Away [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

 

 

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This tale set in the early twentieth century chronicles the Jewish immigrant experience while also delivering up an exhilarating dose of drama in the form of a road trip-cum-adventure that traverses the United States all the way from New York to Chicago, to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, and even onto the frigid Alaskan wilderness. Steeped in period detail and brimming with details of early twentieth century American life, Away follows the life of Lillian Leyb, a young woman who persistently reinvents herself even as she's faced with outwardly inescapable danger.

It takes only eight hours for Lillian to get from Ellis Island to the Battery Park of Manhattan in a country where "anyone could buy anything." This resourceful young girl eventually settles into a downtown Jewish enclave, a close-knit, gossipy community, where she shares a room with strangers at her cousin Frieda's. Lillian is forced to endure the smells of men, urine and fried food, but she's also sustained by uncertainty and need. Determined to be chosen as a seamstress, Lillian applies for the job with Mr. Reuben Bernstein, owner of the Goldfadn Theatre.

Considered to be the great Impresario of Second Avenue, Reuben, together with his son Meyer Burstein, "the Matinee Idol" is instantly attracted to the pretty young Lillian, particularly when she goes out of her way to flatter Reuben, and the impresario with his big burnished voice is even more taken when he discovers that Lillian can speak Yiddish. Lillian is certainly no shrinking violet and she's more than willing to smile at the new king and prince of her life, all the while determined to learn the language of a new country that terrifies her.

Although she's initially attracted to Meyer's dark and swarthy movie star looks and also to his beautiful home that looks like a stage set for a romantic comedy, the encounter with this father and son soon becomes a contest with Lillian as the prized object. While Ruben is undoubtedly moved by Lillian's innocent beauty, she is awed by Rueben's imposing presence and she imagines herself doing whatever Reuben Burstein wishes her to do. Meanwhile, Meyer seems to lose interest in having sex with her, becoming far more concerned with cruising the paths late at night, the desire for men rising in him like a "fountain of champagne."

Certainly Lillian has endured much in her life: Forced to flee the murder of her family, the loss of her daughter Sophie, an ocean crossing that was like a death march, and she's constantly haunted by nightmares of the bloody scenes back in Russia, of the Jewish purges in which her husband was also murdered. But when Lillian's cousin Raisele arrives from Russia and tells her that Sophie is alive and that her neighbors from Turov took her and saved her, the news proves to be a source of both solace and conflict.

Realizing that she must go home to Russia to Siberia, Lillian attempts to borrow the funds from the Bursteins. When Ruben's wife categorically turns her down, she goes to Meyer, telling him about Sophie and Siberia, and about the very expensive steamship ticket, but he turns on Lillian, seeing her as a lunatic disguised as a sensible young woman, "Raisele is giving you a line - anyone can see that," he tells her.

Determined to find her no matter of Meyer helps her or not, Lillian turns to Yaakov, her only true friend who encourages her with the mission and tells her to head across country to Alaska and straight towards the Bering Straight where she can cross into Siberia. From her the plot takes an audacious turn as Lillian is forced to endure hardship after hardship as she traverses the continent, buoyed along by hope and determined to make her way in a hard world.

Throughout Lillian's journey author Amy Bloom brings her large cast of characters vividly to life: The railway porter Red McGann, who forces Lillian to have sex with him in the broom closet of a railway car; Gumdrop, a glamorous and kindly black prostitute in Seattle, who Lillian admires for her a marvel of efficiency and her determined desire; Snooky Salt, a pimp and a snake who eventually gets his comeuppance; and a seductive Chinese girl called Chinky, whom Lillian meets when she accidentally lands in The Hazelton Agrarian Center of Women.

Without a doubt it is Lila's indomitable spirit that allows her to keep going, even when the edges and corners of her memory begin to fade when she's forced to forage for survival on the wilds of The Yukon. Frustrated by the harsh weather, she is forced to make a hurried change of plans, and it is only here that her mettle for survival is tested when she falls into the arms of the fallen policeman John Bishop.

The themes of luck and hunger and greed circulate throughout this novel, where fear is a motivator and the belief in the power of will drives one with such a potent force. Lillian survives because she has the capacity to adapt to any given situation whether it is her willingness to spread her legs for the Bursteins, make the most of her fancy, tangled English, or polish her skills as a seamstress. Even when she works for Gumdrop and is eventually courted by Snooky, Lillian is always able to get herself out of sticky situations.

In the end, Lillian seems to see her life as one big wheel rolling smoothly from the past to the present and onto the future, "from her life as a woman onto the next life" as she tries to go on, traveling through the terrible darkness of memory. Mike Leonard October 07.

After seeing advance press for 'Away' that was, at the very least, 'glowing', I was gifted with a copy this week. Two days later, I'm done. The verdict?

First, my gods: John Irving, Mark Helprin, Pat Conroy, Ann-Marie MacDonald.

