The River Midnight

By Lilian Nattel

Book Overview

In her stunning debut novel, Lilian Nattel brilliantly brings to life the richness of shtetl culture through the story of an imagined village: Blaszka, Poland. Myth meets history and characters come to life through the stories of women's lives and prayers, their secrets, and the intimate details of everyday life.
When they were young, four friends were known as the vilda bayas, the wild creatures. But their adult lives have taken them in different directions, and they've grown apart. One woman, Misha, is now the local midwife. In a world where strict rules govern most activities, Misha, an unmarried, independent spirit becomes the wayward heart of Blaszka and the keeper of town secrets. But when Misha becomes pregnant and refuses to divulge the identity of her baby's father, hers becomes the biggest secret of all, and the village must decide how they will react to Misha's scandalous ways.
Nattel's magical novel explores the tension between men and women, and celebrates the wordless and kinetic bond of friendship.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684853043
• ISBN13: 9780684853048
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Nuanced and magical

I was so glad that a writer-friend recommended this book to me with the comment "this is how it's really done right." If a writer has only one excellent book in them, this one would be enough. There was not a moment or word of this book that I didn't enjoy. The novel captures a time and place historically while also conveying the contradictions and wonderful gray-ness of life's unexpected circumstances; rather than a black-and-white morality play, it creates a complicated and true world in a setting that usually inspires a less complex vision. It also provides a rich array of women's paths, without giving a sense of stock stereotypes. Somehow the book manages to be magical and appealing, without being sentimental or glib. A wonderful read.

I've recommended this book to so many people...

...and they've all thanked me. It's an easy book to love. Set in 19th century Poland in a Jewish shtetl, it's the interwoven stories of a group of women who were born and raised in the tight-knit village and have now grown into women, many with children of their own.The central figure of the story, and of the village, is the local midwife and healer. Being a midwife myself, I was of course drawn to this character who held great appeal for me.There's a quality of magical realism, almost like a fable, that sustains the book, and I found it captivating and very inspirational.Lovely. Read it. You won't regret it.

The "Real" Anatevka... through women's eyes

The River Midnight is Lilian Nattel's well-researched and honest depiction of women's life in shtetl Europe. From the "zogerin", the women's prayer leader to Misha the midwife dispensing her various potions to induce a pregnancy or get rid of one, the mythical town of Blaszka comes alive through the voices of its women. Although at times the story is a little uneven, with tidbits inserted that seem to have no relation to the plot (one of the women has an affair with a gentleman in Warsaw that seems as though it's excerpted from another book altogether), Nattel draws out her story in a fascinating, almost midrashic way, layering interpretation upon interpretation until, gradually, the whole picture emerges.Perhaps the greatest flaw in this book is Nattel's attempts to weave a magical theme into the book, for example in the characters of "the Traveller" and "the Director" (and with one of the main characters being able to turn herself into a tree frog). These insertions, too, are a little annoying, and overall, they are too subtle to make any meaningful point. Luckily, they manage not to detract from Nattel's lively and evocative shtetl tale, so different from some others we've seen and heard.Let's just say that Blaszka isn't Anatevka, the mythical town seen in the musical "Fiddler on the Roof", with its clean (if slightly dusty) streets and its cheerful, sexless cast. Blaszka's women and men are lusty and three-dimensional; they menstruate, they ejaculate. And Blaszka itself is muddy and strewn with filth and ruins. In her notes at the end of the book, Nattel writes that in her research, she tried to avoid historical records from after WW2 because of the rosy-coloured nostalgia for pre-war Jewish life, and there is certainly no sentimentality here. Yet, with all her honesty and truth to life, a certain beauty emerges in her depiction. Out of the filth and mud and bickering of small-town Poland, Nattel weaves an enduring legacy to the next generations of Jews -- a tapestry-like vision of the world of our grandmothers. The River Midnight is a stunning first novel from an outstanding Canadian writer, but it is something more as well -- a window into a home to which we will never again return. I should also add that this novel made for excellent (lively!) book-group discussion. My mother invited me along to hers, and there were many varied responses (from "I loved it" to "I hated it"), but nobody could remain neutral in the face of this strongly evocative work. It also spurred an interesting discussion of women's prayer in Jewish history, and comparison with other recent Jewish "women's novels".

A need to share this book.

An excellent first novel of a time and place that I've heard about too little. Although I am not Jewish, this book portrays a time and place from which my grandparents escaped. It was like hearing my grandfather speak of the countryside, political situation, and schooling. Now, I understand why he could read and write four languages (and church Latin!). A criticsim I've read is that some of the characters are not fully developed. However, isn't this the way with "real" life? A part of us always remains hidden from those around us...was Hannah-Leah's failure to have children due to something with her or with her husband? We'll never know and back then even a midwife couldn't know for sure. As for the angel characters, aside from a literary device, who's to say they didn't exist then and don't exist now? I found the environmental descriptions both imagined and real an integral and rewarding part of the story - I wouldn't want to enter that mikvah. The extensive bibliography also shows good research and some guidlines for more in-depth reading. For this sharing, a big thank-you to the author.

My FAVORITE book!

I borrowed this book from my mother and read it in a week's time. For anyone whose ancestors came from Poland, it gives a personal glimpse into what shetyl life might have been like. These four women also have contemporary counterparts in today's world- an intellectual, a dreamer, a family person, and a professional (midwife). This book so touched my heart that I felt a strong desire to share with all my friends. To this end, I have started a book club with 16 people, and this book is our first selection. As my friends are reading it, they are pouring in songs of praise. The BEST read in a long, long time. Enjoy! It is a wonderful historically accurate novel.