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From the New Yor4 Times bestselling author of Tile Dovekeepers

AL.ICE

Marriage Opp/ts

4 N°'".1

The mother of

the great painter

Camille Pissarro

is at the center of

The Marriage of

Opposites, set in

PHOTO BY DEBORAH FEINGOLD

St. Thomas.

Alice Hoffman

Sandee Brawarsky
The N.Y. Jewish Week

C

overing 30 square miles,
the island of St. Thomas
in the Caribbean is a
place of lush beauty, fragrant
with jasmine, surrounded by
blue-green water.
This seeming paradise was
a refuge for Jews fleeing the
Inquisition, crossing the ocean
from Spain and Portugal. Alice
Hoffman sets her latest novel,
The Marriage of Opposites (Simon
& Schuster) on the island, where
a synagogue rebuilt in the early
1800s has a sand floor — even as
its walls were covered with fine
mahogany and a crystal chande-
lier was hung in its center — to
remind congregants of an earlier
time, in other places, when they'd
have to muffle the sounds of
their prayer gatherings for fear of
being discovered.
The bestselling novelist
and author of more than 30
works of fiction, Hoffman was
inspired by the life of the leading
Impressionist painter Camille
Pissarro, born Jacobo Camille
Pizzarro in 1830 on what was then
the Danish colony of St. Thomas.
She saw an exhibit of his
work in the Berkshires and was
surprised to learn that he was
Jewish. Subsequent research led
her to his mother, Rachel Pomie
Pizzarro, an extraordinary figure
who was born on St. Thomas
in 1795 to parents who fled a
nearby island. On St. Thomas,
the King of Denmark outlawed

Alice
Hoffman's
Impressionist
Novel

new slavery and gave Jews the
same rights as others, including
practicing their religion freely.
Hoffman stays as close to the
facts of Rachel's life as possible,
creating a story infused by the
island's radiance and folklore,
and the comfortable but still-anx-
ious situation of the small Jewish
community.
Some said everything on the
island tasted of molasses (which,
along with rum, was one of the
two main exports). Some of the
Europeans who traveled there for
business couldn't abide the heat
and intense, bright light, and
weeping could be heard in dark-
ened homes of French wives who
accompanied their husbands.
The Jewish women, who spent
their afternoons visiting one
another and sipping tea, might
have appeared delicate, but they
were hardy: Most could climb on
their roofs and bolt the windows
closed in times of heavy storms.
Rachel was willful, exuber-
ant and rule-breaking, drawn
to the mysteries of the island as
a young girl, with considerable
loyalty and compassion; she was
as wise in the ways of business
as any man, although she had no
standing as a woman. Pomie, her
father's name, recalls the family's
apple orchards in France.
While growing up, Rachel
dreamed of seeing Paris, and
at night would sneak into her
father's library and read his leath-
er-bound volumes and look at his
maps by candlelight. While her
father wanted her to be educated,

hoping the laws of inheritance
would change so that she would
be able to run the family busi-
ness, her mother did not. The
two women shared a relationship
colder than anything on the sun-
drenched island.
Rachel's dreaming was cut
short when she agreed to an
arranged marriage with a wid-
ower who would become her
father's business partner. Twice
her age with three children, the
widower and Rachel had four
more children, the last born after
her husband's sudden death. She
took to being a mother in ways
that surprised her, but with seven
children, she felt even more stuck
on the island.
When Frederic, a young cousin
of her late husband's, is sent from
France to manage the business,
the two find great love together,
even as the community considers
their marriage scandalous as they
are considered relatives. They
live in dignity, yet they and their
children are initially treated as
outcasts, which later informs the
artist's worldview.
From a young age, Jacobo
Camille, a son of Rachel and
Frederic, was clever and dreamy,
wanting his freedom. Preferring
the harbor to school, he studied
the waves, sand, birds and light;
the landscape was his library. He
got out of bar mitzvah lessons by
giving his tutor a bottle of rum
from the family store and instead
would wander in the mountains
with his sketchbook. He was
Rachel's favored son, and he

JIN

shared her determination.
Hoffman's books are known
for their inventive, compelling
storytelling. The Marriage of
Opposites unfolds through mul-
tiple voices, and long-held secrets
are revealed through confidences
shared.
This is her third successive
novel with a dramatic narra-
tive on a Jewish theme. The
Dovekeepers, which was made
into a two-part television film
that aired earlier this year, was
set in ancient Israel, and The
Museum of Ordinary Things took
place in a Coney Island neighbor-
hood of immigrants at the begin-
ning of the 20th century.
"I write to learn more about
where I came from, what my
stories were says Hoffman, who
tends to do projects in threes,
so this is the last of her Jewish-
themed historical novels, at least
for now
Hoffman, who grew up on
Long Island, links her interest
in Jewish stories to her strong
connection to her grandmother
Lillie, an immigrant from Russia
who ran her own sewing shop
in the Bronx (keeping a hammer
nearby in case of thieves), and
volunteered at a nursing home
well into her 80s.
Her grandmother split her
retirement check with Hoffman,
enabling her to become a writer.
Hoffman wrote her first novel,
Property Of, at 21, while in
graduate school, and published it
shortly after, beginning her dis-
tinguished career.

❑

September 17 • 2015

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