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•
. Bill Broder
the basement of Filene's department
store. Then it was off to Charlevoix
for a "year of living and writing and
freezing?'
Why Charlevoix?
"I spent many summers there as a
child:' Broder said. "I was first taken to
Charlevoix when I was 3 months old. I
was calledthe 'Charlevoix schrier'. We
stayed in a rooming house, and I had
colic and cried all night. My mother
had to walk me on the beach at 3 or 4
a.m. so I wouldn't wake everybody up."
Taking Care of Cleo, set in
Charlevoix during the time of
Prohibition, follows the serio-comic
adventures of a middle-class Jewish
family who run a store in the northern
Michigan community. Father, mother
and younger sister meet the challenges
of an autistic teenaged daughter and
the beautiful but confining nature of
the town itself.
A plot line involving bootlegging
and smuggling involves the family
with the notorious Jewish underworld
known as the Purple Gang and, ironi-
cally, leads to expanded horizons for
both daughters.
The San Francisco Chronicle
called the book "profoundly original?'
"[Bill Broder] is a master story-
teller," the review continues, "whose
graceful prose is so engrossing that
readers will find themselves instantly
absorbed in what is sure to become a
classic!'
While working on the book, Broder
said, he was happy having Charlevoix_
on his mind. "My memories are not so
much the summer people — or even
the year-round residents — but the
landscape itself' he said.
IntrinSic to the story is the Jewish
community and its various strata,
including both the German Jews and
the so-called Galitzianers.
"Jews occupy every class in the
spectrum," Broder said. "The gang-
sters, the Purple Gang, were a part of
the community. Every ethnic group
had gangsters in the early part of their
existence in this country."
Riffing On The Familiar
When Gloria Kurian was 12 years old,
her poem "My First Grey Hair" was
published in the Detroit Free Press.
"I started to tell and write stories
when I was about 5 years old:' she
said. "My family was very proud of
me?'
Gloria and Bill, who studied togeth-
er at Stanford University's pioneering
creative writing program in the early
years of their marriage, continue to
edit each other's work. "My wife is a
genius, and I struggle on," Bill Broder
said.
The stories of Their Magician,
written from the 1970s through 2004,
examine family life in- contemporary
cities and suburbs. Their mood is
cleverly skewed — several stories that
begin in a perfectly realistic fashion
will gradually veer into the absurd.
"Insightful and supremely enter-
taining," says a Seattle Times review,
_"[Gloria] Broder's stories press the
heart, releasing long-hidden emotions
compassionately rendered in charac-
ters who mirror ourselves?'
Except for "The Man Who Eoved
Detroit:' the settings are mostly
unidentified, but all contain a strong
whiff of the Broder's hometown.
"They are not all specifically Jewish:'
Kurian Broder said. "In the first story,
there's a funeral with a priest:'
However, her husband said, her
stories have "a tone of voice, an atti- •
tude, that only someone who grew up
Jewish in Detroit would have. It's an
irony, a certain angle on reality?'
At the April 23 event, Gloria Kurian
Broder plans to read from the story -
"Staff of Life which centers on a
woman who cooks huge quantities of
food. "I certainly had specific models.
for that:' she said. ❑
.
Authors Bill and Gloria Kurian
Broder will speak about their
newly published books 2 p.m.
Sunday, April 23, at the Jewish
Community Center in West
Bloomfield. The program is
free of charge, but RSVPs are
requested. For reservations or
more information, call (248) .
432-5546 or e-mail
fmenken@jccdet.org .
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