“There are some fields that should not be churned up.” That’s the central message uttered by one of the characters in a bracing, debut novel titled Fervor. Its author Toby Lloyd stirs up provocative topics, disentangles myths ranging from Zionism to antisemitsm, from gender-roles to feminism, academia and being Jewish in the twenty-first century.
Set in London 1999 the “capriciously observant” Eric and Hanna Rosenthal pay daily visits to grandpa Yosef. The children’s Zeide ill and voluntarily “cocooned in the attic” of their home, Hanna Rosenthal reveres her father in- law. Hanna is an accomplished journalist with ultra conservative views. She daily records Zeide’s harrowing stories of survival in Treblinka “lager.” (camp)
Much against Zeide’s will and husband Eric’s pleadings not to “stir up the past”, Hanna intends to publish a book about Zeide’s life history. Hanna considers her effort, “a moral work.” Zeide terrifies all three Rosenthal kids -- Gideon, Elsie and Tovya--- witnesses to his tattooed arm, traumatized by ghastly stories, his denunciation of faith and repetitive references to a boy named Ariel. No one has heard or known Ariel.
Elsie “the perfect daughter” was especially close to Zeide. Fourteen, she loved reading the books on her parent’s bookshelves, volumes of biblical stories mystical writing of the Zohar and Kabbalah. After Zeide died, Elsie disappeared. She returns after four days, transformed. Her teachers called Eric and Hanna regarding their daughters bizarre behavior. Eric fasted. Hanna prayed for a cure.
Against Zeide’s and Eric’s strong objections, Hannah publishes the book titled The Gehinom (hell) And Afterwards. The book is an account of Zeidi’s confinement exploring why his entire family perished yet Zeide was never “selected” for the death chamber. The memoir becomes a blockbuster commercial success but a catastrophe for Tovya Rosenthal, Hanna’s apostate son, an atheist studying history at Oxford University.
Antisemitic graffiti scribbled on his dorm door reviled by everyone for his famous mother’s writings, Tovya dearly longs to escape the notoriety of Hanna’s limelight. Socially awkward Tovya yearns, to become “largely invisible, wishing to escape his family as his brother Gideon had done." However Tovya’s life becomes substantially exposed with the publication of Hanna’s second book. And sister Elsie has gone totally bonkers.
Spawned by years of Elsie’s bizarre behavior “summoning the spirits of the dead, talking about bringing new human being into the world,” Hanna rejected Elsie’s diagnoses of mental illness or the possibility Elsie suffered from depression associated with the loss of her grandfather. Through revelation and prayer, Hanna believed Elsie received “some weird punishment from God." Hanna was convinced her daughter had become a witch. A sorceress. Hanna’s new book, about Elsie, titled Daughters of Endor, was the start of a nightmare that none of the Rosenthal family could anticipate. And it all unravels at a Shabbat Dinner at the Rosenthal table. Spooky and fabulous.
