cover image The Free Thinkers

The Free Thinkers

Layle Silbert. Seven Stories Press, $25 (317pp) ISBN 978-1-58322-025-2

An affectionate tribute to Chicago's turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants, each of these novellas is constructed from a series of touching family vignettes. In ""The Free Thinkers,"" two sisters follow divergent paths. Bessie, a doctor's wife, tries to marry off her independent older sister, Ida, by staging blind dates thinly disguised as dinner parties with eligible bachelors. After meeting Berman the watchmaker on one such evening, Ida horrifies her sister by deciding to live with him openly. But Ida finds herself as disappointed as Bessie when what she thought would be a free-thinking relationship ends up as routine as marriage. So she leaves Chicago on a trip that enables Silbert--a professional photographer--to richly evoke prewar New York and pay tender tribute to one woman's passion for freedom. In the second novella, Silbert tells the story of sisters Ryah and Fanny, who meet their husbands while taking English lessons, and then bring their young siblings to the U. S. In an emotional highlight, the four children meet in Indiana after many years to welcome their mother, arriving from Russia, where she has weathered the ravages of revolution, anti-Semitism and time. Silbert uses her plots to probe disturbing undercurrents in the immigrant experience, such as guilt over the world left behind and anger that the American dream cannot protect them from the randomness of life. Characters like Ryah's husband, Yudl, a Yiddish newspaper writer; Ellen, Yudl and Ryah's bright, assimilated daughter; and Saul, the successful baker haunted by what he has neglected while pursuing the American vision of success, give this tale a moving multidimensionality. Throughout, Silbert captures in sepia tones urban street scenes and ethnic parlors, and deftly uncovers the emotional landscape underneath. Taken together, these narratives constitute a revealing portrayal of the American immigrant experience. (May)