Anna R. Licht - A co-publication of "La Deviation Publishing House" and GASP ! Publishing House

My first novel, Anna R. Licht,  was published today! 

The novel takes place between March 11 and March 18, 1975, one week in the life of the main character, Anna Licht. 

Anna is 18 years old and is the daughter of Auschwitz survivors. She was born and raised in a small town, in the center of France. In October 1974, she starts college at Paris VIII University and studies linguistics. She moves into her aunt's apartment in the 10th arrondissement. During the spring of 1975, when the story takes place, Anna is torn by an identity conflict. She lives in a dissociated world where imagination takes precedence over reality and where parts of her memory collapse and are rebuilt as she encounters male characters. 

Anna carries with her a painful secret, the rape of which she was the victim a year before, near the Tenon hospital in Paris, where her father was hospitalized. She is pursued by a mysterious woman whom she calls "the black hair woman" who leads her against her will into an initiatory quest. Since, entrenched in the role of a disillusioned and cruel seductress, Anna surrounds herself with a male circle of lovers and admirers whom she methodically uses and destroys one after the other. 

Troubled but determined to elucidate the appearances of "the black hair woman", Anna will want to understand their origins and clarify the identity of this person. In doing so, she will be put on the path of the secret of the Licht family, held by the members of the Shoah generation and which will reach into the depths of her identity. Once revealed, this secret will free her and guide her towards true awareness and healing.

  

 

Это мой кот Саша

Today for the first time I posted in Russian on Facebook. People may think : "Oh, her cats' name is Sasha, so she thinks it's cute to write a few words in Russian". By the way I can also write ; "Моего кота зовут Саша", which means "My cat's name is Sacha". So what is going on here?

I have been learning Russian on Duolingo for the past few months. The approach on Duolingo is to spend between 5 to 15 minutes a day on studying a language. There is a complete system of awards I will not go into, mainly because I fail to understand it. I only know that sometimes I run out of "lingots" and that means I can't continue learning or I can't take a final test at the end of a section. That's the part when they try to sell you "lingots" and you have to be strong and say "no". "Lingots" are apparently earned by studying every day consequently. It's enough I skip Friday and of course Shabbat and boom, no "lingots". What a tough world ...

Learning Russian is a hell of a job, and I shall explain. On Duolingo, you learn to speak a language but also to read it and write it. I happen to be familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet since my hubbie and I have been in Bulgaria a few times, so we didn't have much choice but learning how to read signs, as, it turns out, there are not always translations available. So when you are in the subway and the train is coming into the station and the signs that indicate directions are only in Bulgarian, you quickly develop skills for languages and learn to read Cyrillic. After a while, not always a short while, the alphabet sinks in. So reading is not such an easy enterprise but speaking Russian is insane. It requires a lot of work.

You may wonder what motivated me to learn Russian. Actually I am not only learning Russian but also, at the same time, Spanish. I decided to learn two different languages in order to give my brain daily opportunities to exert itself. So far, so good. I rarely have short term memory incidents, at least, less than before. My brain is on activated mode. Sometimes, Russian leaves me quite exhausted mentally. It's not fun everyday. Than I learn Spanish and it feels like a breath of fresh air. So easy! Easy to read, easy to write, easy to speak. No hay comparación.

What a beautiful man!

Today for the first time, we were at the railway station buying tickets from a machine when a railway agent decided to help us out and while holding my husband's travel pass (with his picture on it) said loudly: "What a beautiful man!"

Bloody hell, that's what happened! I was standing right there. Both my husband and I were wearing a mask, so apparently this sudden outburst was motivated by my husband's picture on the travel pass. 

Now, if this splurt had been towards me as in "What a beautiful woman!", while eyeing my photo up, there is no doubt, all the metoo bells would have rung and it would have been obvious that this man was kind of making a pass at me as my husband was standing only 50 centimeters from him. 

This was so weird. I keep thinking, this guy (in his 60's) didn't say this in vain, there must have been a reason behind his words. Altogether, it was an embarrassing moment but it's true my hubbie looks good ... So, something new happens every day, and in this story, I am not the beautiful one.

Off the cuff

Today for the first time I encountered 2 expressions that are very similar but have in fact a different even opposite meaning. 

We were having dinner when my son said "Do you know the origin of the expression "off the cuff"? As it was Shabbat, we didn't have Google at our disposal, only a kilo and a half dictionary, which didn't provide much information: it gave the meaning "in a offhand manner, extemporaneously", without the origin of the expression. But this was not taking in consideration our son's perfect memory. He had Googled it in the past and explained: In the 1930's some writers giving spontaneous speeches started to write quick notes on the cuffs of their sleeves. At the time cuffs were starched and solid. They later would read their notes "off the cuff".

However, the Deluxe Color Edition of our "New World Dictionary" mentioned another expression : "On the cuff". The origin is pretty similar but instead of prolific writers, it talks about busy bartenders who used to write the charge to be paid by their clients on the cuffs of their sleeves.  The expression "on the cuff" expressed the bill to be paid and therefore took the meaning "on credit".

This conversation took place as we were having a Shabbat dinner for three that would not pale in comparison with the most lavish vegetarian thanksgiving feast, with 5 types of salads, 4 types of grains, and 3 types of vegetables. When it comes to the fish, I had planned baked haddock and broiled seabass, but when I realized we had Swiss Chard in the refrigerator, I improvised a dish of haddock wrapped in Swiss Chard with mustard sauce. Just like that, off the cuff.

