Show-stopping dance,
hilarious one-liners. and
lots
+

"I couldn't escape the feeling that [the novel]
takes place in a kind of alternative reality,
in which the historic coalition between Jews
and blacks fighting together for civil rights
and social justice had never been strained
and still endures."

- Diane Cole

ficial headquarters, a place where
a multicultural group of politicos,
businessmen and jazz lovers gather
to gossip, reminisce and even occa-
sionally buy a record.
When one of its longtime regulars
dies, it even doubles as a funeral cha-
pel, becoming a nondenominational,
all accepting "Church of Vinyl."
Brokeland's co-owners are Archy
Stallings, easy-going and black, and
Nat Jaffe, a stereotypically uptight
Jew, and it's their divergent tempera-
ments, not their different skin tones,
that periodically strain their friend-
ship.
Their wives are also business part-
ners — they share a midwifery prac-
tice — with dispositions that may
make them compatible with each
other but are the polar opposites of
their respective spouses.
Aviva Roth-Jaffe (white and, given
her name, presumably Jewish) is so
practical-minded, level-headed and
rational, it can be hard to fathom
what drew her to the neurotic Nat,
until you glimpse the tenderness
they share for their teenage son, Julie
(Julius).
Similarly, Gwen Shanks (who
hails from a distinguished African-
American family) is so decisive and
determined you're not surprised
when she kicks the unambitious,
casually unfaithful Archy out of the
house, just days before their first
child's due date.
And that's even before all these
partnerships, both personal and
business, begin to seriously unravel.
First, Gibson Goode, a former
NFL quarterback turned entrepre-
neur who has become one of the
wealthiest African-Americans in
the country, announces the planned
opening, just blocks from Brokeland,
of a music mega-store guaranteed to
crush the already financially shaky
independent store.
Then Aviva and Gwen preside at
a difficult, medically complicated
home birth that leads to a potential

lawsuit against the midwives, even
though baby and mother receive the
care they require and come through
fine.
Add to that the sudden appear-
ance in Archy's life of the illegiti-
mate teenage son whose existence
he had conveniently ignored until
then — and the equally unexpected
reappearance of Archy's estranged
father, a washed-up one-time
Blaxploitation movie star who has
instigated a blackmail plot having to
do with Black Panther violence from
the 1970s — and there seems to be
a set-up for a conflagration of major
proportions between genders and
generations, races and religions.
The plot may fizzle on the awk-
ward machinations that shift the
story from imminent disaster to rec-
onciliation, but give Chabon credit
for the courage of his ideals — and
his idealism.
Brokeland is hardly broken; it's a
village of sorts where even befuddled
men like Archy and Nat can and do
learn to step up to the plate of father-
hood to raise their children alongside
unapologetically strong women like
Aviva and Gwen.
Sure, a strain of nostalgia runs
throughout the novel — it is about
vinyl records and music from eras
past, after all — but the optimistic
spin of a message those vintage
recordings yield is not sappy.
Rather than yield to cynicism,
Chabon has his characters do their
best to stretch beyond their imper-
fections and mold a world, or at
least one small neighborhood, where
everyone really can find a way to —
yes — get along.
That place is not Camelot. It's
Telegraph Avenue, and it's worth a
visit.

❑

THE MUSICAL
/ COMEDY WHODUNIT

Enjoy light hors d'oeuvres
and beverages

[MP

1111[111I1101AIES

MUSIC BY

J011 HANDER

LYRICS BY

FRED EBB

ORIGINAL BOOK AND CONCEPT BY PETER STONE. ADDITIONAL LYRICS BY JOHN KANDER AND RUPERT HOLMES

dfflUfIllY 18 - fEBIlUfillY 10

A CateRraebdbAir
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0 iviu
Lace
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Itrle.
The Sound of
Visions of Vaudeville Organ Concerts
Wine & Cheese Tasting • The Sound of Music Sing-Along

.2.,,,G

s T: :) 415 S Lafayette Ave Royal Oak 48067

All seats reserved 1 Visa / MC accepted
Tickets at 248-541-6430 or online at

STAGECRAFTERS.ORG

Journal among other publications.

1.7547

p resenting• .

Picwhouse•T eats

Please Join Us January 19th @ 11am • Orchard Mall Center Court

The Snow Princess will be here!

Prepare to Sing, Dance, and Play
in a Very Royal Way!
A Ball will be had by All!

'4*
4p ter.
, sy'.W.
4

.41,1

• r4 1; : 4`t, '

ORC

'After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges"

and writes regularly for the Wall Street

Opening Flight
Celebration!

Doors open at 7 pm

1)0

Diane Cole is the author of the memoir

tmfltfllj
~ fl j

WEST BLOOMFIELD • MICHIGAN

■ hadl

Interactive
Entertainment
for kids

Orchard Lake Road • North of Maple

For more info visit: www.orchardmallwb.com

JN

■

January 17 • 2013

37