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A review by novabird
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
3.0
This book despite its easy to read style was very confusing for me to rate, because of the heavy content simply delivered. I can see now that it is through Lenka’s voice that we as readers remain detached as Richman uses numbness as Lenka’s emotional tone to ensure her survival. Yet my question that remains is as an artist how realistic is it that Lenka stayed as aloof as she did? Is the answer that her memories of her husband and her art were enough to sustain her, sufficient? We read nothing really in the way of witnessing other people around her for whom they would have had stronger responses to their situation of imprisonment in a work camp, other than a fight between two sisters, which Lenka coolly observes that it was hard to believe that they were sisters.
The Lost Wife, is labelled a ‘Romance,’ at my library with cute little red hearts on a white background. The irony of this is apparent to me as this novel read more as, ‘Historical Fiction,’ than as a, ‘love story.’ Yes, there was evidence of love in its many forms throughout the novel, from maternal, to fraternal. In reality, there was very little romantic love except for the idealized, early memories of Lenka and Josef’s relationship of a one-week marriage.
However, Richman’s writing has a beauty to it that is simple, clean, with some illuminating passages.
What moved me most is what touched Lenka the most and that was the birth of a blue baby. I could see Rita and her newborn son, Adi, and my heart twanged and my throat ached. Although I expected my tears to flow, they did not, and I wonder why. I think maybe it had to do with the foreshadowing of the color blue; by showing Josef’s son Jacob as favoring the color blue and being ‘different,’ by the blue paperweight given to Josef by his grandson, by the birth of Josef’s grandson, who had all the modern medical help in delivery and yet was born blue. That given the dire difference in birth circumstances, the reader had an expectation that Rita’s and Adi’s birth experience would not end as happily. During Lenka’s capturing the portrait of mother and child, we hear the strongest evocation of emotion when Rita ‘cries like a frightened animal,’ and Lenka’s ‘in an act of almost primordial desperation.’ Here again with the latter we hear a distancing effect Richman uses with Lenka’ voice by describing her experience as an act, instead of saying, ‘out of a deep primordial desperation.’.
Maybe it was the structuring of such short chapters, or the longer chapters separated into so many shorter passages, where you don’t really get a deeper chance to continue the narratives of either Lenka or Josef, but instead get quick sketches. Or, maybe it was the incongruency I felt with the blending of historical fiction and romance, where the underground art movement held my attention more. Or, maybe it was the different time frames used for comparison between the story of Lenka’s early life followed by a 52 year encapsulation of her marriage to Carl and Josef’s ongoing life did not match up that I think added to the distancing effect that I experienced.
But for some reason I had a feeling of detachment during my reading of The Lost Wife. Yet I know the visual ‘images,’ will stay with me forever, even as the characters themselves will definitely fade.
I am torn on how to rate this. “The Lost Wife,” has certainly had an impact on me both visually and factually and with the simple beautiful prose and these points will keep this work memorable in my mind. Yet the distancing effect created by Lenka’s voice and the way Richman constructed the framework of “The Lost Wife,” lost its promise of engagement. In some ways this is both a best and worst novel, so much so, that I can only fairly give it a straight up 3, when it could have been so much more had Lenka experienced greater internal conflict(like when she experiences desire for Petr) rather than a generalized nervousness and had the Lenka and Josef alternating sections had stronger parallels. As well, I can think of a much better and earlier meeting of Lenka and Josef. One in which Petr’s portrait of Lenka surfaces and is discovered by Josef and they are reunited earlier and this would have developed the plot line of the underground artist movement much better as well.
After thought: I wonder if Richman deliberately cast Lenka as dissociated from life, It is apparent that she did, so I think Richman could have better prepared the reader with a 'sudden' shift in her demeanor through an event, or with more difficulty shown a slow progression towards numbness, as it stands the explanation is left off for far too long.
The Lost Wife, is labelled a ‘Romance,’ at my library with cute little red hearts on a white background. The irony of this is apparent to me as this novel read more as, ‘Historical Fiction,’ than as a, ‘love story.’ Yes, there was evidence of love in its many forms throughout the novel, from maternal, to fraternal. In reality, there was very little romantic love except for the idealized, early memories of Lenka and Josef’s relationship of a one-week marriage.
However, Richman’s writing has a beauty to it that is simple, clean, with some illuminating passages.
“I had to teach myself that love was very much like a painting. The negative space between people was just as important as the positive space we occupy. The air between our resting bodies, and the breath in our conversations, were all like the white of the canvas, and the rest our relationship- the laughter and the memories- were the brushstroke applied over time.”
Spoiler
What I really felt was the Jewish People’s resistance in singing, “Requiem,” as this showed that they were not defeated, and it made me think of hope in a dark place, choosing to sing despite the fact that they would be transported. I could hear them singing in beautiful defiance.What moved me most is what touched Lenka the most and that was the birth of a blue baby. I could see Rita and her newborn son, Adi, and my heart twanged and my throat ached. Although I expected my tears to flow, they did not, and I wonder why. I think maybe it had to do with the foreshadowing of the color blue; by showing Josef’s son Jacob as favoring the color blue and being ‘different,’ by the blue paperweight given to Josef by his grandson, by the birth of Josef’s grandson, who had all the modern medical help in delivery and yet was born blue. That given the dire difference in birth circumstances, the reader had an expectation that Rita’s and Adi’s birth experience would not end as happily. During Lenka’s capturing the portrait of mother and child, we hear the strongest evocation of emotion when Rita ‘cries like a frightened animal,’ and Lenka’s ‘in an act of almost primordial desperation.’ Here again with the latter we hear a distancing effect Richman uses with Lenka’ voice by describing her experience as an act, instead of saying, ‘out of a deep primordial desperation.’.
Maybe it was the structuring of such short chapters, or the longer chapters separated into so many shorter passages, where you don’t really get a deeper chance to continue the narratives of either Lenka or Josef, but instead get quick sketches. Or, maybe it was the incongruency I felt with the blending of historical fiction and romance, where the underground art movement held my attention more. Or, maybe it was the different time frames used for comparison between the story of Lenka’s early life followed by a 52 year encapsulation of her marriage to Carl and Josef’s ongoing life did not match up that I think added to the distancing effect that I experienced.
But for some reason I had a feeling of detachment during my reading of The Lost Wife. Yet I know the visual ‘images,’ will stay with me forever, even as the characters themselves will definitely fade.
I am torn on how to rate this. “The Lost Wife,” has certainly had an impact on me both visually and factually and with the simple beautiful prose and these points will keep this work memorable in my mind. Yet the distancing effect created by Lenka’s voice and the way Richman constructed the framework of “The Lost Wife,” lost its promise of engagement. In some ways this is both a best and worst novel, so much so, that I can only fairly give it a straight up 3, when it could have been so much more had Lenka experienced greater internal conflict(like when she experiences desire for Petr) rather than a generalized nervousness and had the Lenka and Josef alternating sections had stronger parallels. As well, I can think of a much better and earlier meeting of Lenka and Josef. One in which Petr’s portrait of Lenka surfaces and is discovered by Josef and they are reunited earlier and this would have developed the plot line of the underground artist movement much better as well.
After thought: I wonder if Richman deliberately cast Lenka as dissociated from life,