A short story set in Jerusalem touches on themes that are familiar to us all.
By LIAT COLLINSDvora Waysman has lived in Jerusalem for 45 years(photo credit: ARIEL JEROZOLIMSKI)
Everyone is looking for something: something from the past that they’ve lost and wish to regain; something they’ve never had but desire for the future; a place to call home; a place in the universe; and, of course, love. That is the theme that runs through Dvora Waysman’s latest novel, Searching for Sarah.Short and sweet, the book, Waysman’s 14th published story, is more a novella than a full-length novel, yet she manages to craft credible characters and to develop a decent plot within its pages.Best-known for The Pomegranate Pendant (which was turned into a movie under the title of The Golden Pomegranate) and its sequel, The Seeds of the Pomegranate, Waysman has turned out another book in her inimitable style. Her own love of life and Jerusalem, the city that has been her home for the last 45 years, shines through.Waysman, a contributing writer to The Jerusalem Post, is also a popular teacher of creative writing, and in Searching for Sarah she puts her own advice to good use. As she has said in an interview: “I think all fiction must represent emotions the author has experienced from time to time, or it would not be realistic.”At the age of 85, the mother of four, grandmother of 18 and great-grandmother of 16, Waysman manages to conjure up the pain and uncertainty of those who in younger years spent time seeking a stable relationship.The novel centers on the characters of Leah, who has moved to Jerusalem after a painful parting from her boyfriend in London; Gershom, an Australian, who is seeking a stronger relationship with God; and the eponymous Sarah, an artist whose pain-tinged portrait Leah discovers in the Jerusalem rooftop studio apartment that all three of them have at one time, however rundown and humble, called home.Leah’s obsession with Sarah’s painting takes them further down the path of self-discovery and the reader travels effortlessly with them.The novel begins with Leah looking for a word: “‘Affinity – that’s the word I’m looking for,’ Leah decided as she took the painting into the light. ‘It’s not just sympathy or empathy. It’s definitely, precisely, indisputably – affinity.’” Anyone who has lost in love or sought a new love will be able to identify with the characters. Similarly, anyone who has ever lived in Jerusalem, or considered living there, will be able to feel at home with the story. Those who have been torn between having a comfortable life in the Diaspora and the emotional pull of life in the Jewish state will also recognize the dilemmas.I admit after reading the novel I checked on Waysman’s biography to see how much was autobiographical. She has clearly used her own experiences and emotions, and like a composite of the two main characters, she was born and brought up in Melbourne and lived for a while in London, but she was already happily married by the time she immigrated to Israel in 1971 (and, full disclosure, by chance I recently met her and her husband as they celebrated their 61st anniversary).Early on, she recalls Roger White’s “When life touches us, poems appear like bruises.”Waysman’s poems, scattered throughout the novel, carry a mix of pain and joy. Take this quote from “Jerusalem Summer,” a poem written at “Ramat Rachel in summer haze” and read aloud by Leah: “Below lies Bethlehem – Breathless and pregnant – With silent secrets of its own.”Like most authors describing life in Israel for a broad overseas audience, Waysman faces the hurdles of trying to convey local and religious customs and concepts without ruining the flow of the story and, despite a stumble or two, for the most part she overcomes them with ease.It’s not the deepest of novels but is compelling enough to make you wonder what happened to the protagonists after you’ve finished the final page – a good sign of having found some form of elusive affinity.
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