So to read reviews that opined as to how 'Away' was 'epic', or 'panoramic' made me scratch my head. It *is* evocative. It does 'transport'. But it does so in such a simple, unadorned...almost restrained way as to seem a shock after a while. (To me, in any case. I'm only offering my admittedly subjective opinion.)

I was continually wondering why, given the lovely interludes she was presenting, why... Why she'd chosen to be as pithy as she had...when there were so many real opportunities to expand, to delve...to create something truly transformative. It was the antithesis to the King's question in 'Amadeus', about removing some notes. What happened in the story was fantastic. (With one exception, and I'm getting to that.) But I wanted to be as lost in the narrative descriptions as I did in the bare-bone plot movement. That I didn't, was a major disappointment.

Ms Bloom's rep as a short fiction writer shows here. It's revealed in the last eighth of the book. Short fiction, poetry...their hallmarks are efficiency, short-hand poignancy, lyrical economy. In this case, where she's presented this mythic premise (nice touch with the ongoing references to mythology...) in a novel, that it ends as it does, that she chooses to give us not dollops but smatterings of what most entices us along the way...all this for me ends up providing a less-than-craved experienced. As much an enthralling storyteller as Ms Bloom is...and don't get me wrong, she's got a true storyteller's knack to mesmerize, once she's sat you down and told you 'Let me tell you a tale'...I don't think that the novel was really thought out as well as it might have been. Considering what it *could* have been. Still, I'll be recommending it to all my friends.

'Away' may end up being the Great Satisfying Literary Read of the Autumn. But I don't believe it's a great piece of literature. As prized as it may end up being for its retraint, I would have preferred a lot more oomph.

If your idea of a good novel is one that has a highly moral and talented protagonist who overcomes all obstacles to find the love and satisfaction sought and deserved, you'll be deeply disappointed with Away. Amy Bloom portrays a different kind of world, one in which great loss may simply lead to a mere desire to survive . . . beyond any sense of moral limits. There's little to appeal to those who like to read romantic novels in this book, even though it is about how love influences us. As my librarian friend warned me when I checked the book out, this is a dark novel.

Away is a book that challenges readers to leave their sense of settled, safe lives to examine what would happen if survival was a major challenge, whether from neighbors, friends, enemies, strangers, wild animals, or the elements. That leap will be difficult to make for most because Ms. Bloom favors showing what characters do rather than exploring how they think or what they are thinking. I found myself slow to step into the protagonist's shoes for that reason.

Lillian Leyb is an ordinary young Jewish mother in Russia, aged twenty-two, when frenzied neighbors invade her home and begin murdering everyone. Feeling that she is a sole survivor, Lillian leaves for America hoping to escape there with her life. The horrifying experience strips her of any desire other than doing what it takes to survive. Nightmares about that experience haunt her nights and linger into daytime. She proves to be a gifted survivor, tutored in the exigencies of doing whatever it takes. She learns a little English, how to sew, and how to apply for a job where the owners may be more interested in what the women look like than how they sew. As a result, she soon escapes from sharing a bed with another underfed woman into sharing a bed for a father and son who find her sexual charms to be valuable to them, one for physical purposes and the other for appearances. Life seems peaceful and settled when she learns that her daughter survived the attack . . . and is somewhere in Siberia. How will she save her daughter?

From that moment on, the power of maternal love overcomes the desire to merely survive. Lillian follows an astonishing route across North America towards Siberia that causes her to ally herself with others skilled in survival. The book moves into being an adventure story that displays the demi-monde of America and Canada in the early 20th century. It is almost like combining two books. Through her suffering Lillian comes to develop a moral sense again as she becomes confident in her ability to survive and views those who may not with increasing pity and kindness.

Those who enjoy reading about psychological healing will probably find Away to be an interesting variation on how such novels are usually written. I was impressed with the detailed research that must have gone into writing a story based so much on what the artful dodgers are doing.

But there's no great epiphany here, more like a slow melting away of guilt and ties to the past. Perhaps that is how many people heal. Those who are feeling great pain about family tragedies will probably find solace in this book's message that one must move on.

Ms. Bloom is a talented writer, a wonderful story teller, and a person who wants to challenge the reader to think and feel differently. I think she'll succeed in affecting you . . . if you can get past your false expectations for what this book is like.

I found the book's main weakness to be in the opening where the action moved faster than my ability to step into Lillian's mind and life. Also, Lillian's amoral approach didn't quite sink in right away either. As a result, I felt like I was suspended above the action for quite a long time, which is another way of saying that the book didn't affect me very much at first. The book's other weakness is that the problems that Lillian experiences in the trip across North America are overdone, some might say that part of the story is over the top.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Epic Story Telling!
I had never read this author before but through a special promotion I received an advance copy of this novel (this did not influence my feelings for the book, but I do think it... Read more

Published on Aug 22 2007 by Bart Austin

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