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The Imposter Bride: A Novel
The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler is an unforgettable novel about a mysterious mail-order bride in the wake of WWII, whose sudden decision ripples through time to deeply impact the daughter she never knew
In the wake of World War II, a young, enigmatic woman named Lily arrives in Montreal on her own, expecting to be married to a man she's never met. But, upon seeing her at the train station, Sol Kramer turns her down. Out of pity, his brother Nathan decides to marry her instead, and pity turns into a deep―and doomed―love. It is immediately clear that Lily is not who she claims to be. Her attempt to live out her life as Lily Azerov shatters when she disappears, leaving a new husband and a baby daughter with only a diary, a large uncut diamond – and a need to find the truth
Who is Lily and what happened to the young woman whose identity she stole? Why has she left and where did she go? It's up to the daughter Lily abandoned to find the answers to these questions, as she searches for the mother she may never find or truly know.
In the wake of World War II, a young, enigmatic woman named Lily arrives in Montreal on her own, expecting to be married to a man she's never met. But, upon seeing her at the train station, Sol Kramer turns her down. Out of pity, his brother Nathan decides to marry her instead, and pity turns into a deep―and doomed―love. It is immediately clear that Lily is not who she claims to be. Her attempt to live out her life as Lily Azerov shatters when she disappears, leaving a new husband and a baby daughter with only a diary, a large uncut diamond – and a need to find the truth
Who is Lily and what happened to the young woman whose identity she stole? Why has she left and where did she go? It's up to the daughter Lily abandoned to find the answers to these questions, as she searches for the mother she may never find or truly know.
357 pages, Hardcover
First published March 20, 2012
About the author
Nancy Richler
4 books44 followersNancy Richler was a Canadian novelist. Born in Montreal, Quebec in 1957, she spent much of her adult life and career in Vancouver, British Columbia before returning to Montreal in the early 2010s.
Richler published her first novel, Throwaway Angels, in 1996. The novel was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Her 2003 novel Your Mouth Is Lovely won the 2003 Canadian Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the 2004 Adei Wizo Award. Her 2012 novel The Impostor Bride was a shortlisted nominee for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Richler published her first novel, Throwaway Angels, in 1996. The novel was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Her 2003 novel Your Mouth Is Lovely won the 2003 Canadian Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the 2004 Adei Wizo Award. Her 2012 novel The Impostor Bride was a shortlisted nominee for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 918 reviews
January 31, 2013
This is one of those books that makes me wonder what the publishing companies are really thinking. I’ve read many self-published titles that are much, much better than this book, so what’s the deal?
The main problem is that the book is so dull. I kept hoping for it to pick up, for some of the pieces to click together, but it just droned on, as if the writer had to reach a particular word count. None of the characters leave any kind of mark in the reader; they are all superficially written and completely interchangeable. Apart from that, the plot is a convoluted mess that is never cleared up. There is so much left unanswered, as if the author just ran out of time and said “screw it, they’ll get it”. Well, no, we don’t get it. What about the stones that Ruth keeps getting? What is the symbolism of those? Why did her mother leave her, really? There is just a lot that we’re supposed to take on faith and it just doesn’t work.
This book needed a major overhaul, a complete rewrite so that the readers don’t fall asleep halfway through a chapter. I can’t recommend this one. There’s so many more interesting books out there; try something else.
The main problem is that the book is so dull. I kept hoping for it to pick up, for some of the pieces to click together, but it just droned on, as if the writer had to reach a particular word count. None of the characters leave any kind of mark in the reader; they are all superficially written and completely interchangeable. Apart from that, the plot is a convoluted mess that is never cleared up. There is so much left unanswered, as if the author just ran out of time and said “screw it, they’ll get it”. Well, no, we don’t get it. What about the stones that Ruth keeps getting? What is the symbolism of those? Why did her mother leave her, really? There is just a lot that we’re supposed to take on faith and it just doesn’t work.
This book needed a major overhaul, a complete rewrite so that the readers don’t fall asleep halfway through a chapter. I can’t recommend this one. There’s so many more interesting books out there; try something else.
March 31, 2013
This book was very intriguing in the beginning.. With a very promising main plot line and several minor subplots that were equally interesting. I see the story has been described several times already, so I won't. I simply found it disappointing. We are taken through Ruth's entire life feeling her emptiness and asking her questions. Wondering what tormented Lily so much...why rocks arrived as birthday gifts... And so forth. There was a mystical uncut diamond and mysterious journals.. One empty. It was insinuated that Ruth would finish that journal, but all the end of the story that too was just a plan. I felt that Ruth meeting her mother would bring that character to life, and answer all of those questions, pull the story together. But the meeting was short and uneventful, giving me no satisfaction whatsoever in understanding all of the wonderful mysteries the author created. It was almost as though the author was just tired of writing it, and decided to have the two meet with the mother giving no answers and the daughter somehow being ok with that. I wasn't ok with that lol!! I wouldn't recommend the waste of time that is this book, sadly:(
January 14, 2013
I think Nancy Richler wanted to write a *good* book. *The Impostor Bride* dances around being good, but lacks rhythm and grace and so slouches awkwardly around the dance-floor, making it awkward for everyone reading, but the effort at goodness is altogether too sincere to turn away.
The plot offers originality - a war-bride shows up in Canada, is scorned by her betrothed because he sees “something” amiss in her, she marries his brother, gives birth, abandons the child and runs away. We learn over the course of the novel the practical reasons for her abandonment (the titular “impostor”), and are meant, I think, to also contemplate the psychic and affective reasons she might also leave. The book makes a sincere attempt to point the finger at the (oft suggested “unspeakable”) atrocities of the Holocaust as being “too much” for the young bride, but without entering these events - or even shadows of them - into the plot *and* without offering Lily’s narrative point of view (even a third person limited would have gone a long way) these “unspeakable” reasons are left to the reader’s speculation and are not, as Richler might have hoped, compelling enough to justify the abandonment of a child. Indeed, our first person protagonist - the abandoned daughter - rightly points out that many of her peers have parents of this generation of “unspeakable” events who did not leave (even if they do exhibit erratic behaviour), so why did *her* mother leave?
For this reason the plot events that supposedly explain the abandonment do not hold water. Nor does the eventual explanation of how members of her family knew, and didn’t tell her. Nor, too, the hastily and inexpertly constructed reunion scene (not a spoiler, I think, because the progression of the plot is such that it can *only* resolve in a reunion). A note on the reunion (as it particularly irked me as it’s the climax and the apparent justification for so much weaving in and out of time - we’re meant to get *here*): not only were the scenes rushed, especially when contrasted with the earlier scenes that explore in great length everything from depressed smoking to school yard bickering, but the explanation offered by Lily which is in effect the explanation of “I have no explanation,” would be fine, indeed, it would be complicated and profound, if we had Ruth *do* something with the explanation, think something about it, reflect on it, reject it, respond, react. Instead we witness the reunion, hear the paltry account of why she left, find no explanation of the mysterious rocks, hear nothing of Ruth’s reaction or thoughts.
A plot climax without an attendant climax in character development or theme. And a frustrating plot climax at that because it doesn’t bring a satisfactory explanation (maybe because there isn’t one? not that there isn’t in the world, but because Richler hadn’t imagined what that could be?).
And so I wanted to like *The Impostor Bride* - it had all the elements of Can Lit that I adore: historical fiction, strong female protagonists, World War Two, family drama. And yet, it’s not a book I’d ever take on a second date: far too awkward for the effort.
