Caitlin, determined never to be ordinary, is always testing the limits, and in adolescence falls hard for Von, an older construction worker, while Vix falls for his friend Bru. The years in between are related in brief segments by numerous characters, but mostly by Vix. The story of how this casual invitation turns the two girls into what they call "Summer sisters" is prefaced with a prologue in which Vix is asked by Caitlin to be her matron of honor. Caitlin, on the other hand, lives part of the year with her wealthy mother Phoebe, who’s just moved to Albuquerque, and summers with her father Lamb, equally affluent, on the Vineyard. Victoria, or more commonly Vix, lives in a small house her brother has muscular dystrophy her mother is unhappy, and money is scarce. In sixth grade, when Victoria Weaver is asked by new girl Caitlin Somers to spend the summer with her on Martha’s Vineyard, her life changes forever. The years pass by at a fast and steamy clip in Blume’s latest adult novel (Wifey, not reviewed Smart Women, 1984) as two friends find loyalties and affections tested as they grow into young women. This engaging tale deftly captures the complexities that gave birth to the modern Middle East. The intricate story also sadly reinforces, as one character notes, how “it is far easier to turn the dial up toward ‘hatred’ than in the opposite direction.” The patrons, ordinary Berliners, flashy war profiteers, refugees, all had a common goal: bury the bad memories, live life to the fullest”). Still, this book colorfully depicts this volatile era in various places, including Berlin (“The restaurants, cafés, nightclubs, cinemas, all the places for diversion, were flourishing, filled to capacity in the daytime and nighttime. Fictional Harry occasionally disappears from view as the sweeping tale’s historical figures share backstories and/or conduct business. Waldmann’s ambitious novel, which includes a host of real-life characters and events, makes for largely intriguing but at times overwhelming reading. Then Harry receives another life-changing opportunity. There, he follows the trial for the Armenian who assassinated an Ottoman leader living in Berlin. Following Germany’s defeat in the war, Harry returns to Berlin. Ottoman and German leaders create “jihadi propaganda” to incite area Muslims to fight, but this also results in the horrific Armenian purge. Then the launch of World War I escalates tensions. His editor notes that European powers “all want to be on the spot when it finally collapses.” Harry is particularly excited to have proximity to Palestine, since “Germany-all of Europe in fact-holds at best only a second-class future for Jews.” He does press check-ins with German and Turkish notables in Constantinople but also connects with Zionist leaders in the area and soon travels to Jewish settlements in Palestine. In January 1914, Harry Haller, 24, becomes his Berlin newspaper’s correspondent in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. In this historical novel, a German Jewish journalist witnesses the rise of Zionism and the ramifications of the Armenian purge following his assignment to Constantinople on the eve of World War I.
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