Love and Treasure

This is a very courageous, sweeping and ambitious novel by Ayelet. The novel has many aspects that are laudable - most obviously an imaginative re-working of the topic that non of us - Jew or gentile or whatever - should ever forget. During the extensive history lesson that Ayelet felt compelled to give us, there were nuggets of lyricism that kept me hopeful that the author could sustain those glimpses of artistry. Yet, sadly, the prose and narrative lurched uncomfortably from two different directions. And I am talking about the style and her voice here. Sometimes, I felt like I was reading a high-schooler's history paper, the prose was so stuffed with fact layered on fact. And then, suddenly, we'd be dropped back into a strained construct of plot and character that felt awkward and inauthentic. I struggled with this sense of ping-ponging back and forth as if she couldn't decide whether she was writing a love story or a history paper throughout the novel (or three novellas - which is really what she wrote - with some strained devices of objects with shady provenance and family connections to cobble it together).Ultimately here's what I think happened: Ayelet just wanted to write a novel about the Holocaust and art. She did that. It was brave. It was well-researched. It certainly had some good ideas and moments.But what stalled the novel for me was the feeling that the characters were simply one-dimensional "foils" that she conjured up to act as puppets as she marched through her treatise on atrocities that were wreaked on the European Jews. This is where the novel fell flat for me - plus the utterly inexplicable moments of the characters' inner voices revealing astonishingly jarring crudities that jolted us right back into 21st century vernacular. I simply could not get past the fact that her protagonist in Act I, Jack Wiseman who she sets up to the reader as a decent WASP gentleman would really say to himself on seeing the object of his desire "I wonder what she'd be like to F**K". Really? Or have him muse on the color of his love interest's "bush"? And their clumsily constructed and written sexual encounters to me felt like they were saying more about the author than about her hastily sketched, cliched puppets - her female lead, Ilona being a "fiery red-head." Ugh - so overdone. The cliches went on and on in this regard - I am paraphrasing here as in wet tendrils of red curls draped over a pink shoulder in a post-coital moment later in novella 2 where her protagonist here inexplicably leaps into bed with an art dealer - with now set up for the reader as to why she would even find him attractive. Not credible.Now - having gotten that off my chest, let me tell you that Ayelet does NOT shy away from bringing to our attention the shortfalls of her own people during this dark and terrible time. She throws important light on the different Jewish groups - from the Ashkenazim, to the Israelis, to the European brethren, and their distaste and sometimes even contempt for each other. A notable scene is when Jack delivers a group of "DPs" (displaced persons - post-war Jews liberated from death camps) across the border into Italy, and he is shocked and angry to hear the Israeli contingent into whose hands he is delivering these precious charges, say disparaging things about the European Jews who did not stand up and fight Hitler, and resist going to their deaths. This was extremely ballsy of Ayelet - to throw light on these different parts of the world's most persecuted people, and let us know that they weren't all striding hand-in-hand to help each other out of sheer selflessness. They wanted Jews to build Israel, to have people to populate and fight in and for their promised land. Like I said - there's good stuff in here!Ultimately, the author strove mightily and with swaths of panache to write a great novel. She is valiant, she is brave, she is - most certainly - worthy of "nice effort, kid" - but this is not and never will can be novel that can stand up against the greats. She is a decent writer, but she catapulted herself out of her league here and at times this read like a juvenile, first novel attempt at historical fiction by an unseasoned author. I actually think her editors were afraid to get out their red pens - and boy I wish they had. However, perhaps her next novel will be "the one" and she can smile and say "Man - that Love and Treasure" was just a dress rehearsal and a warm-up for my truly great work. One can only hope .....