The plot offers originality - a war-bride shows up in Canada, is scorned by her betrothed because he sees “something” amiss in her, she marries his brother, gives birth, abandons the child and runs away. We learn over the course of the novel the practical reasons for her abandonment (the titular “impostor”), and are meant, I think, to also contemplate the psychic and affective reasons she might also leave. The book makes a sincere attempt to point the finger at the (oft suggested “unspeakable”) atrocities of the Holocaust as being “too much” for the young bride, but without entering these events - or even shadows of them - into the plot *and* without offering Lily’s narrative point of view (even a third person limited would have gone a long way) these “unspeakable” reasons are left to the reader’s speculation and are not, as Richler might have hoped, compelling enough to justify the abandonment of a child. Indeed, our first person protagonist - the abandoned daughter - rightly points out that many of her peers have parents of this generation of “unspeakable” events who did not leave (even if they do exhibit erratic behaviour), so why did *her* mother leave?
For this reason the plot events that supposedly explain the abandonment do not hold water. Nor does the eventual explanation of how members of her family knew, and didn’t tell her. Nor, too, the hastily and inexpertly constructed reunion scene (not a spoiler, I think, because the progression of the plot is such that it can *only* resolve in a reunion). A note on the reunion (as it particularly irked me as it’s the climax and the apparent justification for so much weaving in and out of time - we’re meant to get *here*): not only were the scenes rushed, especially when contrasted with the earlier scenes that explore in great length everything from depressed smoking to school yard bickering, but the explanation offered by Lily which is in effect the explanation of “I have no explanation,” would be fine, indeed, it would be complicated and profound, if we had Ruth *do* something with the explanation, think something about it, reflect on it, reject it, respond, react. Instead we witness the reunion, hear the paltry account of why she left, find no explanation of the mysterious rocks, hear nothing of Ruth’s reaction or thoughts.
A plot climax without an attendant climax in character development or theme. And a frustrating plot climax at that because it doesn’t bring a satisfactory explanation (maybe because there isn’t one? not that there isn’t in the world, but because Richler hadn’t imagined what that could be?).
And so I wanted to like *The Impostor Bride* - it had all the elements of Can Lit that I adore: historical fiction, strong female protagonists, World War Two, family drama. And yet, it’s not a book I’d ever take on a second date: far too awkward for the effort.
November 18, 2014
Intriguing premise, not well executed. The book just dragged, I found myself skimming even though I am trying to read slower than usual to make my summer stack of books last longer! The story could have been more interesting, the dialogue did not feel realistic, especially when immigrants give long passages of speech in perfect, highly literate English, and most of the story was told thru the perspective of a very dull young girl.I did not find the characters fully realized, and telling me over and over that a young girl has a crush on a boy, without ever making me understand why made me feel that the author presumed that I knew him and would "just understand"... There was a lot of repetition, and the name dropping of places in Montreal was fun for me as an ex-Montrealer, but might leave those not familiar with the city wondering why one restaurant or street is different from another. The characters would do/think/see something that I felt would change the direction of their life, make it more interesting, and then that thread would be dropped. It really felt like the author had reread her childhood diaries (crushes, incidents with best friends, first contact with anti-semitism, dates, spending time with her aunt/cousins) and then incorporated another story ( a refugee's assumed identity after the war) around her childhood. Finally, the ending felt thin and hollow.
October 23, 2012
This fine novel, set mostly in Montreal (with segments from Poland and from Thunder Bay,) is another on the short list for the 2012 Giller Prize in Canada. Unlike the other three novels on the list, this is a quiet and textured exploration of family interaction -- less dramatic and expansive than "Ru," or "419" or "Inside." "The Imposter Bride" is a reflective and introspective probing of the impact on a young woman of her mother's unexplained desertion shortly after her birth. There is a quiet depth and sensitivity to the writing, and a focus on time and place that makes this novel at once commonplace yet powerful.
A Polish woman who calls herself Lily Azerov comes to Montreal after World War Two, marries into a family in the close-knit Jewish community there, gradually tries to escape from her war-time nightmares, and has a child, Ruth -- an all too common story in the post-Holocaust world. Then suddenly, stepping out to buy a bottle of milk, she departs, leaving her husband a note of apology. Why has she gone? How has this come to pass? And what are the results for her daughter and the family she leaves? This could be a drama, a story of suspense and danger -- yet Richler does something more interesting than that. She presents instead a careful dissection of how Ruth over the years grapples with what seems a profound rejection that turns her life toward a conformist effort to find affirmation in a conventional life. Ruth's story, in turn, gradually becomes the vehicle by which the enigma of Lily is ultimately unfolded -- and Lily's story comes to be seen in many respects as the antithesis of Ruth's. Lily's life, it becomes clear, is one of passion, of defying the odds, of survival despite immense dangers -- an unconventional life that she could not, it turned out, carry forward in the close family confines in Montreal.
What are the implications of this juxtaposition of the two lives of mother and daughter? For me, that's a fascinating question. What does Ruth make of the life that Lily in the end reveals to her? How does Lily feel about the much safer world that Ruth has built for herself?
With her skills and sensitivity, I wanted to see Richler confront these questions. But she does not. She writes her story, and she writes it well. But Ruth remains a character with depths that remain unexplored. There is a tension suggested with her husband, but this is not pursued in the book. Lily, too, remains an unfinished character for me -- never really addressing the reality of her daughter despite the insight we develop into why she left Montreal.
It is, of course, easy to say that I wanted another 100 pages in a book already 350 pages long. But Nancy Richler has written this novel so well, she conveys such sensitivity and understanding of family, that I feel justified in demanding more -- even while recognizing how much this author has given us in this excellent book.
A Polish woman who calls herself Lily Azerov comes to Montreal after World War Two, marries into a family in the close-knit Jewish community there, gradually tries to escape from her war-time nightmares, and has a child, Ruth -- an all too common story in the post-Holocaust world. Then suddenly, stepping out to buy a bottle of milk, she departs, leaving her husband a note of apology. Why has she gone? How has this come to pass? And what are the results for her daughter and the family she leaves? This could be a drama, a story of suspense and danger -- yet Richler does something more interesting than that. She presents instead a careful dissection of how Ruth over the years grapples with what seems a profound rejection that turns her life toward a conformist effort to find affirmation in a conventional life. Ruth's story, in turn, gradually becomes the vehicle by which the enigma of Lily is ultimately unfolded -- and Lily's story comes to be seen in many respects as the antithesis of Ruth's. Lily's life, it becomes clear, is one of passion, of defying the odds, of survival despite immense dangers -- an unconventional life that she could not, it turned out, carry forward in the close family confines in Montreal.
What are the implications of this juxtaposition of the two lives of mother and daughter? For me, that's a fascinating question. What does Ruth make of the life that Lily in the end reveals to her? How does Lily feel about the much safer world that Ruth has built for herself?
With her skills and sensitivity, I wanted to see Richler confront these questions. But she does not. She writes her story, and she writes it well. But Ruth remains a character with depths that remain unexplored. There is a tension suggested with her husband, but this is not pursued in the book. Lily, too, remains an unfinished character for me -- never really addressing the reality of her daughter despite the insight we develop into why she left Montreal.
It is, of course, easy to say that I wanted another 100 pages in a book already 350 pages long. But Nancy Richler has written this novel so well, she conveys such sensitivity and understanding of family, that I feel justified in demanding more -- even while recognizing how much this author has given us in this excellent book.
February 10, 2020
“I never really knew her," I said. "But you loved her," Ida answered, and again I wasn't sure if she meant that as an accusation or comfort. Was it less important or more important to know someone than to love them?”
