To the Land of Cattails

To the Land of the Cattails (earlier published as To the Land of the Reeds) tells the story of a single mother's journey with her son across Europe from 1938 to 1940. Toni Strauss is a 34 year-old, divorced, non-observant Jewish woman living in Vienna with her 15 year-old son, Rudi. Toni is strikingly beautiful and has sufficient resources to lead a comfortable and perhaps even luxurious life. Some years earlier, she left her homeland, Bukovina in Eastern Europe, in order to marry Rudi's father, an Austrian gentile. As a result of that marriage, she is estranged from her observant Jewish parents from whom she has not heard since her marriage. When an elderly admirer bequeaths his entire estate to Toni, she pulls Rudi out of school, buys a wagon and two horses, packs up their belongings and heads east for Bukovina, the land of the cattails. They travel leisurely, lingering for weeks and sometimes months at a time at stops along the way. Meanwhile Toni tries to introduce Rudi to Judaism and the Eastern-European Jewish culture. Their journey from Vienna to Bukovina (a distance of roughly 600 miles) is seemingly endless. One is reminded of the biblical Exodus story where the children of Israel take forty years to travel from Egypt to the promised land. The tone of the novel becomes increasingly dark and ominous as their journey progresses. At the beginning of the journey, passers-by, fellow travelers and innkeepers are friendly, welcoming and courteous. Toni extravagantly overpays and overtips with large bills. The atmosphere is lighthearted and pleasant. As they near their destination, passers-by insult Toni, innkeepers refuse to serve her and she is reduced to paying with her jewelry. It is clear that Jews are not well-liked in Bukovina. Just 15 miles short of Toni's hometown, the conflicted and depressed Rudi goes on a drinking binge, passes out and awakes to find that Toni has disappeared. The rest of the novel is devoted to Rudi's search for his mother and his struggle to cope with his increasingly mystifying and dangerous situation. Aharon Appelfeld's novels are often compared to Kafka's and rightly so. This novel is dreamlike and is full of imagery and symbolism. It is a difficult book, but is well worth the time and effort it takes to understand it. I found that I had a much better grasp of the novel after referring to a Holocaust timeline and a map of Europe circa 1939. What I found most remarkable is what the author left unsaid. The hints and clues of what is going on around Toni and Rudi are so subtle that the book's climax comes as quite a surprise and blindsides the reader. The reader finds himself in Rudi's situation -- confused and wondering why he didn't see it coming. The reader gains a sense of how Hitler's Final Solution could have blindsided millions. There is more to this novel than can be summed up in a short review. It is an outstanding book that deserves to be read and re-read.

Most of the books I have read by Mr. Aharon Appelfeld have dealt with movement, the movement of an individual, or in this case, a Mother and her Son. This work differs as it is at the beginning of The Holocaust, and we read not of survivors attempting to travel and regain their previous life, but of individuals heading straight into the Genocide.This is one of the briefer of this Author's novels, however it does not lack depth in plot, or in its characters. The story takes place in the summer of 1938, the infamous trains have been transporting the Reich's victims, and this is one of the more interesting pieces of the story to unravel. The Country that was their home was an early entrant into the Nazi Sphere, and their travels took them not away from, but rather toward the planned insanity that was taking place. The circumstances are also more complex as the Mother has left an abusive marriage to a Gentile. The only child is a Son, who though Jewish by Religious and Nazi Law, appears not to be, and their reception along the way demonstrates this. As they approach their ultimate destination the Mother also wavers from proclaiming her Son a Jew or a Christian.The return trip without the waiting trains is still destined to be a painful conflict. This first return home after marrying outside her faith guarantees conflict with her Family at a minimum. As the trip progresses the mood darkens, however the Mother seems much more aware than her Son.When the final approach to her hometown is all that is left after weeks of travel, the Son wakes to find he has been left, his Mother has gone on without him. And from this point on the story seems to pose the question of whether or not the Mother was having her Son deliver her to this danger she could not have been ignorant of, as she states that Jews are not well-liked as they get closer to her birthplace.The Son pursues his Mother, and meets many others on their way to the trains, or others that wait for them. I am confident that many will interpret the story differently, but it seemed that the Mother knew what the future held, and wanted her Son to deliver her believing he would not be suspected of being Jewish.Like all his books the storylines are not shallow or simplistic. Even when Mr. Appelfeld writes about the Holocaust that the he survived and his Mother did not; it still is not just about that instant of tragedy. Read a work of his twice and interpretations can change,