Jacob's Ladder

The year is 1939 and the Great Depression still has hold on the Australian economy. Jocob and Solly Kaiser were born in Australia, but their mother and father are European Jews. Jacob, the main character of the story, is thirteen and Solly is nine. Some time ago the boy's mother, Alice, died and their father, Felix, married a Gentile girl by the name of Carmel. As the story opens the family moves to Bondi Beach, in Sydney. They area renting a flat in a beachside establishment called The Balconies. This was previously a very upper class hotel, but has been forced to take in down and outs, because of the bad economic climate. Life on Bondi Beach is some ways idyllic for the boys, but family life continues to decline as the effects of money shortage takes hold. At first Felix makes a living in partnership with his brother Siddy. They go door-to-door buying gold watches and trinkets and sell the scrap metal to the government. But then too many others cotton on to this lark and Felix is forced to take relief work from the Local Council, building a walk way along the top of the beach cliffs. Finally even this work gives out. Life at home is now a series of arguments and Carmel's love interests wander to the attentions of a traveling salesman. Felling his life is in ruins Felix jumps to his death from the cliff path he helped to build. When the boys return home from school they find their flat empty of all furniture and Carmel gone. Alone in the world the boys are escorted by policemen to an orphanage. How will Jacob and Solly survive, and will they even be able to stay together as a small family? This book was also published in Australia under the title The boys from Bondi (UQP young adult fiction). As teenagers virtually all of us go on a search for identity, a search for some way we can express ourselves as individuals in the world. Migrant children face this search, but with the added difficulties of finding a place in two cultures: that of their heritage and that of their new home. This book tells the tale of a boy who finds himself hanging between two worlds, not exactly fitting either. This existential isolation is the main theme of the novel. This book also looks at racism in its subtle and not so subtle forms. Also religious barriers are explored to some degree, as are barriers of ideology, such as Socialism and Zionism. Through all of this the book asks, 'Where does the individual stand?' The plot of the story has plenty of action, but the book is in many ways an internal dialogue, as Jacob struggles to find his place in the world. Jacob is very well developed as a character, although the other people to some extent remain a mystery, as Jacob himself only dimly understands them. The book is very readable and is a good way to begin to get some understanding of a culture which is different to your own. Some Jewish words are used throughout the text and a short glossary is provided, although this is hardly needed as mos