― Nancy Richler, The Imposter Bride
I have several GR friends named Carolyn and thanks goes out to the Carolyn who reviews this book because she put it into words far better then I ever could.
So I did DNF this. I read for awhile and..just did not fel much of anything. I could not connect with it and felt no tension.
Sometimes books are just not the right book at the right time so that is always possible. But for me.,I quit about a quarter of the way in.
I am sure many have read books that sound on paper like they will be instant classics in your mind. And then been let down. So that is sort of what happened to me.
I loved the premise. It reminded me of My cousin Rachel or Reliable Wife. Those are two books I adored so the subject was for me.
And at first I loved the descriptive writing of the time period.
But the book did not read like a mystery. It was slow going and the characters seemed flat. I could not connect.
The book is much darker then I had thought it would be which would usually be OK but it was not "Gothic dark". I did not feel any mystery.
It seems more to me a family saga then anything else.
I may pick it up at a later time as I have done that with some books and come to love them.
― Nancy Richler, The Imposter Bride
I have several GR friends named Carolyn and thanks goes out to the Carolyn who reviews this book because she put it into words far better then I ever could.
So I did DNF this. I read for awhile and..just did not fel much of anything. I could not connect with it and felt no tension.
Sometimes books are just not the right book at the right time so that is always possible. But for me.,I quit about a quarter of the way in.
I am sure many have read books that sound on paper like they will be instant classics in your mind. And then been let down. So that is sort of what happened to me.
I loved the premise. It reminded me of My cousin Rachel or Reliable Wife. Those are two books I adored so the subject was for me.
And at first I loved the descriptive writing of the time period.
But the book did not read like a mystery. It was slow going and the characters seemed flat. I could not connect.
The book is much darker then I had thought it would be which would usually be OK but it was not "Gothic dark". I did not feel any mystery.
It seems more to me a family saga then anything else.
I may pick it up at a later time as I have done that with some books and come to love them.
January 10, 2013
I enjoyed this book and found the characters to be vividly written. Lily comes to Canada from Palestine to be married but her groom sees her at the train station and rejects her. His brother marries her and we learn that Lily Azerov is not who she claims to be, and soon after her daughter is born, she abandons her family. This abandonment hangs over her daughter’s life like a shroud.
The story is told through different points of view and it’s very deep and personal for everyone in it.
I also found the subtext of the story very interesting. There is a point in the book where Lily talks about being mistaken for someone named Gabi while in a coffee shop. The man calls out to her and as she turns around, sees his face fall. She doesn’t know who this Gabi is but she does know this man has lost her in the war and that for a minute, he had allowed himself to belief she was still alive. It was heartbreaking to read. So many people lost loved ones in the war; everyone bears the scars of that loss, including Lily.
Ultimately, this story is about love, understanding and forgiveness. I enjoyed it.
The story is told through different points of view and it’s very deep and personal for everyone in it.
I also found the subtext of the story very interesting. There is a point in the book where Lily talks about being mistaken for someone named Gabi while in a coffee shop. The man calls out to her and as she turns around, sees his face fall. She doesn’t know who this Gabi is but she does know this man has lost her in the war and that for a minute, he had allowed himself to belief she was still alive. It was heartbreaking to read. So many people lost loved ones in the war; everyone bears the scars of that loss, including Lily.
Ultimately, this story is about love, understanding and forgiveness. I enjoyed it.
January 25, 2013
This book, in my mind, started out worthy of four stars but slowly lost them as I got further and further into the story. The main problem I had with this book is that the central issue - Ruth's curiosity about the reason her mother abandoned her as an infant - is built up throughout the novel, but in the end the reason is not all that interesting. In fact, Ruth's mother herself often says things like, "I can't even tell you why I did that" or "I can't even tell you why I felt that way, I just did." After 350+ pages I expected there to be some big revelation (is Ruth not really Lily's daughter or possibly not Nathan's? How does Palestine and the fact that both Lily and Nina spent time there factor into the revelation?). But alas, there is nothing so shocking in store. And, even more of an issue is that the main character, Ruth, is fine with her mother's pathetic defense. "That's all I needed to know," she thinks. Which, I suppose, is good news for Ruth but bad news for the reader!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2012
The Imposter Bride was shortlisted for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s most distinguished literary prize for the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English. I was thrilled, because I loved this book.
The Second World War is over and in a small room beside a banquet hall, mail-order bride Lily Azerov sits on a couch with her new husband Nathan Kramer. She has come to Montreal from Poland, via Palestine. It was Nathan’s brother, Sol, who was supposed to marry Lily. Sol however, took one look at Lily at the train station and without even making himself known, left her waiting at the station with her suitcase. Perhaps Sol sensed something difficult about Lily, something more complicated than he was ready to accept.
The next day, Nathan goes to the house where Lily is staying to apologize on behalf of his family. He too, takes one look at Lily but unlike Sol, decides to marry her.
Nathan is content to let Lily take her time settling in, content to wait for her to feel safe enough to tell him her story. The mystery of his bride’s past doesn’t daunt him but even as Lily herself wonders when she can slip into the security of her new life, her stolen name threatens to reveal itself. Lily Azerov is not the real Lily, who is dead, and whose diary she carries, whose identity papers she used to escape, whose death gave her a new life. One day, the false Lily leaves the house to buy milk, taking only her handbag. She vanishes, leaving behind her husband Nathan and three-month-old baby Ruth.
Growing up, the only communications Ruth receives from her missing mother are eccentric birthday packages which arrive at erratic intervals, each one containing a small, beautiful rock, labeled with a date and the name of the place where the rock was found. There is no return address, but the packages can only have come from Lily. None of the Kramers talk about Lily; there is no blame or curiosity attached to her whereabouts, at least not in front of Ruth. Nathan does not go looking for her and by the time Ruth finally does, she is the mother of three children who want to know about their beautiful, unknowable grandmother.
The Imposter Bride mesmerized me from start to finish, with its beautiful, controlled prose that swings the reader seamlessly between Jewish Montreal to the bleak wreckage of wartime Europe. Richler describes a post-war immigrant community determined to live a blessedly mundane life, a community that understands how each person must walk a different path to cope with loss. Some settle into the comfort of an ordinary existence while others need to put more distance between themselves and their memories. Although she has fled as far as Montreal, it turns out this is not far enough for the Lily.
Richler never hands us Lily’s entire story, only the barest outlines of her movements during the war, scraps of memory, and brief observations from other characters. More telling than any outright narrative, Lily’s unspoken past hints at tragedies the Jewish community knows all too well, too painful to tell. We understand in the end, as Ruth does, that Lily’s act of abandonment was both an act of survival and love.
What I Learned About Writing from Reading This Book
My own writing pretty much follows a straight sequenced narrative, mostly because I lack the skill to play with flashbacks. I’ve been trying to figure out how Richler interlaces so many strands of time and place without leaving me confused about where I am in the chronology of the story.
Within the first chapter we learn how Lily Azerov came by her identity papers, and by the second chapter we know she walks out on her family, and we keep on reading, waiting for answers that emerge gradually, through scenes that overlap ever so slightly, seen through different eyes, connected to earlier episodes. There are segments about Lily and her life in Montreal. There are Ruth’s childhood memories. We share fragments of everyone's past: Ida Pearl, the jeweler, who is cousin to the real Lily; her daughter Elka, who marries Sol; Bella, the Kramer matriarch.
Every chapter moves through several different times or points of view, seemingly at random, yet the story always feels anchored.
