Has anyone else read Kantika by Elizabeth graver? I just finished it yesterday and thought it was fantastic. It’s historical fiction based on the life story of the authors grandmother. It’s primarily about family relationships and secondarily about being Jewish in the early 20th century. It was really refreshing to have a story about a Jewish family that wasn’t centered around the Holocaust, but still was very true to feeling like a “stranger in a strange land” – not quite fitting in, not quite feeling safe, etc. It was a natural part of the story.
I also felt like her daughter, Luna, was a symbol of the Jewish experience. Working to fit in but not quite getting there. Her speech to her daughter when she says she thought better of the world, but the world disappointed her in it’s rejection of Luna I felt was especially poignant.
I highly recommend this book for those who like literary fiction centered around family relationships
by WheresTheIceCream20
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I read it when it came out this summer, and actually just participated in a community book talk about it. I really enjoyed it, too, for similar reasons. I don’t know if you’re Jewish or know about the main cultural groups, but we don’t have much Sephardic literature, at least in comparison to Ashkenazi lit in the US. It was good for me to read a familiar yet altogether different story of Jewish life.
I also enjoyed the linguistic lessons; I have friends who speak Ladino, but I never knew its place in the Spanish tree.