Arts Is Entertainment

•

THE
MUSIC MAN
Sept 9 Oct 2,'05

PARADISE

I LOVE YOURIRE PERFECT,
NOW CHANGE

Jan. 13 - Feb. 5,'06

RAGTIME

May 26 - June 18,'06
TickeTs. 816 - S18

ANGELS IN AMERICA

PART TWO

Oct 14 - 23, '05

DINNER WITH
FRIENDS
March 31 - Apr. 16, '06

HOLLYWOOD
ARMS
Apr. 28 - May 7, '06

'Tickets 812 - $14 - $16

BLITHE SPIRIT
ZOMBIES
FROM THE BEYOND

Feb. 24 - March 12, '06
Tickets 814 - 816

from page 40

was quite young; his family spoke lit-
tle of the event, heightening the boy's
curiosity and also unsettling him.
Glassman's grandmother moved
from Lackawanna to Ropa Gatos, a
Florida enclave of Lackawannans. For
Glassman, "Florida, indeed, seemed
as close as he could get to the town
that his parents and, later, his grand-
father, had abandoned. ... He had
taken to calling his grandmother's
sprawling development Lackawanna-
south, realizing that full well, for
countless others, the same develop-
ment might have been more properly
called Buffalo-south, Syracuse-south.
... The country club dining room
and the spa, the Loehmann's, the
Bagel Boy, the Hair We Are, and the
two-dollar movie theater all within a
few blocks of one another on
Powerline — these were the new,
shared haunts of many a transplanted
community."
Along with his wife, Glassman set-
tles among "the dwindling elders of
these various clans, not least of all his
own. For something in him knew
that this was the only place where he
could find his footing." He's search-
ing for something he can't quite
identify, but he finds the beginnings
of answers after an older man seeks
him out at the newspaper and asks
him to read his manuscript.
Glassman's Florida — full of
"Alligators May Be Present" signs —
is much more textured than the
much-parodied scene of early birds
and snowbirds. The author of previ-
ous nonfiction works on Jewish-
American literature including

Contemporary Jewish American Writers
and the Multicultural Dilemma,
Furman is funny but also touches on
tender issues of loss and love.

THE NUTCRACKER

Early Bird

(non -ballet version)

Dec. 8, 9, 10, 11/05
Youths S6, Adults S9

early bird

248-541-6430

Season 'Tickets On Sale!

1956-av,

Stage

YEARS OF THEATRE

415 S. Lafayette Ave.
Royal Oak, MI 48067

8/18

2005

42

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rodney rothman

Rodney
Rothman is a
young man who
also makes a
decision to move
to Florida, after
losing a job. The
former head
writer for the

Late Show with
David
Letterman, Rothman chronicles his
adventures living in Century Village
in Early Bird: A Memoir of Premature
Retirement (Simon & Schuster;
$23.95).
Since he's Jewish, he figures that
he's going to end up retired in

Florida, so he might as well get a
head start — at age 28. He also fig-
ures there's a good story, maybe even
a book, and he assumes he'll find
sources of lifelong wisdom among
new friends eager to share deep
truths.
Century Village hosts more than
100 clubs, including art appreciation,
fishing and Jewish War Veterans; and
Rothman soon discovers that cliques
are as potent as in high school.
When he tries slow dancing at
"Singles Club," for the first time in
his life, he finds himself "wishing
someone would start the Electric
Slide." After a few months, he feels
70 — in much the same way he
might start speaking with a British
accent after a week in London —
and experiences lower back pain, says
"hoid" instead of "heard," and won-
ders whether it makes sense to start
stockpiling prescriptions immediate-
ly.
Anyone who's witnessed someone
slip a packet or two of Sweet 'n Low
into their purse will recognize
Rothman's new friends. But he does-
n't find an inspirational mentor.
Instead, he meets people not unlike
himself — sometimes grumpy, funny,
cruel, sad, sweet, full of contradic-
tions. He muses that if Mitch
Albom, the author of Tuesdays With
Morrie, had to spend more than a
week with Morrie, he would have
had to strangle him. Rothman heads
back to work.

Orange Blossom Special
Betsy Carter

not only cap-
tures a place —
Gainesville, Fla.
OM BLOSSOM SP{ AL —
but also a
time, the period
before the
1950s shifted
v-3
into the 1960s.
Her absorbing
first novel,
Orange Blossom
Sp ecia l
(Algonquin; $23.95), is the story of a
widowed mother and her young
daughter, who make their way from
Carbondale, Ill., to a new life in
Gainesville. As the author describes,
it's a story of coming of age in and
with Florida.
When Tessie first visited Florida on
her honeymoon, she had never seen
anything as beautiful as "the sight of
Spanish moss draped over the oak
trees like a wedding veil," an image

that stayed with her.
"In this new place, the sun bore
down, softening the cold edges of her
memory and making hope a dim
possibility," Carter writes. Even their
old furniture takes on "a fairy tale
lightness" in its new setting.
Soon after she arrives at her new
school, Dinah is dubbed "the red-
head in the white bucks." While she
makes friends, she feels ever the out-
sider and connects with other out-
siders. She and her mother assemble
certain people they meet into their
own new family.
The Orange Blossom Special, with
its multicolored locomotive, is the
first train to run between Miami and
New York City. Carter, a magazine
editor who founded New York
Woman, is the daughter of German-
Jewish parents and was raised in
Washington Heights before moving
with her family to Miami. Carter
says that as a Jew growing up there
— she was the first Jew in her ele-
mentary school class — she felt very
much on the outside, and that per-
spective informs this novel.

Jubana!

Gigi Anders'
uncommon
identity is
explained in the
title of her live-
ly new memoir,

Jubana!• The
Awkwardly True
and Dazzling
Adventures of a
Jewish Cubana
Goddess (Rayo;
$23.95). (See
related story and review.)
She was born in Havana; her
grandparents immigrated from
Russia and Lithuania to Cuba in the
1920s. At her mother's 1954 wed-
ding, there were 750 guests. ("Think
wedding in Goodbye Columbus, only
everyone sounded like Ricky _
Ricardo, or Ricky Ricardo with a
Yiddish accent.")
When she and her family first leave
Cuba in 1960, they settle in Miami
Beach, living with eight relatives
crammed into a tiny two-bedroom
house. They name the complex Las
Casitas Verdes, the little green hous-
es, "for their yucky, chipped pea-
green color." They move to
Washington, although many who
remain build a strong community,
another slice of paradise. ❑

