing, at first. But keep reading, and what seems strange will become normal, what is mystifying, clear. The odd vocabulary will become a part of your own, because the story will work its way into your mind and heart.

Lisey (rhymes with cee-cee) Landon is the widow of famous author Scott Landon, who died two years ago. She has four sisters, three of whom still play a large part in her life in rural Maine. As the book opens, Lisey has yet to clean out Scott's study, and the academics are getting impatient. (Scott Landon won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.) Lisey's oldest sister Amanda, always troubled, is veering towards the deep end. Add to the mix a crazy man who believes he is on a mission from academia to "persuade" her to give up the papers, and Lisey has her hands full.

The literal time course of most of the book is just a few days, but it actually spans many years of Lisey's memories. She recalls her marriage to the celebrity author (with whom she often traveled but was rarely recognized herself), a love story with may tender moments and many shared private sayings and words ("smuck" for a certain curse word, for instance). There is also mystery here, because Scott did and said odd and troubling things, but it is unclear what it all means. (Was Scott crazy? What really happened in his past?) These aspects of the book, which carry the narrative well past the mid-way point, are utterly captivating.

The horror subplot of a threatening outsider impinges on the this intimate tale of love and madness. As it proceeds, it does put Lisey in jeopardy and give her the motivation to go beyond her own boundaries. Once she does that, however, the threat no longer seems real, making the last last quarter of the book not as compelling.

There are some lovely images to be found in Lisey's Story, like that of the language pool from which words, stories, and myths are pulled. And the fantasy element, the strange place called Boo'ya Moon, is described in such enchanting detail that I can see it in my mind as I write. More than anything I found myself wanting to use Scott's words, like "smuck"; or "bool," which means joke, riddle, or trick; or "strap it on," for gathering your courage. SOWISA, "strap on whenever it seems appropriate," appears over and over, and for good reason.

Lisey Landon is a terrific heroine, for although she is subject to human frailties, she is brave. She doesn't seem to realize this, but Scott did, and so do others. Little Lisey, as her sisters called her when she was a kid, knows how to strap it on. Scott Landon, on the other hand, is more of an archetype. He is the gifted and troubled artist who required the steadying hand of a spouse to be productive.

It's perhaps unfortunate that Stephen King felt the need to perpetuate the stereotype linking great art with madness, but he puts fantastic spin on it. It's as if he said, "What if the places we go when we are carried away by imagination are real for some people?" I, for one, am glad he did, because he's created one heck of a tale out of it. SOWISA, baby.

Cross-posted to Blogcritics.