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Revolutionary Romance
Book casts Jews in fast-paced
adventure through Russian history.
Morton Teicher
Special to the Jewish News
Canada.
Klara's long trek is filled with
adventures, new friends and setbacks.
f you're sick, move away. Have
Breaking down often and frequently
some consideration for others' a
delayed, the train moves slowly across
Red Army soldier scolds a slow-
Siberia, a journey of 6,000 miles.
moving old man selling train tickets.
Frank keeps us apprised of develop-
"No, fires back the old man, proud,
ments in the revolution as well as tell-
haughty, not realizing it's a new coun-
ing us about the cities along the routes
try, a Bolshevik country where force
and their populations. Most of all,
heads the list instead of civility:' reads
however, he spells out the trying expe-
the following line in author Ben G.
riences that Klara encounters as she
Frank's newest book, a novel called
slowly moves to her destination.
Klara's Journey (Marion
"The frightening
Street Press; paperback).
whistles of trains
Reminiscent of Boris
accompanied by loud
Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago
gunfire fill the night
— whose backdrop is
with fear:' Frank
also a train ride across
writes, describing one
the Russian frontier
of Klara's nightmares.
during the Russian
This is his method of
Revolution — Frank's
helping both the read-
book retells the social
er and Klara's charac-
and political history of
ter digest some of the
Russia's cataclysmic class
disturbing imagery
struggle while imagin-
she has witnessed on
ing the plight of terror-
her journey.
ized Jews caught in the
Aboard trains, Klara
middle.
glimpses gun battles,
Ben G. Frank's historical
Frank, known for his
protests, beatings and
novel, Klara's Journey
Jewish travel guides to
sexual abuse. At one
South America, Europe
point, she even ducks
and Russia, also writes
under an older woman's
travel articles for Jewish magazines and
skirt to hide from Cossacks intent on rap-
newspapers.
ing female passengers.
Fiction is a departure from his usual
Klara discovers that her jeal-
work, but he shows here not only his
ous brother is following her in his
extensive knowledge about travel but
new capacity as a participant in the
his familiarity with history by heading
revolution, first as a Red spy in White-
each chapter with an introductory note
controlled territories and later as a
about its historical background. The
Soviet commissar.
result is a synthesis of fiction, history
Also, she falls in love with a young
and geography.
Red Cross worker, casting aside her
The story begins in 1917 with the
hesitation to become involved with him
overthrow of the czar, proceeding
because he is not Jewish.
through the short-lived government of
Her unswerving determination to
Alexander Kerensky and followed by the
find her father enables her to cope with
Bolshevik takeover. Ramifications of this
all kinds of burdens and adversities,
background and its development provide including hunger, illness and unfriendly
an ongoing setting for Klara's Journey.
— and ever-present — anti-Semites.
The title character is a 17-year-old
Frank's fast-paced adventure reveals
Jewish girl, Klara Rasputnis, living in
the desperation behind Jewish emigra-
Odessa with her mother; her brother,
tion from Russia in the wake of World
Mischa, who is a year younger than she; War I and treats Russia's descent into
communism on a human level, explor-
and her three younger sisters. Their
father is a cantor who left for Canada
ing how a coercive ideology contradict-
three years earlier, planning to send for
ed the Russian character and soul.
his family once he was settled.
Frank has fully demonstrated the
With no word from him, Klara's
capacity to make the transition from
mother has decided to send Klara to
travel writer to novelist. ❑
Canada to find her father. The trip will
Jeffrey F Barken of JNS.org contributed to
take her across Siberia to Manchuria to
this article.
Japan and across the Pacific Ocean to
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