At first I thought that Richler managed this through point of view: Ruth’s narratives are in the first person, her chapters crisscrossing from childhood to university, while the other chapters are written in the third person. Yet this chapter-by-chapter differentiation through point of view does not suffice to keep the story line under control. A chapter might begin with Lily, transition to her time in Palestine, and close with an excerpt from the dead girl’s diary; or a chapter might start on the evening of Sol’s first date with Elke, then on to Ida Pearl’s letter that warns her about the false Lily, all the while shifting seamlessly through snippets of family history on both sides.
Now I see that Richler makes sure we don’t get lost by closing the loop and finishing each chapter back where it started. Each chapters is like a pendulum, oscillating in widespread arcs of narrative.
For example, the novel begins with Nathan and Lily’s wedding, followed by a flashback where we learn more about Lily as she strips the dead girl of a diary, a diamond, and an identity card. We return to scenes at the wedding, where Sol recalls and regrets how he walked out on Lily at the station. At the wedding also are Ida Pearl and Elka, the older woman there to see whether the bride is her cousin Lily; there is Nathan’s mother Bella, watching the wedding and thinking back on her own marriage.
Then in the second chapter, a small, beautiful rock arrives for Ruth’s birthday, and this event naturally leads to an account of how Lily vanished.
But the arcs gradually diminish in amplitude so that by the end of the book the pendulum is stilled. There is a chapter composed of a single pivotal scene about Lily that offers a reason for her disappearance; then follows a chapter of chronological narrative about Ruth’s search for her mother. In chapters where memories intrude, we are returned at the end to the time, place, situation or theme that started the chapter. This, and Richler’s masterful, seamless transitions are what keep the story line under control and the reader anchored.
At the moment, I can only conceive of structure in terms of plot. This book has helped me better understand another dimension to structure, which in the future I will try out to add more texture to my writing. For now I think I”ll just work on seamless transitions -- and try to remember about the closed loop approach to handling flashbacks.
Nancy was gracious enough to let me interview her. (read here)
The Second World War is over and in a small room beside a banquet hall, mail-order bride Lily Azerov sits on a couch with her new husband Nathan Kramer. She has come to Montreal from Poland, via Palestine. It was Nathan’s brother, Sol, who was supposed to marry Lily. Sol however, took one look at Lily at the train station and without even making himself known, left her waiting at the station with her suitcase. Perhaps Sol sensed something difficult about Lily, something more complicated than he was ready to accept.
The next day, Nathan goes to the house where Lily is staying to apologize on behalf of his family. He too, takes one look at Lily but unlike Sol, decides to marry her.
Nathan is content to let Lily take her time settling in, content to wait for her to feel safe enough to tell him her story. The mystery of his bride’s past doesn’t daunt him but even as Lily herself wonders when she can slip into the security of her new life, her stolen name threatens to reveal itself. Lily Azerov is not the real Lily, who is dead, and whose diary she carries, whose identity papers she used to escape, whose death gave her a new life. One day, the false Lily leaves the house to buy milk, taking only her handbag. She vanishes, leaving behind her husband Nathan and three-month-old baby Ruth.
Growing up, the only communications Ruth receives from her missing mother are eccentric birthday packages which arrive at erratic intervals, each one containing a small, beautiful rock, labeled with a date and the name of the place where the rock was found. There is no return address, but the packages can only have come from Lily. None of the Kramers talk about Lily; there is no blame or curiosity attached to her whereabouts, at least not in front of Ruth. Nathan does not go looking for her and by the time Ruth finally does, she is the mother of three children who want to know about their beautiful, unknowable grandmother.
The Imposter Bride mesmerized me from start to finish, with its beautiful, controlled prose that swings the reader seamlessly between Jewish Montreal to the bleak wreckage of wartime Europe. Richler describes a post-war immigrant community determined to live a blessedly mundane life, a community that understands how each person must walk a different path to cope with loss. Some settle into the comfort of an ordinary existence while others need to put more distance between themselves and their memories. Although she has fled as far as Montreal, it turns out this is not far enough for the Lily.
Richler never hands us Lily’s entire story, only the barest outlines of her movements during the war, scraps of memory, and brief observations from other characters. More telling than any outright narrative, Lily’s unspoken past hints at tragedies the Jewish community knows all too well, too painful to tell. We understand in the end, as Ruth does, that Lily’s act of abandonment was both an act of survival and love.
What I Learned About Writing from Reading This Book
My own writing pretty much follows a straight sequenced narrative, mostly because I lack the skill to play with flashbacks. I’ve been trying to figure out how Richler interlaces so many strands of time and place without leaving me confused about where I am in the chronology of the story.
Within the first chapter we learn how Lily Azerov came by her identity papers, and by the second chapter we know she walks out on her family, and we keep on reading, waiting for answers that emerge gradually, through scenes that overlap ever so slightly, seen through different eyes, connected to earlier episodes. There are segments about Lily and her life in Montreal. There are Ruth’s childhood memories. We share fragments of everyone's past: Ida Pearl, the jeweler, who is cousin to the real Lily; her daughter Elka, who marries Sol; Bella, the Kramer matriarch.
Every chapter moves through several different times or points of view, seemingly at random, yet the story always feels anchored.
At first I thought that Richler managed this through point of view: Ruth’s narratives are in the first person, her chapters crisscrossing from childhood to university, while the other chapters are written in the third person. Yet this chapter-by-chapter differentiation through point of view does not suffice to keep the story line under control. A chapter might begin with Lily, transition to her time in Palestine, and close with an excerpt from the dead girl’s diary; or a chapter might start on the evening of Sol’s first date with Elke, then on to Ida Pearl’s letter that warns her about the false Lily, all the while shifting seamlessly through snippets of family history on both sides.
Now I see that Richler makes sure we don’t get lost by closing the loop and finishing each chapter back where it started. Each chapters is like a pendulum, oscillating in widespread arcs of narrative.
For example, the novel begins with Nathan and Lily’s wedding, followed by a flashback where we learn more about Lily as she strips the dead girl of a diary, a diamond, and an identity card. We return to scenes at the wedding, where Sol recalls and regrets how he walked out on Lily at the station. At the wedding also are Ida Pearl and Elka, the older woman there to see whether the bride is her cousin Lily; there is Nathan’s mother Bella, watching the wedding and thinking back on her own marriage.
Then in the second chapter, a small, beautiful rock arrives for Ruth’s birthday, and this event naturally leads to an account of how Lily vanished.
But the arcs gradually diminish in amplitude so that by the end of the book the pendulum is stilled. There is a chapter composed of a single pivotal scene about Lily that offers a reason for her disappearance; then follows a chapter of chronological narrative about Ruth’s search for her mother. In chapters where memories intrude, we are returned at the end to the time, place, situation or theme that started the chapter. This, and Richler’s masterful, seamless transitions are what keep the story line under control and the reader anchored.
At the moment, I can only conceive of structure in terms of plot. This book has helped me better understand another dimension to structure, which in the future I will try out to add more texture to my writing. For now I think I”ll just work on seamless transitions -- and try to remember about the closed loop approach to handling flashbacks.
Nancy was gracious enough to let me interview her. (read here)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 20, 2015
I'm not sure what I expected when I picked this book up. I guess I expected some sort of a variation on the tale of one woman tricking a man into marrying her in guise of someone else. But, that's not what this story is at all. Well, I guess it kind of is, but it's so much more than that.
