Friday, November 30, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS HOW TO FULFILL YOUR POTENTIAL FOR INTIMACY in Personal, Family, Social, Sexual Relationships thru Information, Discussion, Interaction 2 Group "Sessions" — Your Choice or WED., JAN. 9 & 16 - 7:30-9:00 P.M. WITH PROFESSIONAL FACILATATORS JOE FEINSTEIN, M.A. EDIE PERNICK, M.A. Clinical Psychologist 69-8127 Comfortable home setting limited to 10 people. For Participation in this unique experience CALL NOW! complete fee $50.00 (--A-) 'in? ..N q C f ak lew4? o r Gross"Rachel' sequel suffers from overkill of sex and violence BY JOSEPH COHEN Special to The Jewish News WED., DEC. 5 & 12 - 7:30-9:00 P.M. Counselor & Educator in Human Sexuality 559-0010 & 0011 BOOKS v We can "hearty" wait to tell you about the alt new Hanukka Craft and Gift Bazaar Sunday, December 9th, 10 to 5 the Birmingham Temple Lunch - Fun - Entertainment You'(( be dancing in the streets when you see aft the exciting new handcrafted gift items! For the novelist, the uses of his- tory are many. For the Jewish novelist, Jewish history is an in- credibly rich resource. The annals of the Jewish people are a unique record of tragedy and triumph across space through time. In every age, Jews have been as- sailed, and it is confict that is the stuff from which both history and fiction are made. But there is a danger in trans- forming the generalities of his- tory into the particularities of fic- tion. Writers tend to over- emphasize the keenness of the razor's edge of tension and strife, sacrificing perspective and allow- ing the imagination if it is not suf- ficiently disciplined to run riot with perceivable reality. It is not surprising then, to find Joel Gross taking us in The Lives of Rachel (New American Li- brary), to that razor's edge. In this successor to The Books of Rachel, the lives of five earlier Rachels, each of whom lives at a critical time in Jewish history, are poised on the blade's edge. All five are linked by familial descent (their genealogies are an ingenious if unconvincing and confusing fab- rication), craftsmanship as work- Joseph Cohen is director of the Jewish Studies Program at Tulane University. Your office or home can be complete immediately" VISIT OUR NEW SHOWROOM! In Stock - Unbelievable prices on new and used furniture: • • • • • DIRECTIONAL LAZYBOY PATRICIAN CHROMCRAFT & MORE SAVINGS ON JANITORIAL SUPPLIES S cr 2 GALAXIE COOL IDGE EIGHT M ILE WYOM ING 34 E N NORTHEND CAPITAL 10600 Galaxie Ferndale, Michigan 48220 399-9830 ers or alchemists in precious met- als and gems, red hair, and a growing myth to which each con- tributes her share of heroism, faith and passion. Trapped in des- perate circumstances, they are all tested and found to be women of valor. For the first two Rachels, valor is transmuted into martyrdom. Rachel of Modein, 20 years old and pregnant, is executed by King Antiochus in 168 BCE for refus- ing to reveal the whereabouts of her husband Saul, who kills the king's favorite general in thepan- cratium, a barbarous gladitorial sport in which he is forced to par- ticipate. Her death is a contribut- ory factor in fomenting the revolt of the Maccabees. The second Rachel, 16, is taken into slavery by Pompey's legions in 63 BCE and vilely sexually by his General Manilius, whom she kills. She, too, is executed. "The Lives ofRachel" by Joel Gross, New American Library Rachel number three fares bet- ter than her predecessors. After her young husband is slain in England by marauding Saxons in 486 CE, she is given the honor, as the country's finest ironworker, of designing and making the great jewelled sword to be wielded by Artorius, her married would-be lover, the Briton who will triumph over the invading Saxons and save London from destruc- tion. For Artorius, read King Ar- thur, for the sword, read Ex- calibur. For the unsuspecting reader's willing suspension of dis- belief in this amazing concatena- tion of history and legend, substi- tute "an unwilling and badly stretched credulity." Since Gross must believe that nothing exceeds like excess, the reader's credulity is stretched further by Rachel number four, who saves the Jews of Nicomedia, near Constantinople, in 756 CE. When the bubonic plague erupts, the mob holds the Jewish commu- nity responsible. Its destruction is averted as this Rachel brings to bear her powers as a faith-healer knowledgeable about the medici- nal properties of precious gems. She saves a young non-Jew from certain death while her fiance, an exceptionally well-trained physi- cian, stands around helplessly. By contrast, the fifth Rachel can save only herself and her daughter in 1096 when the in- famous People's Crusade levels the Mainz ghetto, killing 1,000 Jewish inhabitants. The commu- nity is lost, but the continuity of Rachels is preserved. Gross' first Rachel book sold 300,000 hardcover copies and more than one million paperback copies. I have no doubt that this sequel will also ring a lot of cash registers. It's out in a first hardcover printing of 50,000 copies and is a Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection. The sales are assured because Gross is heavily into melodrama, violence and sex. His approach is visceral. It is enhanced by a rapidly moving narrative, and encompassed by a sense of high adventure. If this book were soon to be a major mo- tion picture and Errol Flynn were still around, he could, circumsized or not, play several of the male leads. It's his kind of story. It's that simple-minded. Some readers will be attracted to the book by its narrative power, and some by its portraits of valor- ous Jewish women, practically all of whom are as passionate as they are courageous. Apart from their Jewish spouses, they attractive pagan and Christian lovers like flies and squelch them like fleas. Their red hair drives men mad. Nonetheless, these heroines are all two-dimensional, too much the product of Gross' well-intentioned but ill-conceived fantasizing. Nothing ever relieves the monotony of their blind virtue and faith. They are always under siege and always finally trium- phant, even when it costs their lives. Everything is oversimplified. Life isn't like that. History isn't either. If the stuff of history is con- flict, the outcome will be unpre- dictable. To be convincing, litera- ture must also invite the same unpredictability and avoid the gratuitous reductionism that pre- vails in these linked stories. Some will find Gross' tome engrossing; in the end, I was gros- sed out. NEWS Anti-Semitism down in France, poll says Paris (JTA) — Anti-Semitism is decreasing in France though other forms of racism are gaining ground. This is the conclusion of a public opinion poll conducted at the request of the League against Anti-Semitism and Racism (LICRA) and released Monday. The poll showed that only a minute fraction of Frenchmen harbor any sort of anti-Semitic sentiments but that 26 percent of those questioned back the ex- treme rightwing leader Jean- Marie Le Pen's opposition to foreign workers in France, espe- cially North Africans and other Arabs. The poll was released during LICRA's 35th annual congress. According to the poll, 61 percent of those questioned believe there are too many foreigners in France and 85 percent favor expelling all unemployed aliens. LICRA President Jean Pierre- Bloch warned against this dangerous racist tendency and appealed to all humanitarian and civic-minded organizations, Catholic, Protestant, Moslem and Jewish to work together againSt racism and for the rights of people.