The End of Bliss Rhonda Ringler Cutler 9780615697642 Books
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It's 1929, and Edith and Reuben Merkal, a couple from Long Island, are living the charmed life. Then the stock market crashes, ushering in the Great Depression. Reuben loses his construction business as well as the house he built for Edith and named 'Bliss.' The Merkals are victims of the times. Even so, they blame themselves and each other for their misfortunes. At first, Edith watches helplessly as a devastated Reuben does nothing about finding work. Eventually, she takes a job as a salesgirl, and comes to relish her growing independence. After Reuben reluctantly becomes involved with Sea Forth's small Jewish community as it fashions a response to an anti-Semitic incident, he begins to understand the reasons behind his life-long ambivalence toward his religion. His awakened sense of responsibility towards Europe's beleaguered Jewish population helps him put his own problems in perspective.
The End of Bliss Rhonda Ringler Cutler 9780615697642 Books
This is a skillful and beautifully wrought portrait of a period, a time when anxieties about class, background, and appearances loomed large in social strivings and maintained their grip despite economic collapse and the destructive forces of fascism. With prosperity's return, we see the small business pushed out, the gloss of competing department stores, the downside of rejecting old world tradition and the mistake of holding onto it. How little has changed; how everything has. The mastery of THE END OF BLISS, however, is in Cutler's characterizations. She presents a family portrait with unsparing clarity. An unfeeling mother, a son's fragility, a husband's gutted self-worth--the facets of work, marriage, love, guilt, weakness, acceptance, and strength--we witness the hard shell of self-delusion being overturned for truth and empathy to at last get light. Cutler achieves an extraordinary scope in this American novel. Read it.Product details
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Tags : The End of Bliss [Rhonda Ringler Cutler] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. It's 1929, and Edith and Reuben Merkal, a couple from Long Island, are living the charmed life. Then the stock market crashes,Rhonda Ringler Cutler,The End of Bliss,Fairlight Press,061569764X,Fiction - General,Fiction Literary,Literary,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
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The End of Bliss Rhonda Ringler Cutler 9780615697642 Books Reviews
This is an excellent story of a troubled marriage in a difficult time in American history....the depression. Interesting characters, class issues, anti-Semitism, financial woes...it's all in here. Very well-written first novel!
Reading this novel was a pleasant surprise. There was excellent character development. The story was a real page turner. The backdrop of New York during the Great Depression and a family unit coming apart was captured sensitively and colorfully.
I heartily recommend this book.
Set on Long Island during the depression, the author wove an intricate tale of how economic and world events shaped the lives of the richly developed characters and how they coped, struggled and prospered. Her characters came to life on the pages with all of their flaws, growth and resolution.
I could relate to this book, as I was born during the depression and had heard many stories in my family of the effects on everyone. Ms Cutler was able to peel under the outer layers of her characters and reveal how and why they reacted to their "new lives" as they did. I could almost feel their pain and disappointment in what they had done with their lives.
I love historical fiction but often am disappointed with the quality of writing and lack of character development. Not so with this novel. Rhonda Ringler Cutler's first novel is a well written story whose characters stay with you long after the end of the novel. I was amazed to learn that this is Ms. Cutler's first novel. I can't wait for the second!
Told from the alternating points of view of Reuben Merkal, and his wife, Edith, The End of Bliss spans the period from the 1929 stock market crash until shortly before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The Merkals suffer financial reverses, but through the this poignant and beautifully written chronicle of their struggles, we come to appreciate how the most devastating impact of financial reverses may not be economic but psychological. As readers, we are completely drawn in by the Merkals' emotional struggles, including their loss of self-esteem, and resentments toward each other. We cheer as they 're-discover' themselves, or, perhaps, finally discover who they really are, and what is important to them. Equally captivating are the descriptions of the fashions, foods, and sensitivities of this time period. Highly recommended.
I read this book at the urging of a friend, and did so reluctantly at first. The genre and subject matter are a big departure from what I typically read in my spare time. But to my surprise this book really moved me. It evokes the period so vividly and the story itself is emotionally powerful in a way I wish I could express more articulately than I am here. Just read it, as you will not soon forget it.
This is a skillful and beautifully wrought portrait of a period, a time when anxieties about class, background, and appearances loomed large in social strivings and maintained their grip despite economic collapse and the destructive forces of fascism. With prosperity's return, we see the small business pushed out, the gloss of competing department stores, the downside of rejecting old world tradition and the mistake of holding onto it. How little has changed; how everything has. The mastery of THE END OF BLISS, however, is in Cutler's characterizations. She presents a family portrait with unsparing clarity. An unfeeling mother, a son's fragility, a husband's gutted self-worth--the facets of work, marriage, love, guilt, weakness, acceptance, and strength--we witness the hard shell of self-delusion being overturned for truth and empathy to at last get light. Cutler achieves an extraordinary scope in this American novel. Read it.
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