While reading this book I felt profoundly sad. Mostly because of the circumstances from which many of the characters came from - WWII. Many of them being refugees who were some from post traumatic stress disorder - even though such a term hadn't yet been coined. There was a scene that sums this experience up quite succinctly. It occurs relatively near the beginning of the novel when Ruth was in school. Her teacher does his best to keep his past from poisoning his present but, on this particular day, his best attempts fail him and he silently cries in front of his class. This event changes Ruth forever - it changed me forever as well. Nothing provoked such a reaction and yet, he was clearly reacting in response to unseen forces. He had traveled across the ocean to escape what tormented him but it followed him, psychologically.
That is the affect this book had on me. I expect, if you were to read it, it would affect you as well. Read this book - treat it as a study into human psychology - I promise you won't be disappointed.
While reading this book I felt profoundly sad. Mostly because of the circumstances from which many of the characters came from - WWII. Many of them being refugees who were some from post traumatic stress disorder - even though such a term hadn't yet been coined. There was a scene that sums this experience up quite succinctly. It occurs relatively near the beginning of the novel when Ruth was in school. Her teacher does his best to keep his past from poisoning his present but, on this particular day, his best attempts fail him and he silently cries in front of his class. This event changes Ruth forever - it changed me forever as well. Nothing provoked such a reaction and yet, he was clearly reacting in response to unseen forces. He had traveled across the ocean to escape what tormented him but it followed him, psychologically.
That is the affect this book had on me. I expect, if you were to read it, it would affect you as well. Read this book - treat it as a study into human psychology - I promise you won't be disappointed.
November 3, 2012
Have you ever picked up a book and almost felt like it was alive...I could tell the moment I picked up this book that it was full of emotion. I had apprenhension about reading because I could feel the sadness pouring from this book. It was one of those books that the mystery kept enticing you on ... right to the last minute. I wasn't initally sure I loved this book until I came to the end... and at the end I realized how captivating the story was and how much I loved reading it.
March 8, 2023
3.5 stars. I loved much of this book. The in-depth characters, the inventive plot, the use of a mysterious diary and an uncut diamond. Richler's strength is in her quiet understanding of human thought and her gift for writing dialog that is rich and real. However, I had trouble with how many povs there are and how they switch even within the same paragraph. And finally, like many other reviewers, while I appreciated her making the final outcome not be a Hollywood ending, it still left too much unanswered. We sit through much longer stories and questions from other women in the book, but there is almost nothing discussed between mother and daughter despite two days together. Still, I'm glad I read this book and this author, the plot taken from the author's grandmother's experiences. A different look into the Holocaust and its dark roots.
October 11, 2012
I read this mostly because it was shortlisted for the Giller prize, and I try to make a habit of reading the five nominees before the winner is announced.
There was so much I enjoyed about this book, but it somehow lacked the punch I would have expected from a prize finalist. Perhaps it's just my own expectations, but it felt like I was reading a book from twenty years ago rather than a 21st century novel. Perhaps it's just having somebody with the last name of Richler writing about the Jewish community in postwar Montreal (Mordecai is apparently the author's second cousin). But there were also many times where it seemed like the author wanted to write with modern sensibilities, yet constrained herself at the last moment.
As one example, there were a few places like where everything seemed to point toward some revelation of a minor character being homosexual. I was actually skimming the lines at points to get to the foregone conclusion, so certain was I of the fact. Yet it never materialized. It's not something I was actively seeking, or wanting to read into the book. The set-up was honestly just begging for the answer, and things seemed to fall flat when it was nothing so scandalous (not to mention obvious). When homosexuality is finally brought up, it is so after the fact, irrelevant and not even hinted at that the reveal was anticlimactic and meaningless.
I was also jarred by the transitions in the book. Often I had to temporally reorient myself at the beginning of a chapter as no dates were given to the reader. This was especially difficult when a chapter began or ended with a journal excerpt rather than a dateable story element. There was also a fair amount of midstream character flipping, where the narration went suddenly to another person's point of view without any warning.
The themes, however, were profound and meaningful. Even something as simple as a name became a larger issue of what names mean, the tradition of naming in Jewish culture, why the name of G-d is not spoken, and how all the begats and begots in scripture point to the human need to discover our origins. On this account, the accolades are a no-brainer. As for the rest, it always seemed like something was being held back, and I wish it would have taken more chances with the narrative to deliver a knockout rather than a series of pulled punches.
There was so much I enjoyed about this book, but it somehow lacked the punch I would have expected from a prize finalist. Perhaps it's just my own expectations, but it felt like I was reading a book from twenty years ago rather than a 21st century novel. Perhaps it's just having somebody with the last name of Richler writing about the Jewish community in postwar Montreal (Mordecai is apparently the author's second cousin). But there were also many times where it seemed like the author wanted to write with modern sensibilities, yet constrained herself at the last moment.
As one example, there were a few places like where everything seemed to point toward some revelation of a minor character being homosexual. I was actually skimming the lines at points to get to the foregone conclusion, so certain was I of the fact. Yet it never materialized. It's not something I was actively seeking, or wanting to read into the book. The set-up was honestly just begging for the answer, and things seemed to fall flat when it was nothing so scandalous (not to mention obvious). When homosexuality is finally brought up, it is so after the fact, irrelevant and not even hinted at that the reveal was anticlimactic and meaningless.
I was also jarred by the transitions in the book. Often I had to temporally reorient myself at the beginning of a chapter as no dates were given to the reader. This was especially difficult when a chapter began or ended with a journal excerpt rather than a dateable story element. There was also a fair amount of midstream character flipping, where the narration went suddenly to another person's point of view without any warning.
The themes, however, were profound and meaningful. Even something as simple as a name became a larger issue of what names mean, the tradition of naming in Jewish culture, why the name of G-d is not spoken, and how all the begats and begots in scripture point to the human need to discover our origins. On this account, the accolades are a no-brainer. As for the rest, it always seemed like something was being held back, and I wish it would have taken more chances with the narrative to deliver a knockout rather than a series of pulled punches.
February 21, 2017
This is the engrossing and highly readable story of "Lily Azerov" who has fled Eastern Europe after the turmoil and horror of the Second World War. In Palestine, she makes arrangements to marry a Canadian Jew, Sol Kramer, who, on sight intimates the damage behind her calm demeanor. Sol quickly and shamefully decides not to marry Lily, but his brother Nathan does. Ida Krakauer and her teenaged daughter, Elka, show up at Nathan and Lily's wedding uninvited. Ida has heard from her sister Sonya in Tel Aviv that a young woman has recently been there posing as their cousin Lily. Ida determines, like Sonya, that Lily is indeed no relation of theirs, but someone who has assumed a new identity in an attempt to escape the trauma and horror of her war experience. Lily, apparently fearing exposure by Ida, flees Montreal, her marriage, and her three-month old child, though Ida, a self-made jeweler and gem cleaver with her own painful past has no intention of calling her on her assumed identity. The book largely focuses on the growing determination of Lily's daughter Ruth, who has grown up motherless, to find her mother and uncover the secret of her past. All she has to go on are the beautiful rocks her mother has sent her at irregular intervals over the years since Ruth was six, an uncut diamond, and Lily Azerov's journal, which was appropriated by the "imposter bride" somewhere along the way.
Author Richler has woven a richly rewarding novel of character,family, secrets, and history. In the Imposter Bride, she explores the deeply and uniquely human need to discover where we come from. Highly recommended.
Author Richler has woven a richly rewarding novel of character,family, secrets, and history. In the Imposter Bride, she explores the deeply and uniquely human need to discover where we come from. Highly recommended.
