Big Sound From The Big A p p le !
A place at the table need not be earned
There are crackling lines of dialogue , the sort of one-liners
you're tempted to clip and post on your refrigerator
BY
ANN
DEE
H O C H MAN
keeps his collection of dysfunctional pens in
the dishwasher; her Trinidadian hospital
A Place at the Table By Edith Konecky. Random
nurse, who claims she can see Rachel’s aura;
House. 1989. 241 pages. $16.95.
a Mediwaste van, carrying hospital refuse
and, quite possibly. Levin’s surgically-
he final chapter of A Place at the Table
removed left breast, down Second Avenue in
reads like a wonderful short story. The
New York City.
writing is tight and luminous. Characters we
And there are crackling lines of dialogue, the
care about share an important moment with
sort of one-liners you’re tempted to clip and
each other, and with the reader. The messsage
post on your refrigerator. Suicide “ would be
haunts and comforts at the same time.
like going to a party to which one has not been
invited,’’ or, “ This is what aging does, why
there is less and less to write about: the
terrible importance of things abates.’’
But interesting characters, wry moments
and memorable lines don’t make a novel.
Unfortunately, it is not a short story, but the
Levin fears that her life is composed merely of
final episode of a book that never quite
episodes, with no lingering claim to a person
decides to become a novel. It’s too bad,
or place. It's a legitimate fear; most of our
because all the ingredients are here: a wise
lives exist in episodes, and we tolerate the
and funny middle-aged heroine, an array of
fragmented nature of things because, really,
quirky and believable characters, taut
we have no choice. In a novel, we want
dialogue.
something more.
The problem is that very little happens to
This book tries hard to be more. Rachel,
these places — until the last 4 1 pages, in
at mid-life, is struggling to answer the Big
which the protagonist, Rachel Levin,
Questions: When we die, what remains? Do
discovers a lump in her breast, undergoes a
we all leave each other in the end? Are we,
mastectomy, re-encounters a troubled friend
ulti mately, alone even in our memories,
on the subway and learns what it means to
which no two people share in precisely the
embrace life in spite of all its losses.
same way?
The novel chronicles the family, friends,
In the final chapter, these questions begin to
work and inner life of Rachel Levin like a
find answers. Rachel spots a bag lady heading
collection of still photographs which might or
down to the subway, then realizes it is her old
might not have been snapped on the same day
friend Deirdre, a once-brilliant writer whose
In A Place at the Table, time passes but does
genius long ago burned into madness. Rachel
hasn't seen her for months, possibly years.
not seem to advance.
The untitled, unnumbered chapters read
She boards the subway, too, and together they
like vignettes, sealed little worlds unto
ride out to Canarsie, a literal and metaphoric
themselves. Many of them begin with
end-of-the-line. They share some wine that
quotations or excerpts from Levin’s daily
just happens to be in Deirdre’s shopping bag,
horoscope, a technique that only heightens the
and they talk.
effect of each chapter as a separate entity.
“ The really frightening thing in life, I
To be fair, the book’s structure does reflect
think, lies in our capacity for intattentiveness
to it,” Deirdre says, and Rachel thinks,
Levin’s state of mind. She is suspended in that
limbo we call “ m id-life," a writer with no
“ Maybe she’s right. Maybe that’s why we do
it, why we write, why we live. Because we’re
time to write, a lover whose relationship is
interested. Curious. Attentive. . . . I feel the
faltering, a mother who often feels alienated
tears coming again, and there’s nothing I can
from the lives of her grown children. Levin’s
first-person writings, self-conscious at first
do. The tears come. No, there’s nothing I can
do. People who have lost the need to live die
(“ I am Rachel Levin. I haven’t really got the
in their own way. They leave you with what
time to write,’’ it begins), are intended to slip
they
can.”
us sidelong into the novel, to coax us into
Rachel knows, finally, that she cannot save
caring about these characters and their
Deirdre,
as she had tried to do for years. She
troubles without realizing how or when our
cannot, in the end, control when or how
emotions clicked.
people will leave her. And she chooses to live
Levin’s story does include intriguing
in spite of that knowledge.
characters — her 32-year-old lover, Lisa, the
At the end of this chapter that really ought
eccentric members of her writing group, her
to be a gem of a short story. Rachel Levin
father, revealed through flashbacks' memory.
embraces life, her own and the life of the
Yet these people are delivered in too-small
universe. It makes a satisfying ending. But
bites, likely to leave a reader wanting more —
regrettably, it comes at the end of a book
more of Levin’s blunt, wry mother, more of
whose
lack of movement tries a reader’s
her efficient friend Becky, more sense of
patience. The end is sweet, a reward for
movement between all these tidbits.
finishing A Place at the Table, but we
The book holds some rare moments of
shouldn't have to feel we’ve earned it.
▼
joyous absurdity, such as Levin’s uncle, who
T
NEW YORK CITY
Gay Men's Chorus
with
PORTLAND
Gay Men's Chorus
Saturday, July 1st, 1989 at 8:00pm
A rlen e Schnitzer Concert H all
7
Interpreted for the
hearing impaired
Tickets: $15, $12, $8 at
the box office • 248-4496
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