cover image German for Travelers: A Novel in 95 Lessons

German for Travelers: A Novel in 95 Lessons

Norah Labiner, . . Coffee House, $14.95 (270pp) ISBN 978-1-56689-223-0

Labiner (Miniatures ) delves into the life of Dr. Jozef Apfel, a renowned German psychoanalyst who never solved the mysterious case of his patient, Elsa Z, in the years leading up to WWII. A few generations later, the doctor’s Jewish descendants are scattered across America: Hollywood starlet Lemon Leopold; her psychiatrist brother, Ben; their romance novelist cousin, Eliza. When Eliza is summoned to Berlin by a distant aunt to delve into the family’s past, Lemon comes along and winds up finding meaning in her life. Elsa Z’s traumas are mirrored by the sorrows of generations of Apfel women, most notably Eliza, whose own recent past is entangled with Berlin. Labiner toys with both psychoanalysis and its history: Elsa Z’s hysteria is reminiscent of Freud’s Dora (she even has her own Herr K), and Dr. Apfel’s “triangular seduction theory” ends up causing problems in his own love life. But while this intricate family saga has definite potential, it’s thrown off course by the novel’s frustrating structure, where seemingly random chapters devolve into pseudo-existential travel advice and Labiner’s heavy-handed poetic intentions. (May)