July 29, 2018
In a nutshell this book is about what it was like in Europe after the Second World War. especially for Jewish people. I think it portrays this more than anything. There is mention in the book that Jewish survivors of the War walk around like ghosts and they stop and stare at a multitude of different people. They are looking for their lost loved ones, and in most cases, sadly, they never find them. This is a clear picture of what it was like for survivors of the Holocaust. In order to escape Europe and to put their ghosts behind them, millions of people did whatever it took to get out of there-stealing identities, stowing away on passage out of the continent, disappearing forever from the Europe that is haunted to them. We hear about this, but we really don't hear about what it's like for those who did escape from Europe. Yes, they escaped the Europe that held only sadness for them, but they brought all the emotions with them. Many found that living under a stolen identity never works for them. They can't be themselves. They can't assume a normal life and go on like nothing has happened. This book, which was a 2012 Giller Prize finalist, is indeed dark and foreboding. It shows how many people are affected by such a terrible thing as the Holocaust was. (even as far away as Canada). The ripple efffect of the Holocaust is endured by unborn generations of those that made it through the nightmare. This is a deftly written fictional account of the human cost and the lives shattered from the unspeakeable horrors that a whole generation of Jewish souls endured.
October 25, 2012
This is another of the shortlisted books for this year's Giller Prize. The bride in question is a Jewish woman who has fled Europe in WW2, and has eventually arrived in Montreal, to take part in an arranged marriage. As soon as her betrothed lays eyes on her, he rejects her, to his everlasting regret, because his brother steps in and does what needs to be done. But Lily Azerov is not who she claims to be, and soon after her daughter is born, she abandons her family. This story is told from multiple perspectives but mostly from that of the daughter as she grows up struggling to understand the absence of a mother, and then trying in vain to understand how a mother could leave her child. The mother leaves behind only a few enigmatic clues and a trail of stones over the years.
The writing is fluid and occasionally sparkles with lovely prose. The background story of the bride aka Lily is drip fed slowly to us, and the reasoning or excuses for this, as given by the book's characters, don't really ring true -- it just conveniently suits its role as a literary device. The story unfolds in a disappointingly predictable fashion, but in the end is all quite tidy, if not really satisfying.
The writing is fluid and occasionally sparkles with lovely prose. The background story of the bride aka Lily is drip fed slowly to us, and the reasoning or excuses for this, as given by the book's characters, don't really ring true -- it just conveniently suits its role as a literary device. The story unfolds in a disappointingly predictable fashion, but in the end is all quite tidy, if not really satisfying.
August 7, 2014
I read Nancy Richler's second book a long while ago, and I don't remember being impressed. Years down the line, I remember virtually nothing about it. When this came along on one of my lists of Globe & Mail bestsellers, I was ready to give it a chance, but wasn't really expecting much. I was wrong. This is a huge leap forward from Your Mouth is So Lovely, and The Imposter Bride had me in its quiet palm.
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
March 7, 2013
This book has a promising beginning. It is 1946, and Lily Azerov has come to Montreal to meet Sol Kramer for an arranged marriage; they have never met. Upon seeing her get off the train, Sol has a change of heart, but his brother Nathan likes what he sees, and steps up to takes Sol’s place.
Lily doesn’t adjust well, in spite of Nathan’s and even Sol’s infatuation with her. (Sol regretted his actions almost immediately.) Lily is like someone haunted, and spends most of her time alone and closed away in her room.
When the daughter that Lily has with Nathan is just three months old, Lily disappears, leaving a note to say she is sorry. No one hears from her again until the daughter, Ruth, turns six. At this point, in April of 1953, Ruth picks up the main narration of the book, beginning when she receives a strange birthday package that the rest of the family agrees is from her mother.
The story then proceeds with alternate narrators. Most of the time we follow Ruth as she grows up, trying to deal with the emptiness of having a loving extended family, yet knowing her own mother walked away from her. Over the years she gets a few more packages from her mother (albeit unsigned); they always contain rocks and a notation about their provenance. But no one really knows what happened to Lily, any more than why she left.
Lily even takes a turn as one of the narrators, although we still don't learn much from her except that the experience of the Second World War caused her a great deal of pain and guilt. Without knowing the details, her story just didn’t elicit any sympathy or compassion in me for her.
As the years pass, Ruth finally gets closer to the truth and finally has the opportunity to find out everything, but declines to pursue all the answers. (And why she doesn't is a bit of a mystery, since she spent her whole life wondering these things.) We are given a lot to think about instead however, such as what the nature of love is, and about the ways in which love and the forms it takes help define the nature of the self. This latter point is the most crucial to this story: the kind of love that means the most to you and the role it plays it your life can show more about who you are and what you need that anything else you say or do.
Discussion: Apparently the opening premise is similar to what happened to the author’s grandmother, who came to Canada from Eastern Europe expecting to marry a man who rejected her upon her arrival.
It serves well as a story arc, but would work much better if we ever got even the slightest idea of who some of the characters are as people. There aren't many characters, and so it is particularly unsatisfactory that we come to know so little about them. Who are Sol and Nathan and why do they react the way they do? What about Sol's future wife, on whom it fell to raise Ruth? The author doesn't tell us much at all. We get a little more information about the mother of Sol and Nathan and about Sol’s future mother-in-law. As for Ruth’s birth mother, we end up knowing hardly more about her at the end of the book as we did in the beginning. It left me feeling disappointed, as if I had wanted stew and had to settle for broth.
Evaluation: There are some big gaps in the major plotline, oddly combined with the inclusion of some rather elaborate minor plotlines that are dead-ends, i.e., neither really going anywhere nor contributing much to the story. Nevertheless, it is a compelling read, and it was shortlisted for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s most distinguished literary prize for the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English.
Lily doesn’t adjust well, in spite of Nathan’s and even Sol’s infatuation with her. (Sol regretted his actions almost immediately.) Lily is like someone haunted, and spends most of her time alone and closed away in her room.
When the daughter that Lily has with Nathan is just three months old, Lily disappears, leaving a note to say she is sorry. No one hears from her again until the daughter, Ruth, turns six. At this point, in April of 1953, Ruth picks up the main narration of the book, beginning when she receives a strange birthday package that the rest of the family agrees is from her mother.
The story then proceeds with alternate narrators. Most of the time we follow Ruth as she grows up, trying to deal with the emptiness of having a loving extended family, yet knowing her own mother walked away from her. Over the years she gets a few more packages from her mother (albeit unsigned); they always contain rocks and a notation about their provenance. But no one really knows what happened to Lily, any more than why she left.
Lily even takes a turn as one of the narrators, although we still don't learn much from her except that the experience of the Second World War caused her a great deal of pain and guilt. Without knowing the details, her story just didn’t elicit any sympathy or compassion in me for her.
As the years pass, Ruth finally gets closer to the truth and finally has the opportunity to find out everything, but declines to pursue all the answers. (And why she doesn't is a bit of a mystery, since she spent her whole life wondering these things.) We are given a lot to think about instead however, such as what the nature of love is, and about the ways in which love and the forms it takes help define the nature of the self. This latter point is the most crucial to this story: the kind of love that means the most to you and the role it plays it your life can show more about who you are and what you need that anything else you say or do.
Discussion: Apparently the opening premise is similar to what happened to the author’s grandmother, who came to Canada from Eastern Europe expecting to marry a man who rejected her upon her arrival.
It serves well as a story arc, but would work much better if we ever got even the slightest idea of who some of the characters are as people. There aren't many characters, and so it is particularly unsatisfactory that we come to know so little about them. Who are Sol and Nathan and why do they react the way they do? What about Sol's future wife, on whom it fell to raise Ruth? The author doesn't tell us much at all. We get a little more information about the mother of Sol and Nathan and about Sol’s future mother-in-law. As for Ruth’s birth mother, we end up knowing hardly more about her at the end of the book as we did in the beginning. It left me feeling disappointed, as if I had wanted stew and had to settle for broth.
