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Second Hand Smoke: A Novel

Description

In the seamy atmosphere of Miami Beach's Collins Avenue, Mila Katz, a streaky card shark and confidante of mobsters, lives by the wits with which she has survived the Holocaust. Second Hand Smoke is the story of Mila's sons, Issac and Duncan, the one secretly abandoned in Poland, and the other, American-born, raised as an avenging Nazi hunter, poisoned with rage. Told in bursts of fractured realism and dark comedy, Second Hand Smoke is a postmodern mystery of great lyrical power, deep insight, and emotional resonance.

It is obvious from practically the first page of Second Hand Smoke that Thane Rosenbaum has not written a typical Holocaust novel. Consider, for example, the name of his protagonist: Duncan Katz. "What kind of a name is that for a Jewish boy?" an old man attending Duncan's circumcision ceremony in post-World War II Miami demands. "One thing is for sure: the boy's name isn't a mistake. These people are trying to tell us something."

"These people" are Yankee and Mila Katz, survivors of the Nazi extermination camps and Duncan's parents. In giving their son the name of a Scottish king on the day of this ceremony, they are both acknowledging his identity as a Jew and attempting to disguise it. Though living in America now, their world view has been shaped by their experiences in the camps; secrecy is the key to survival, and even at a young age Duncan understands that "he may have been born into the family but he was never accepted into its inner circle. Maybe it was for his own protection, his own good. Or, as Mila so often claimed, "maybe they just didn't trust him." So infected is the son by his parents' Holocaust experience that he grows up to become a Nazi-hunter and eventually loses both his job and his family in pursuit of vengeance. Then Mila dies and Duncan discovers her darkest secret: the son she left behind in Poland.

Second Hand Smoke often reads like a thriller--Duncan's early life is marked by his mother's association with Miami mobsters, and the time spent in Poland looking for his long-lost brother is pretty action packed--but there's a strong element of spirituality that runs through it, too, especially when Duncan meets his yoga-master brother, Isaac. Rosenbaum gets off to a terrific start but stumbles near the end, bestowing reconciliation too easily, wrapping up his characters' messy lives too neatly. Still, his acute rendering of the peculiar psychology of concentration-camp survivors and their children rings powerful and true. --Alix Wilber

Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2003-02-28
Summary: "Thoughtful Thane"

I read this after "Golems of Gotham" and enjoyed this one even more. The entire Katz family is complex and their struggles thought-provoking and sympathetic. The supporting cast - nurses, gangsters, Nazi prison guards, models - are the fantastic foliage surrounding the main characters.

Thane Rosenbaum keeps good company with other fine Jewish writers, some of whom interweave the Holocaust with other themes, some of whom stay in the shtetl, and some of whom just stay parked on the Lower East Side - go Tepper!

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2002-07-22
Summary: "Intense and oh so important!"

This is a fascinating story of Duncan Katz, the son of Holocaust survivors, and how his parents' horrific experiences in the concentration camps had such an invasive influence on his own well-being, in the same way that second-hand cigarette smoke can make non-smokers quite ill!

Mr. Rosenbaum has a very interesting writing style. Poetic and at times surreal (and sometimes a bit complicated), the author creates a world where not all Jews are portrayed as "nice Jewish boys", where characters such as Mila (Duncan's mother - a card shark and a gangster), Duncan and Isaac are larger-than-life but fascinating. The conclusion was extremely satisfying.

I feel that this story is very important, especially as the world loses many Holocaust survivors to old age. As those with the numbers tatooed on their arms pass on, we need someone to remind the world of the atrocities inflicted by Adolf Hitler on millions and it how it still effects current generations. Thane Rosenbaum has done that job in SECOND HAND SMOKE quite effectively!

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2002-05-25
Summary: "russianreader"

I strongly recommend this book. I've given it to a dozen of my friends. My favorite of the three superb books by the author. Excellent writing, suspenseful plot and a great moral story come together in this sleeper of a book.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2002-03-20
Summary: "Way to live life on up and down happenings"

I was surprised by the book in its very sad long ago beginnings. I was born after WWII as was Thane or at least Duncan Katz. What I found most interesting was how much a person's emotions were twisted and yet the person lived sucessfully. I look forward to the next two.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2001-10-28
Summary: "suspenseful and meaningful read"

This is an extremely well-written novel about the child of Holocaust survivors. It is extremely suspenseful, and although parts of it are painful to read, it is difficult to put down. One of the main issues the book addresses is coping in a world that can be evil. It is also a book about families, reconciliation, and understanding.