Tailor-made

Today for the first time I started a course that is perfectly tailored to me. And how is this? Well, when there is a will there's a way... I myself elaborated a course, just to my liking, completely to my liking, and here is how it goes:

Once a week I listen to 2 different pieces taken from an opera. The piece lasts between 4 to 15 minutes depending on my choice. At first, I look for the libretto of the piece and a translation, this way I can follow the piece. I listen to it and then , I start the learning: 

1. Which opera is the piece taken from? What kind of piece? An overture, an aria, a duet, choruses? In which language? What is the context of the piece in the opera? Who is/are the performer/s?

2. Who is the author of the opera? The librettist? When was the opera first written and first performed? Its place in the history of opera of the author's country.

3. What is the story of the opera and the story behind its making and the first performances? 

Today, I listened to "Una Furtiva Lagrima" from "L'Elisir D'Amore" an opera from Gaetano Donizetti, featuring Luciano Pavarotti . I learned that Donizetti (1797 - 1848) was an incredibly prolific Italian composer who wrote no less than 550 musical works including 71 operas. 

Talk of delivering the goods!

I also listened to "Un Bel Di Vedreno" from Madame Butterfly of Giacomo Puccini. I learned that there are no less than 5 versions to this opera. The first version in 1904 was a flop and Puccini worked on subsequent versions up until the fifth one in 1907, which is considered the standard one, a massive success around the world. So "If at first you don't succeed try, try and try again." 

Take it from Robert the Bruce and apparently from Giacomo Puccini as well who didn't take failure as an answer.

Revival downloading

How do you revive a blog after 10 years? Do you continue as if nothing has happened or maybe you say goodbye and move on to another blog? Well, I changed the format but I came back to the original "Today for the first time" blog. 

Today for the first time, I want to go back to 2010 when my first grandchildren were just 2 and 3 years old and I was approaching each new word, story, conversation with them as a wonder.

I want to go back to January 2011 when a mammogram sent me to a biopsy and the biopsy to the realization I had breast cancer. And now I have been free of cancer for 11 years and the radiation treatment seems so far away.

Today my older grandchildren are teenagers and I am so proud of them. They have grown to be generous and warm people.

Enough for today. Something new happens every day. 

Customer Service

Today for the first time I walked into a charedi community center in my neighborhood, which offers different classes going from Feldenkrais, Pilates to nutrition workshops. Complete segregation between men and women naturally.

First of all, my search for the office of this center was fruitless. There was no sign, nowhere. I walked the 3 floors up and down three times and figured that was enough exercise for the day. On my way out I met a young lady and asked for the office. She was the secretary (doubling with the marketing person) of the place. In order to reach the office we had to walk by a Pilates class, obviously distracting the concentration of the students. In my mind i started to picture classes interrupted incessantly by mothers, teenagers and retired ladies making their way to the office. It didn't make sense.

Once seated in the office, I had just started to go through the schedules and classes' content with the young lady when she started to get phone calls. Minutes passed by and she was talking to people, some of them sounded like potential customers, over the phone. At some point I said " are you aware of the fact you are still taking care of me?" She said she thought I had to think things over, didn't apologize, and when she completed her last phone call, simply said " I am with you".

During the all process she remained unattractively sad. Yes, baby, did they ever tell you looking sad does not make you look pretty? I know ... it's a tough reality out there ... Or maybe she was anemic, or underpaid or all of the above, I am not sure. She gave me the worst customer service one could think of. She didn't care, I felt I was bothering her.

I actually registered on a waiting list for a very nice program called "90 days program" where one exercises twice a week and sees a dietician twice a month. I checked and re-rechecked that the class was at 7.30 PM after office hours. On my way back I again walked by the Pilates class. They were doing a relaxation exercise on the floor.

I am not sure I will take the class. This all experience depresses me in a way I cannot exactly articulate.

Nathalie

Bouncing Back

Today for the first time I realized there was not such a thing as bouncing back. Who ever designed the idea that people have to bounce back should have limited himself to sports journalism, preferably gymnastics.

But it's there: some unsaid consensus expects you to bounce back after whatever major annoyance has come your way. If you don't return to normal you are like a grain of sand halting an entire well oiled mechanism. Or so you think.

Radiotherapy every day for 5 weeks has a way of getting to your soul, delivering encrypted messages, which require time to be unraveled and deciphered.

I am not sure I am ready to bounce back yet.

Nathalie

Messaging Mess Up

Today for the first time I received an SMS by mistake, meaning it was meant for someone else. It was pretty confusing. I desperately tried to understand the content of the message in connection with myself. After 3o seconds ridiculously spent on that task, I sent the messenger this concise note: "what?". He wrote back: "what what?".

All ended well. It was a truly honest mistake.

It prompted me to think however about the endless possibilities of messaging mess ups.


Nathalie

Nothing Bizarre at the Bazaar

Today for the first time I was busy selling designer jewelry at Tair Rape Crisis Center yearly bazaar, which took place in Rehovot.

Last year I sold ceramic dishes, pots and decorative artifacts. The year before I think I was into baked goods and home made jams.

Every year it's too hot outside and it always catches me, somehow, in the middle of a fibromyalgia outburst maybe because its' still close to Pessach and the change of season. This year I was 10 days after surgery.

There is nothing better for the spirit than remembering who you are and celebrating what you believe in.

For more information on Tair Rape Crisis Center, click here.

Nathalie

Hello Goodbye

Today for the first time I had a real conversation over the phone with my granddaughter.

She called me and proceeded immediately to tell me about her birthday party at the gan. She gave me a complete description. I congratulated her and then she added more details. She said "goodbye savta" (I could hear her mother in the background "now say goodbye to savta") and she hung up.

This was such an exciting first time.


Nathalie