The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick

As you may already know, the city of Waukee recently participated in The Big Read - an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to encourage literary reading in American popular culture. The book chosen for all of us to read and discuss was The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick. Published in 1989, this slim volume actually consists of a short story and a novella.

The short story introduces the reader to Rosa, her baby daughter Magda and her fourteen-year-old niece, Stella as they attempt to survive in a Nazi death camp. The novella picks up their lives four decades later, with Rosa living in a tiny, bare apartment in Florida and Stella supporting her financially from New York. Rosa and Stella both attempt to cope with living in the aftermath of their horrific pasts the best they can.

This book stimulated some great discussion throughout the high school and the community. What would we have done in the situation? How would we cope? Ozick allows the reader a brief glimpse into the atrocities of the Holocaust, then drops us into the daily life of Rosa forty years later. We watch as she tries to survive in a world that has moved on from the past.
The language in this book is filled with metaphors. The subject can be difficult to digest, but it is a worthwhile read both for contemplation and discussion.