Thewanderingjew

The Guest Book, Sarah Blake, author; Orlagh Cassidy, narrator. This is a lengthy book which attempts to tackle some very serious historic societal problems. Using a healthy number of characters and a time line that travels back and forth over several decades, the author highlights the way people lived and treated each other, beginning in the late 1920’s, as it follows three generations of a family that lives through the Great Depression, the Holocaust and more. The Miltons were a wealthy WASP family in the investment business. After suffering the tragic loss of a child, Ogden Milton decided to purchase an island to help his wife move on emotionally, and to use as a family retreat, so as to leave their mark on the world, to make them part of history, to mark them as “facts” as a family that had lived and prospered on this earth. He and his wife Kitty, envisioned family outings there. It was a place that would give them their identity and earn them the respect of others in their class which would follow the family for generations to come. Crockett’s Island would be known as the Milton’s Island. Kitty saw a future with her family continuing to enjoy its place in society, in the hierarchy of those brought up properly, with manners and rules of behavior, those who believed they were a cut above most people and deserved the right to exist in their rarefied atmosphere, untouched by the hoi polloi. She saw a family that was content and thriving with dignity. Friends and family of their same social strata were welcomed to the island and yearly rituals and celebrations were observed. Those in the upper echelon of society prided themselves on being “good” and respectful to all, never overtly insulting anyone, but also never allowing anyone of a different class, color or background into their inner circle. They tolerated others, but they did not embrace them. Although the characters were diverse in color, religion, class, health, aspirations, and hints at, perhaps, sexual preference, they each knew their place in life and some struggled in the uphill battle against the tide of the acceptable norms of the day. Each had a different and unique view of the world which they pursued. Some were more forgiving and some were more judgmental, some had more freedom of choice and some were constricted by family expectations. Some were bitter and some were Pollyannaish. Anti-Semitism and racism were a particular focus in the novel, as well as the way certain illnesses were viewed by an unsophisticated public and medical establishment. White privilege and the class divide were front and center. Those who wished to remove some societal constraints were not fully able to make the changes necessary or even to embrace them wholly. In some ways, each character was molded into a shape and form that could be altered, but not redeemed. Many mistakes were made. There were misunderstanding and many secrets that were kept which reverberated down the generations for decades to influence the lives of the descendants. Change, if any, was slow in coming. Moss Milton marched to the beat of another drummer, but was not permitted to really pursue his dream of being a musician. He was expected to step into his father’s shoes and continue the financial dynasty. Len Levy, a Jew, was not truly welcomed by Kitty Milton into her world, although he worked for Ogden Milton and was well respected by him. Reg Pauling was black and was a good friend of Moss. Both Len and Reg had chips on their shoulders, perhaps justified, about the way they were treated by the world. Moss, Len and Reg, an unusual combination, were good friends, although the three lived in and hailed from vastly different worlds. Would their friendship survive? Evelyn and Joan Milton were sisters. Evelyn was very protective of her sister who suffered from occasional seizures which, although under controll, could occur without notice. Joan was ashamed of her affliction and vowed not to marry so as not to pass on the Epilepsy to any progeny. She considered it unfair to marry since it was her obligation to produce children for her husband who had the right to expect heirs. Although, in business, Ogden Milton respected effort and capability and did not fault anyone based on their religion or color, he did not expect to have to fraternize with them. He preferred those of his own ilk. While he was more open to embracing people of different backgrounds at work, and he even entertained them on the island retreat, it was where his idea of being inclusive and accepting all, ended. In his business dealings, he didn’t even mind dealing with the Germans during the Holocaust. Ogden simply believed that one did what one had to do, and he did what was expedient for his business to thrive, without questioning the rightness or wrongness of his transactions. In its way, Ogden’s own class also believed in racial superiority. Both Ogden and Kitty belonged to a higher echelon that chose to ignore the things that were upsetting, the things that they could not control, preferring to keep their lives uncluttered with problems that they couldn’t fix. They wished to try to be content with their lives, at all times. They had the power of their money and their stellar reputations to enhance their efforts. Things that were upsetting were simply swept under the rug, ignored and not discussed. Len Levy and Joan Milton fell in love, but it was a forbidden match, and as it plays out throughout the book, it illustrates the differences in the way people thought about and treated each other, in the way they accepted each other’s values. To Joan, although she loved Len, he was larger, louder (the stereotype and anti-Semitic trope about a Jew), than those White Anglo-Saxon Protestants who simply just knew how to behave. It was very difficult to envision his being accepted or finding a place in her world. Her brother’s relationship with Reg exposed the racial and civil rights issues of the day. Reg was often refused entry to places, and he sometimes felt that he was invited to make the person inviting him feel righteous. Eventually, as time passed, Joan and Evelyn married and had families of their own that married and had children. Following the deaths of Ogden and Kitty, the island passed to them, but as decades passed, the heirs began to run out of money to keep and maintain the island. Some had moved on, recognizing that the way of life on Crockett’s Island was passé and over the top. Some, like Evie Schlesinger, clung to their need to feel that it was something of great value as it represented who they were, the Miltons of Crockett Island, that it marked the very fact of their existence. There are so many secrets that pop up intermittently, that I found that their revelations often seemed unclear for both the reader and the characters in the way that they were played out. Sometimes, because past and present intermingled, it seemed not only confusing, but perhaps a bit tedious. Also, at times, rather than feeling authentic, it felt contrived, as if the author really just wanted to present a book to illustrate the progressive social issues of race, religion and class that have and continue to divide our country. Elitism and white privilege are front and center as the author presents the shallowness of business on a Wall Street preoccupied with greed. The horrors of racism and anti-Semitism were highlighted, and they seemed to be planted into the pages of the novel for that purpose alone. The author presented a story that illustrated the fact that although we might have the best of intentions, the results sometimes go awry because they are not fully or meaningfully executed. True change has not yet occurred and some, especially those who would truly benefit from the changes which would advance society, have lost hope that the vision of a more idealistic world would ever be realized. Does true love stands the test of time, although it is unrequited? Are we a class conscious, racist and anti-Semitic country that has still not become more inclusive and moved into the future? Are we stuck in the past, obsessed with our elitist views? Was the book about overcoming adversity or about a world that was at its heart a good place, a world that would overcome the evils of the past so that all could prosper in the future? Was the book about claiming a place in history? Some interesting facts in the book came to light, like the story about the stumble stones for the Jews of Berlin, Germany. A stumble stone marked a person’s place, to prove that they existed. Many of the characters also wanted to leave their mark, to have the world know that they had been there, so that they didn’t simply live, then die, as if they never had been there at all. There were examples of barriers being broken down by succeeding generations with interfaith relationships and marriages, with views about unnecessary, excessive materialism. There were examples of the redemption of those who had lived well, but not as kindly as they should have lived. There were interesting examples of racism which showed how Reg dealt with the hate and exclusion he had to deal with and which should be a lesson to all readers. Would his wounds ever heal? This is a good read, but it could have used further editing to make the flow of the narrative a bit smoother. It holds the reader’s interest as we are given a window into the lives of the upper crust that lived in all of their glory, through the ups and downs of society, never discussing or allowing troublesome issues to bother them, but rather just moving on in the exalted air of their world.