Evaluation: There are some big gaps in the major plotline, oddly combined with the inclusion of some rather elaborate minor plotlines that are dead-ends, i.e., neither really going anywhere nor contributing much to the story. Nevertheless, it is a compelling read, and it was shortlisted for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s most distinguished literary prize for the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English.
April 5, 2012
Originally reviewed here.
The Imposter Bride is a very character-driven book. It begins in post-war Montreal with the arrival of Lily Azerov, a refugee from Poland who has come to marry Sol Kramer. When Lily disappears one day, deliberately abandoning her three-month-old daughter and husband, it causes a break in the family's psyche that comes to define that era of their lives and the decisions they make after.
In many ways, The Imposter Bride is a novel about mothers and daughters. Ruthie, the abandoned three-month old, spends most of the novel trying to understand her mother or quantify her absence. The novel moves backwards and forwards through time, and the reader sees that Lily didn't have a great relationship with her mother either. It's like a family cycle, the distance amplifying with each new generation.
Another significant mother-daughter relationship is that of Bella and Nina. Bella is the mother of Sol and Nathan, and Nina is her only daughter. The differences between them tend to represent the old and new worlds. Bella is traditional, a practical housewife, the angel-in-the-corner. Nina is free-spirited, dramatic, occasionally promiscuous, and aspires to become an actress. The two women don't understand and often disapprove of each other.
The most explosive of the mother-daughter relationships would have to be the one between Elka and Ida Pearl. Sent to Canada as a means of exile, Ida Pearl is a self-made woman who raised Elka without the help of any man or extended family. In many ways she has hardened herself to the pain of life, and when Elka enters her teens, putting on "histrionics" as Ida calls them, Elka feels belittled by her mother's lack of sympathy. Despite everything that Ida has sacrificed to raise Elka, Elka still feels the alienation of growing up in a non-nuclear family with a hard-hearted mother. It influences the way she seeks out relationships, and eventually the way she parents her own children.
The Imposter Bride is not an action-packed, fast-moving novel. It's a discourse on relationships and identity, meant to be enjoyed slowly. It may not be a page-turner, but it is a very thought-provoking and touching novel.
The Imposter Bride is a very character-driven book. It begins in post-war Montreal with the arrival of Lily Azerov, a refugee from Poland who has come to marry Sol Kramer. When Lily disappears one day, deliberately abandoning her three-month-old daughter and husband, it causes a break in the family's psyche that comes to define that era of their lives and the decisions they make after.
In many ways, The Imposter Bride is a novel about mothers and daughters. Ruthie, the abandoned three-month old, spends most of the novel trying to understand her mother or quantify her absence. The novel moves backwards and forwards through time, and the reader sees that Lily didn't have a great relationship with her mother either. It's like a family cycle, the distance amplifying with each new generation.
Another significant mother-daughter relationship is that of Bella and Nina. Bella is the mother of Sol and Nathan, and Nina is her only daughter. The differences between them tend to represent the old and new worlds. Bella is traditional, a practical housewife, the angel-in-the-corner. Nina is free-spirited, dramatic, occasionally promiscuous, and aspires to become an actress. The two women don't understand and often disapprove of each other.
The most explosive of the mother-daughter relationships would have to be the one between Elka and Ida Pearl. Sent to Canada as a means of exile, Ida Pearl is a self-made woman who raised Elka without the help of any man or extended family. In many ways she has hardened herself to the pain of life, and when Elka enters her teens, putting on "histrionics" as Ida calls them, Elka feels belittled by her mother's lack of sympathy. Despite everything that Ida has sacrificed to raise Elka, Elka still feels the alienation of growing up in a non-nuclear family with a hard-hearted mother. It influences the way she seeks out relationships, and eventually the way she parents her own children.
The Imposter Bride is not an action-packed, fast-moving novel. It's a discourse on relationships and identity, meant to be enjoyed slowly. It may not be a page-turner, but it is a very thought-provoking and touching novel.
December 15, 2013
This book left more unanswered questions and had a very disappointing end. The book just died. The sad part is the story was weaved with hints of deeper motivation and hints of a much richer story but it was never developed. There were so many unfinished story lines. The book did a good job of holding my attention and wondering what would happen next but unfortunately none of the questions were ever answered. For example, what ever happened to the teacher and his son? Why did lily do what she did? What did the rocks mean? What was the point if the cold call from the brother? The book hinted to problems between Elka and sol but it never went further. So many unanswered questions. It left me feeling frustrated.
October 25, 2012
Have you ever watched an award winning movie with great reviews and felt you were just not getting it? This is how I felt while reading this Giller Award nominated book.I was anxious to read it because of all the praise, and felt I must apologize to everyone involved. The story line looked so promising and I tried to like the book. The characters seemed to have lead interesting lives, but they came across as flat, under-developed and boring to me and I failed to develop any empathy for any of them.I plodded on to the end hoping I would start to appreciate it, but no luck.
March 7, 2016
Lots of thoughts crossed my bored mind while reading this grey historical fiction where people have modern comforts, regardless of class, or income. The story felt woolly to me. It was as if I was meant to tell what laid beyond the linen from the firmness of a mummy's handshake. Apart from money, it seemed that everyone in the story had the same amount of integrity and personality. Everyone was clumsy, seemingly, in their social interactions. I found that the standout point of this book. A book that would probably have been called The Notebook, had not the title been taken.
October 15, 2012
Wow! I read this very quickly. It was well written, smart and the characters and story were neither predictable or pat. I also loved the setting and time period -- Montreal from the 50's to 80's. My prediction is that this book will not win the Giller but it certainly deserves to be on the list and is well worth reading. I am now curious to read Nancy Richler's other novels.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
March 24, 2013Sorry, but there was not enough story to encourage me to continue reading to see what the big mystery was. The POV/time switches were very jarring and distracted from the reading experience. I began to lose track of who was who and what time frame we were in. Would have worked better from the daughter's POV and covered her early years by backtracking instead of all the endless daily happenings.
March 1, 2018
This book is an example of why I only read female authors.
Ms. Richler weaves a complex story of female trauma in an engaging fashion. Thank-you for this work.
Ms. Richler weaves a complex story of female trauma in an engaging fashion. Thank-you for this work.
January 20, 2023
A truly deep dive into the psychology and emotions that affect Jewish refugees who flee to Canada at the end of World War II. The story is centered around Lily, the character referenced in the title, who takes on the identity of a woman who perished. She's supposed travel to Montreal to marry a man named Sol Kramer, but at the last moment he rejects her. His brother Nathan marries her instead. A few months afterwards, Lily leaves home, leaving behind a newborn baby, Ruth.
The narrative jumps between Ruth's perspective, as a young girl growing up into adulthood, and Lily's, as someone placed into a disorienting situation, clearly unhappy, married to a man whom she barely knows.
The novel weaves an intricate web of family members in connection to one another: her uncle Sol and his wife Elka act as Ruth's surrogate parents; her grandmother Bella, Lily, and both brothers live under the same roof for a while after Lily's marriage, and a jewelry shop owner Ida Pearl, who suspects something is amiss when she crashes Lily's wedding.
The work assuredly becomes more gripping and engrossing the further along one reads through the novel. The characters are not entirely relatable in the initial quarter of the book, but author Nancy Richler creates a world replete with subtle interactions, microaggressions, fraught familial relations ensconced in among a community that works to recover from trauma inflicted by the war. Ruth's search for her mother is paired with her interior monologue which comes off as pressing but never simplistic or trite. The complexity of the characters is well reflected in Richler's writing.
