From the very first chapter, I’ve been hooked on this novel. Starting out with the murder of Lazarus Averbuch, Hemon used a wonderful tactic of keeping the reader intrigued. He also accomplishes this by alternating between the story of Lazarus and his own personal goals of getting to the bottom this mysterious murder that happened over a century ago, which relates to memoir The Same River Twice and it’s structure. This second section begins with the “Fitzes” busting up into Olga Averbuch’s home, interrogating her about her brother. I thought it was absolutely terrible how they refused to come right out and say he had been shot, but instead took her to the morgue to see his dead body with her own two eyes. She wasn’t at all expecting to see her brother dead, which was evident in her fainting thereafter. All of the policemen seem like truly crooked people. Although it is 1908, and all of the equality rights have yet to be established, it still surprised me at just how terribly this situation was handled. Even putting the actual shooting aside, the way the policemen bitterly act toward his grieving sister literally sent chills down my spine. I feel so lucky to live in a society that, while still far from perfect, knows that there is nothing okay about this murder or how the officials are handling it. I am so interested to learn what Lazarus was there for to begin with; however, I know Brik will have to do a lot of uncovering to uncover this hidden truth, since the chief of police picked up the letter himself. I have a feeling it had absolutely nothing to do with anarchy. The police end up telling Olga by the end of the chapter to “Think of others, of their disrupted live. Imagine how they might feel. This is a time for sacrifice.” This really angered me, for Olga merely wanted her brother to be buried according to Jewish tradition, and they wouldn’t even allow her to do so. They had already killed her brother under unclear circumstances, and now they wouldn’t even let Olga put his body to rest as custom in her society. And on top of that, they have the nerve to tell her to imagine how others might feel! How about her feelings? I cannot even picture the pain she felt. In the next chapter, Brik and Rora begin their journey to Lviv, Ukraine. When discussing Rora’s time with Rambo’s unit, the narrator says, “What does not need to be seen will not be seen.” I feel like this relates directly to the story of Lazarus. I thought it was really interesting how the blackout Later, when the chapters switch again, Olga reflects on her brother’s life and thinks, “All the lives he could have lived.” This is repetitive from the beginning of the book, a thought Lazarus had while walking the streets towards the store. The line, “She will never laugh again,” on page 95 exemplified how much her brother’s death had affected Olga, and at the end of the chapter we see her fantasizing as she lies in bed that Lazarus knocks on the door, and she embraces him, still alive despite all that has happened. I really hope that justice shines through in the end, though given this time period, I realize this wish is very doubtful.
Vocabulary Words
Moribund: being in the state of dying
Promulgated: formally made public
Gossamer: a gauze fabric with extremely fine tecture
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