Eavesdropping
Holocaust, adoption, therapy are
themes of smart new novel.
Morton Teicher
mother reveals that despite her using a
Special to the Jewish News
Catholic adoption agency, the patient
was a Jew, born in a displaced persons
here are novels about the
camp just after World War II ended.
Holocaust; there are nov-
This information has a profound
els about adopted children
impact on Dr. Schussler, whose father
seeking their birth parents; there are
had been a Nazi officer involved in the
novels about therapeutic relation-
murder of Jews.
ships between analyst and patient. By
These entanglements become even
Blood (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) by
thicker and more intricate when the
Ellen Ullman is a novel that master-
patient is unsuccessful in tracking
fully combines all these
down her birth moth-
subjects in one gripping
, er, and the eavesdrop-
presentation.
ping narrator decides
The anonymous
to intervene by help-
first-person narrator of
ing her anonymously.
the story is a 50-year-
His efforts lead even-
old academic who has
tually to the patient
been placed on leave by
meeting her birth
his unnamed univer-
mother in Israel with
sity while it investigates
unhappy results.
some undefined charges
This strange and
that involve a boy and
engrossing story grips
"charged feelings between
the reader's atten-
Ellen Ullman
mentor and apprentice"
tion as it reveals the
It is the summer of
complexities of three
1974, and he has moved
perplexing and esoteric
to San Francisco while
characters. Author Ellen
awaiting the decision
Ullman vividly demon-
regarding his future rela-
strates here in her third
tionship, if any, to the
book that she is no lon-
university. He rents a "dis-
ger dependent on her
mal house by the beach"
profession for literary
and a small office in a
content.
run-down building in the
For more than 20
business district.
years, she was a com-
His intent is to write a
puter programmer
series of lectures about
in Silicon Valley. Her
one of Aeschylus' plays,
first book, Close to the
but his plans are disrupted Calling By Blood "a
Machine, was a mem-
when he discovers that he smart, slippery ...
oir that impressively
narrative striptease,"
can listen in to the dis-
described her experi-
the New York Times
cussions of his neighbor,
ence. In her second
analyst Dr. Dora Schussler, recently named the
book, The Bug, she
novel one of its "100
and her patients, par-
moved into the realm
Notable Books of 2012."
ticularly one of them, a
of fiction but still drew
lesbian financial analyst
on her practical knowl-
from the Midwest.
edge; the theme of the book involved
Intrigued by what he hears, the nar-
a programmer struggling with a com-
rator, having had substantial experi-
puter virus.
ence with therapists himself, finds
With this new book, Ullman estab-
himself drawn increasingly and criti-
lishes herself as a first-rate writer who
cally into what is going on in the next-
can skillfully and credibly create fas-
door office.
cinating characters as they encounter
The sessions are described in detail,
complex aspects of the human experi-
revealing more and more about both
ence.
Dr. Schussler and her patient. A cru-
Dr. Morton I. Teicher is the founding dean,
cial topic for them has to do with the
Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva
patient's adoption and her decision
University, and dean emeritus, School of
to find her birth parents even though
their identity is supposed to be perma- Social Work, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill.
nently hidden. Reluctantly, her foster
T
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