One might think Lily the monster in the story (who would leave their child to relatives never to return)? Deeper secrets revealed about her past life, including family, in Europe, paints a much more complicated portrait.
By the book's end, we realize that this is an epic story that seems entirely relatable, and that searching for the truth of family mysteries and secrets was time well spent.
This is a book that one will ponder upon completion.
The narrative jumps between Ruth's perspective, as a young girl growing up into adulthood, and Lily's, as someone placed into a disorienting situation, clearly unhappy, married to a man whom she barely knows.
The novel weaves an intricate web of family members in connection to one another: her uncle Sol and his wife Elka act as Ruth's surrogate parents; her grandmother Bella, Lily, and both brothers live under the same roof for a while after Lily's marriage, and a jewelry shop owner Ida Pearl, who suspects something is amiss when she crashes Lily's wedding.
The work assuredly becomes more gripping and engrossing the further along one reads through the novel. The characters are not entirely relatable in the initial quarter of the book, but author Nancy Richler creates a world replete with subtle interactions, microaggressions, fraught familial relations ensconced in among a community that works to recover from trauma inflicted by the war. Ruth's search for her mother is paired with her interior monologue which comes off as pressing but never simplistic or trite. The complexity of the characters is well reflected in Richler's writing.
One might think Lily the monster in the story (who would leave their child to relatives never to return)? Deeper secrets revealed about her past life, including family, in Europe, paints a much more complicated portrait.
By the book's end, we realize that this is an epic story that seems entirely relatable, and that searching for the truth of family mysteries and secrets was time well spent.
This is a book that one will ponder upon completion.
January 2, 2013
This is a surprisingly complex novel whose central theme is identity and how it can be compromised by a variety of actions. Lily Azerov is not actually Lily Azerov, but a Polish imposter who has assumed her identity in the chaos following WWII, with borders being redrawn, chaotic infrastructure, and the overwhelming grief experienced by Holocaust survivors (grief not only at the loss of entire families, but survivor grief and guilt as well).
Short-listed for the Giller in 2012, I'm not surprised this one didn't win. The first half of the novel is extremely confusing in a way I can't tolerate: we have three different narrators, none of whom are really clearly delineated for the longest time: the real Lily (via a notebook); fake Lily; and fake Lily's daughter. The second half improved significantly, but I think that may have been too late for many readers. I understand some novels have to be approached like Impressionist paintings, that they will suffer if you don't let yourself just experience the words and subjugate your need to know their meaning (or even their true relation to the plot) till later in the novel. But I don't think that's what's going on here - I think the novel's flaws are those of structure and characterization. I also think it could have been a lot shorter and a lot tighter.
Still, the theme is an interesting one: what makes us ourselves, what keeps us ourselves, and how do we live with who we really are?
Short-listed for the Giller in 2012, I'm not surprised this one didn't win. The first half of the novel is extremely confusing in a way I can't tolerate: we have three different narrators, none of whom are really clearly delineated for the longest time: the real Lily (via a notebook); fake Lily; and fake Lily's daughter. The second half improved significantly, but I think that may have been too late for many readers. I understand some novels have to be approached like Impressionist paintings, that they will suffer if you don't let yourself just experience the words and subjugate your need to know their meaning (or even their true relation to the plot) till later in the novel. But I don't think that's what's going on here - I think the novel's flaws are those of structure and characterization. I also think it could have been a lot shorter and a lot tighter.
Still, the theme is an interesting one: what makes us ourselves, what keeps us ourselves, and how do we live with who we really are?
April 8, 2013
ATTENTION: If you are in a bookclub, this is a book for you!! Perfect for a round-table discussion.
I just love when I go into a book, knowing nothing about it, and page after page I am drawn deeper and deeper into its awesomeness. This book did just that. I swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
The title character is one of the most intriguing characters I have read in a long while. No matter how much I learned about her, there was even more that was left to the imagination. Every time Richler gave her readers a little hint to Lily's (the Imposter Bride's) identity, she gave two more pieces of mystery to shroud her identity. I was utterly captivated.
I also liked how the story was structured, flipping back and forth between timelines and POVs. I particularly enjoyed the chapters that were from Lily's daughter's perspective, in which she receives strange, rock-filled presents in the mail and she tries to decipher their meaning in hopes of being re-united with her estranged mother.
A gorgeous depiction of Montreal's post-war streets and neighbourhoods, I was absolutely not surprised to learn that Nancy is Mordecai's cousin. There is definitely a strong family resemblance in the locations and their descriptions in their novels.
Written with such a lithe, flowing language, I found this book difficult to put down. It was just so readable and enjoyable. A pure pleasure.
4/5
I just love when I go into a book, knowing nothing about it, and page after page I am drawn deeper and deeper into its awesomeness. This book did just that. I swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
The title character is one of the most intriguing characters I have read in a long while. No matter how much I learned about her, there was even more that was left to the imagination. Every time Richler gave her readers a little hint to Lily's (the Imposter Bride's) identity, she gave two more pieces of mystery to shroud her identity. I was utterly captivated.
I also liked how the story was structured, flipping back and forth between timelines and POVs. I particularly enjoyed the chapters that were from Lily's daughter's perspective, in which she receives strange, rock-filled presents in the mail and she tries to decipher their meaning in hopes of being re-united with her estranged mother.
A gorgeous depiction of Montreal's post-war streets and neighbourhoods, I was absolutely not surprised to learn that Nancy is Mordecai's cousin. There is definitely a strong family resemblance in the locations and their descriptions in their novels.
Written with such a lithe, flowing language, I found this book difficult to put down. It was just so readable and enjoyable. A pure pleasure.
4/5
May 11, 2013
The title is deceptive because this isn't Lily's story, this is her daughter's story; which is fine except the novel isn't much of an identity story either. Character development was sluggish and inconsistent, the title character was rather disappointing and not nearly as developed (nor unfortunately, as interesting) as other characters were. I left not entirely satisfied with character motivations, though I wonder if this was an intentional effect of the nature of the narrative.
I didn't have a problem with the non-linear narration and found it to be appropriate to the post-war theme, psychological disarray and a gradual return to some sort of normalcy. The novel itself slowly dissolved into short snippets and vignettes which sometimes lacked cohesion, but were often achingly poignant. Strength lies in the ability of the author to write with grace, sensitivity and profound insight. Overall, this is a pretty novel with a lot of heart, but lacking enough substance and form to be completely satisfying.
I didn't have a problem with the non-linear narration and found it to be appropriate to the post-war theme, psychological disarray and a gradual return to some sort of normalcy. The novel itself slowly dissolved into short snippets and vignettes which sometimes lacked cohesion, but were often achingly poignant. Strength lies in the ability of the author to write with grace, sensitivity and profound insight. Overall, this is a pretty novel with a lot of heart, but lacking enough substance and form to be completely satisfying.
May 19, 2013
3.5 stars. I liked the mystery surrounding the enigmatic Lily Azerov, immigrating to Canada as a bride-to-be from war-torn Europe. We soon know she is not the woman named on her papers, but who is she? Much theorizing and discussion ensues on that subject after the woman leaves her husband and new baby girl without explanation. The relationship of the family that remained behind was very unusual and special. Underlying the narrative is the theme of how Jewish families were able to move forward after the war. The chapters written from the little girl’s perspective were my favorites. But the story moved too slowly in other parts; and once we learn more about Lily, I really wanted more. There were still unanswered questions at the end.
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