By: Lev Raphael Publisher: Leapfrog Press Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Leapfrog Press Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 206 Publication Date: September 01, 2003
"Lev Raphael is a daring writer-one who will not be -restrained by genre, but who tells his story with all the tools at his command. The German Money combines all of Raphael's estimable talents, delivering an emotional thriller about a totally believable contemporary family coming to terms with fifty years of silence."-Edmund White
Best known for Dancing on Tisha B'Av, the groundbreaking story collection exploring the lives of children of Holocaust survivors, Lev Raphael is also the author of five popular mysteries. Now he combines his talents in a story of emotional suspense.
Paul has spent his life running-from New York, the city of his birth; from his beautiful beshert; from contact with his own siblings; but mostly from his mother, a Holocaust survivor of inexplicable coldness. Upon her mysterious death, the children face shocking questions. What caused her to die? Why did she divide their inheritance so that Paul, the least favorite son, was singled out to receive the most, the dreaded "German money,"a bequest of a million dollars accrued from German reparations to survivors . . . a gift as cynical as it is generous.
"Lev Raphael's new novel is a powerful, haunting and erotic tale. The stunning narrative builds to a shocking -denouement and kept me turning pages faster and faster to learn the truth."-Linda Fairstein
Lev Raphael is the author of thirteen books and known internationally as an insightful chronicler of the lives of the children of Holocaust survivors. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award, among many prizes, his short works have appeared in two dozen anthologies, including American Jewish Fiction: A Century of Stories. He is a book critic for National Public Radio and mysteries columnist for the Detroit Free Press.
Fails to tackle the issues. We read this in our shul book club, and our opinion was unanimous: it is a thin mystery, poorly written. Raphael opens up several Big Issues in this book and fails to close even one of them. The characters are dysfunctional, and we know why, but he doesn't offer us any insight into the nuances of this dysfunction.
This book needed to be longer and better written to justify the serious issues it hangs its plot on.
The German Money Although I liked this book, I found it to be just a little too wordy. The ending was really a surprise.
Since I'm from Michigan, I found the author's use of Michigan areas to be nostalgic for me.
This would be a good book for book clubs who are into holocost themes to be interesting for discussion
Lev Raphel's German Money, Heck of a Good Read The German Money is a fascinating commentary on the psychological dynamics of a family living with the legacy of the Holocaust. The characters are authentic, flawed human beings with whom the reader easily identifies as they struggle over inheritance money, reparations for earlier suffering. The story is well-told, engaging the reader in the agony, love and laughter of the characters. A poignant look into the lives of children of the survivors of one of the most evil periods in the world's history. A book that's hard to put down and that lingers long after the last page is read.
an unconventional mystery At first this book seems a novel - not a mystery - composed of dialogue and three character studies. The plot unfolds slowly. It's not a conventional mystery story but it gathers momentum, becoming suspenseful when the plot takes an unexpected, very unexpected, scarcely believable turn, challenging the assumptions I made about two of the characters. The Holocaust and the German reparations,the German money, are presented in an indirect way, forming an important backdrop, implicitly the base of the story. The crux is not what was passed on from one generation to the next but what was not told, a taboo.
A damaged family The mother of three adult disturbed siblings dies. She has profitably invested the money she got from Holocaust compensation, and leaves this to one of her sons in her Will. The damaged family relationships are brilliantly described; descriptive passages are often strikingly original and successful (the setting is New York and Michigan); and if in places it is a little repetitive, that could be excused on the grounds that the principal characters themselves are obsessional.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
