A BACKPACK, A BEAR AND EIGHT CRATES OF VODKA
I recently read Lev Golinkin’s memoir “A Backpack, A Bear, And Eight Crates Of Vodka.” Lev was a nine year old child when his Jewish family escaped from their home in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov in the late 1980’s. Lev chronicles his early childhood beatings at the hands of his classmates and the utter devastation of being called a “zhid,” by his best friend Oleg and serves as Lev’s first realization that he didn’t fit into any world.
The book tells of the Golinkin family’s journey to Vienna, as well their arrival to and settlement in the United States. His doctor mother and engineering father found their professional lives in turmoil in America because guards at the Soviet border crossing confiscated their personal as well as professional credentials. The secularized Golinkin family, for decades unable to practice their religion, find themselves without a national identity while also struggling to fit into the Jewish community that sponsored their immigration to America.
A new graduate of Boston College twenty years after his family’s escape, Golinkin struggles to define himself. Running the emotional gambit, he comes to realize that he needs to address his past before he can move forward. As part of his healing process he returns to his homeland and to Vienna, trying to find those who helped his family in their flight from oppression. A touching story that makes one appreciate the freedom that we are granted because of where we live.
As I was reading Golinkin’s book I remembered another book that that captured my attention with a similarly agonizing immigration, this one set in the early days of World War II. Just imagine how deplorable conditions must be if one willingly places themselves alive in a coffin-like structure to escape oppression. Joe Kavalier does just that, hiding in a golem that is being transported out of Nazi-occupied Prague in Michael Chabon’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.”
Chabon weaves a fictional escapade of two cousins; the story beginning when Kavalier arrives in New York City at the home of relatives. His first meets his co-conspirator of the story when his auntie puts him to bed next to his cousin Sam Klayman, an absolute stranger. Sam and Joe struggle through adolescence to adulthood, finding common ground in their love of comic books, magic, and the battle of good versus evil. Together, they flex their independence exploring New York City. Sharing a mutual love for comics, the two conspire creatively, illustrating their travails in comic form. Not only a story of an immigrant, it is a story much like Golinkin’s, of a boy’s perception of coming of age in a foreign land. Full of interesting side stories and vivid descriptive narrative, this book will reward the patient reader with little gems of wisdom to carry with you on all your future journeys.
Speaking of journeys, what would the TSA agent think if they came across a suitcase filled with old world sausage and a set of butcher’s knives? No, this isn’t a new Dexter book by Jeff Lindsay, it is “The Master Butchers Singing Club” by Louise Erdrich. Fidelis Waldvogel comes to America carrying that very suitcase.
Taking place after World War I this is another story of immigration. The lead character is a man who has made a deathbed promise in the trenches of war. Keeping his word, Fidelis seeks out his best friend’s wife to tell her personally that her husband is dead. Finding her pregnant, he convinces her to marry him with the promise of a better life than that of a poor widow. Fidelis has hopes to move his family to Seattle. A butcher by trade, he sets out making his way west, selling his sausage out of his suitcase. He makes it all the way to North Dakota before his resources run out. There he works for the local butcher until he can afford to open his own market. With the money he makes at that market, he brings his wife and best friend’s son to America where family loyalty, traditions, and norms are all tested. Spanning thirty-six years, this story, much like Jeffrey Euginedes’ “Middlesex,” pushes the reader to immerse themselves in the lives of all the characters – good and bad. It tells of the universal struggles that most immigrants experience from our ancestors to Golinkin to Kavalier.
Finally, a story not of immigration but migration is told by Kathleen Flinn in her new book, “Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: Recipes of Love, Loss, and Adventure from an American Midwest Family.” Flinn, growing up with a large extended family, moves from Michigan to San Francisco and back to Michigan. She writes of a simpler time, similar to Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine.” She adeptly reminds us all of our first television, frozen TV dinners, party lines, playing Monopoly with cousins, being stranded during a giant snowstorm, and sleeping over at our grandparent’s house. Touching not only because it gives the reader a chance to reminisce but also because of old fashioned recipes that are handed down through the generations of our kin.
All these titles tell the stories of our universal journeys through life. Stopping a moment to find similarities, the collective insights of many give us all the wisdom to deal with the obstacles we all face in our lives. Enjoy!