Second Language (Many Voices Project)

By Ronna Wineberg

From Sonia Chernoff, an elderly widow looking for closure, to Elaine, a therapist with a vengeance for her husband's lover, Second Language is home to a charmingly eclectic collection of characters... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898232244
• ISBN13: 9780898232240
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: New Rivers Press
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

"Chesed" in Bellevue

There is a single theme that runs through Second Language, stated poetically in the title. Love, married or unmarried, is a second way of expressing oneself, and sometimes of actually discovering another self. Certain lines and images are repeated to support this idea. Particularly moving and aesthetically pleasing is the way in which the coin collectors of the first and last stories make the entire group seem to hold hands in a sort of narrative circle. These stories and the characters in them are seen against a backdrop of Jewish-American culture. The narrator of "The Lapse," for example, describes himself as "observant," which means a good deal more than paying attention in this case. He irritates his wife by refusing to ignore the Sabbath to attend a political meeting. In return, she considers having an affair. While these stories are not religious in any dogmatic sense, religion is taken very seriously, which has become a difficult thing to do in contemporary fiction. Instead, they are informed by an authentic sense of "chesed," a very special Jewish sense of kindness. Ronna Wineberg is a very wise and generous writer, and Second Language is a cut above any other collection I have read recently. I hope we will be seeing more from this writer.

Satisfying Stories and Much to Think About as Well

I cannot say enough about Ronna Wineberg's book of short stories. Her use of images is so delicate that I often found myself effortlessly slipping into an interesting story about someone so believable they may as well live next door to me, only to find myself in a rich thicket of metaphor. It made me think about how "signs" are all around us, signs that show us clearly where we're going, yet we feel blind and hapless all the same. I like Ms. Wineberg's stories for her gentle reminder that life is full of turnings, and I absolutely love the way she leaves each her characters at story's end with both loss and possibility. Looking forward to further stories!

Second Language: the communication of honesty

These stories are populated by real people, not completely good, not completely bad. Rather, the characters--Laura, Patrice, Doris, Cora, Helen, Shiela, etc--act as they must to get through each day. Their lives, full and complicated, include indiscretions, disappointments, and necessary lies as they search for their elusive anchors and struggle against themselves, alone. Ronna Wineberg expertly uses words to paint the thoughts of her characters and the worlds they inhabit. The melancholy tones of the stories harmonize well with the isolation of the characters, people who are sometimes lost, sometimes desperate, always yearning, always searching. Rich internal dialogue offers long, raw glimpses into their interiors. Strong details, masterfully placed, evoke the color of their lives. It's a lovely book that leaves the reader genuinely satisfied, all the while nodding, "Yes, this is the way real life often unfolds."

A marvelous collection of stories

Wineberg's beautifully written narrative clearly depicts complex characters as they navigate their way through life's unpredictable journey. The reader is easily immersed into each poignant story, and can truly feel each protagonist's emotional struggles. These stories are truly a splendid work of fiction.

Transforming change

Beyond the strong writing and rich characterizations, a unique theme unites the stories in this collection - that is, putting each central character in a crucial traumatic situation and bringing them through to the other side. They face the death of parents, the death of a spouse, divorce, their own impending death, cancer, loss of love, relocation and dislocation, etc. What's special about the way Ronna Wineberg resolves the stories is the character's emergence to a new and different state of being. The implications of the title story go beyond just an alternative vocabulary to suggest an alternative way of experiencing one's existence. Each story concludes with final paragraphs that suggest a form of transcendence. The stories about coin collections that open and close the book are two of the most effective in evoking the mystery of a transforming change.