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Jewish Book Fair

Foc u s On F ic tion

role in Isaacs' life. She keeps a kosher home,
the rich characters Glickfeld creates, especially the
belongs to a Conservative synagogue and does not
strong-willed Chenia, whose wisdom and compas-
work or shop on Shabbat.
sion make her lovable and whose imperfections
The author grew up in a very assimilated house-
make her real.
hold,
but after marrying her husband, who came
A graduate of the City College of New York,
from a traditional background, she became
with a bachelor of art degree in languages and liter-
increasingly observant. She is currently learning to
ature, Glickfeld moved to Seattle in the 1980s.
read Hebrew and hopes to become a bat mitzvah
She became involved in politics, including a stint
someday.
as press secretary to a congressman. Later, she
One of Isaacs' role models is the female rabbi of
worked as the director of the Mayor's Office for
her
synagogue. Another was her immigrant grand-
Senior Citizens.
mother,
Rosie, who worked in a button factory
Carole L. Glickfield
But she never stopped writing. A chance
and
divorced
an abusive husband in 1912.
turns an immigrant's
encounter with a workshop for writers set her to
Rosie
lived
with the family while Isaacs was
coming-of-age
writing in earnest.
growing up, and the author credits her grand-
story into a
As a teacher of creative writing at the University
mother for her own precocious feminist identity
compelling tale.
of Washington, Glickfeld, who is divorced and sin-
and strength.
gle, says the most important thing to tell an aspir-
Every novel Isaacs has written has literally
ing writer is to write. "Keeping journals and letter
turned
to gold, and her fiction has been translated
writing are not substitutes. You also have to over-
into
more
than 30 languages. She has also been
come your fear.
`Swimming Toward The Ocean
the
recipient
of many awards.
—
Fran
Heller
C henia Arnow is a fiercely intelligent 45-
Has success spoiled Susan Isaacs in any way?
year-old Russian Jewish immigrant living
"No, because I didn't change anything," Isaacs
in Brooklyn, N.Y., with a philandering
Carole L. Glickfield speaks 1 p. m. Monday, Nov. 12,
responds. "When people get into trouble with
husband. She also is pregnant with a
at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield,
success, it's because they move out of their com-
baby she doesn't want.
and 3 p. m. the same day at the Oak Park JCC.
muriity and trade the old husband for a new one.
When her efforts to abort fail, she decides to
Isaacs, 57, has kept the same life, and the same
drown herself, only to be rescued by a man in a
husband, Elkan Abramowitz, a trial lawyer, for 33
green fedora who becomes her lover.
years. They have two children. Andrew is a corpo-
long Time No See'
It is the story of Chenia's rocky first marriage and
rate lawyer and Elizabeth works for Actors'
fter a 20-year hiatus, Judith Singer, the
more durable second marriage — both overshad-
Equity.
heroine of Susan Isaac's first whodunit,
owed by a passionate extramarital affair — that is
— Fran Heller
the subject of Carole L Glickfeld's latest book,
Compromising Positions, returns in her
latest book, a smart and sassy read
Swimming Toward the Ocean (Alfred A. Knopf, $24).
Susan Isaacs speaks 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, at
As told through the voice of the daughter, begin-
titled Long Time No See (HarperCollins; $26).
the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield.
ning in her mother's womb, Glickfeld reshapes an
Recently wiclowed,_with a doctorate and two .
grown children, Singer gets hooked on the myste-
immigrant's coming-of-age story into something
rious disappearance of a woman whose husband is
compelling and new.
Speaking from her home in Seattle, Wash.,
the prime suspect. Her snooping links her to a
Glickfeld credits her subconscious for the seeds of
notorious gangster who is the father of the
her novel, which, she says, took about two years to
accused, and rekindles a love affair with a . for-
create. The author writes at night and rewrites dur-
mer detective.
It was never the author's intention to write a
ing the day at her local Starbucks.
Glickfeld's prose indicates an incisive ear for dia-
sequel to anything. But a request to pen a short
logue —surprising as both her parents were deaf
story got her thinking about the character she
and her first language was ASL (American Sign
first introduced in 1978, says Isaacs.
Upon completing the short story, the best-
Language).
Though Glickfeld was born in Brooklyn and
selling author realized she didn't want to leave
grew up in Manhattan, like her novel's protagonist,
her old friend just yet.
smfor3i, of MgFR91S£41P95171Pa
Even more significant, she felt it was time to
the rest of the story is fictional. The ocean exerts a
powerful tug on the author — who spent her sum-
revisit the same turf as in her first book, and
mers at Brighton Beach — and figures prominently look around at the changes in the suburbs.
Where women stand today — 30 years after
in her narrative.
.
The heroine of
A natural storyteller, Glickfeld's first book, Us 1
the beginning of the women's movement —
Susan Isaac's first
Gifts, a collection of short stories, is about a family of forms the subtext of Isaacs' novel. The only
novel returns in her
women she wants to write about as main char-
deaf parents and hearing children. It won the
latest whodunit.
Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 1989.
acters, she said, are strong women.
As well as her art, Judaism plays an important
Swimming Toward the Ocean's greatest appeal is in

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