At the close of WW2 the American army took possession of something that came to be known as the Hungarian Gold Train. It's 1945 and soldier Jack Wiseman is put in charge of emptying a train of box cars filled with gold watches and jewelry, mounds of furs, art work, as well as complete household furnishings like carpets, dinner ware, silver services, table and bed linens.When he realizes that all these possessions were taken from Jews before their deportation to the work and death camps the young American is moved to question to whom these artifacts now rightfully belong.When the story moves to the present day, Jack's granddaughter, Natalie, is trying to fulfill his dying wish that she find the owner of a piece of jewelry he took from the Gold Train. It's a pendant in the shape of a peacock and as Natalie begins her search in Hungary she discovers it's a locket with a tiny picture of two women in it. She is joined by an Israeli art dealer who thinks there may be a connection with a lost painting he has been in search of.Natalie is eventually able to track down a relative of one of the women in the locket picture, who may or may not have been the peacock's rightful owner, and gives her the piece.In the last section of the book it's 1913 and through the eyes of a practitioner of the then new psychotherapy we learn of the relationship of the two women in the locket and who in fact had owned the peacock.The Hungarian Gold Train is an historical fact around which Ms. Waldman built her story. Unfortunately, that's what it feels like. Characters and plot are built rather than created.For example, the author spent little time on motivation so that Natalie meets the Israeli in one chapter and the next one begins with her in bed with him. (True, we are told he liked her heart shaped ass but there's no word on what she liked about him.)Then in the last 1913 section, it's mostly hackneyed stereotypes of that era's beliefs: ambition if a woman a sign of hysteria, menstrual cramps a sign of pathology, the deranging effect of a female catching sight of a penis. It's more caricature than creation.If the author didn't have the time (or desire) to create characters with a depth that makes readers care about them she should have done a non-fiction piece on the Gold Train. It's existence and ultimate disposition is worthy of being remembered but not in a second-rate fictionalization.

From the synopsis of this book I imagined something between "The Hare with the Amber Eyes", "The Glass Room" and many other books which take objects (an ornament and a house in the two examples given) and use them to illustrate the passing of time and the effect of major historical events.Love and Treasure starts in modern day USA by introducing a family and a mysterious piece of jewelry, giving a reason for the subsequent search through history. From the first page the novel wants to give itself a sense of place and it seemed important to be able to identify the locations used. Most of the locations used throughout are real but I was initially frustrated that Red Hook and Caldecott Falls (in the prologue) did not.The novel is then split into three sections set in 1945-46, 2013 and 1913. Each part is written in different styles and covers different elements of the story and they link together beautifully. The post war period describes the refugees wandering about the world, trying to find a home again - this is not often covered in novels and links to the Hungarian Gold Train and the necklace well. The present day section is reminiscent of a detective story with the characters trying to chase the story and gives a genuine sense of urgency. The third section changes again to a first person account written by a doctor at the forefront of psychiatry and the treatment of women in the early part of the century - it is written beautifully.The usual format for this type of historical novel is to establish the time periods and then swap between them during the narrative, here that doesn't happen as we stay with the characters until their story concludes. This results in a much better flow of the book as the people are established and an empathy can be developed.One major irritation I had though was the line between fact and fiction drawn by the author. I mentioned about the fictitious places in Maine, but more annoying was the dwarf family in Auschwitz. There was a family of seven dwarfs saved in the camps and they were called Ovitz, for some reason though this author decided that she wanted to change their name to Weisz but is then happy to use other people around them and keep their real names (e.g. Rosa Schwimmer) Having realised that there are some basic changes then I had to question other facts used.Put that aside though and I really enjoyed this book

I enjoy Ayelet Waldman's writing so I had high hopes for this novel and was delighted when it exceeded my expectations. The interwoven stories are set in modern day America and Europe, and also in Hungary around the time of the second World War. They trace the thought-provoking history and ownership of a peacock pendant in the colours of the Suffragette movement.I love books that entertain but also inspire and, for me, this novel did that in spades. It is clear that these stories have benefited from a lot of research, in addition to drawing on the author's personal experiences, but the story always takes precedence so the reader never feels bombarded with information. I finished the book feeling better informed but also eager to read and research more about the history and politics of the periods and places described. I wished I could spend time with the book's characters, hold the peacock pendant and see the painting it inspired, taste Dobos torte and swim in the Gellert's pool.I am not usually one for re-reading novels but on finishing this book, I felt I could have happily started again from the beginning.

I really enjoyed this book and the unfolding of layers of history, memory, and loss. How a small treasure connects lives and loves, and how the lives and loves are what gives meaning to the treasure.

The book started off so well until it changed and went back to the past and never left. It became so boring that I never finished the book

Good book well written.