The Rhythm of Memory

(Alyson Richman read at the West Side YMCA as part of the Writer's Voice Visiting Authors Series on October 1, 2004. This is from my spoken introduction that evening). In "Swedish Tango," Alyson Richman covers, through tales of personal devastation and resurrection, the tragic political upheaval of Allende's Chile, the sad, and to most of us I'm sure sadly obscure story of Finnish War children, and the complexities of survivor's guilt through the eyes and heart of a man only part of whose family escaped pre-war France. With these enormous events as backdrop, she manages to at the same time delicately navigate two larger-than-life relationships; relationships whose paths are heartbreaking in their small details and particulars. Because of the ambitious cutting back and forth from story to story, from decade to decade, it would be easy for the author to lose the reader. Yet Ms. Richman never loses her firm grasp on each character On the contrary, that seeming device keeps the reader focused on the people involved--flawed, admirable, impetuous, passionate, and all too human. With an true artist's hand, she allows you to eavesdrop on them--their conversations, which sound like actual people talking, the way people who know each other, deeply talk to each other, even when they are speaking of events so much larger than themselves. They stay, in today's vernacular, real. With each choice the characters make, with each turn of the plot, you find yourself leaning forward with them, urging them on, hoping that the choices they make do not destroy them, and fearing for them, as they encounter circumstances beyond imagining. But we don't have to imagine. Alyson Richman has wonderfully captured the richness of these people in "Swedish Tango," and their stories echo and reverberate long after the last page.

This book a very well researched piece of historical fiction which combines political unrest in Chili with the effects of the Holocaust on the survivors who fled and the result is a wonderful tale of love, family, and the will to overcome the most difficult of obstacles, both physical and emotional. The book is two stories, told separately yet simultaneously in a fashion I found quite compelling, which ultimately overlap as Ms. Richman brings the entire story together in the book's memorable coda. If you enjoy reading, I wholeheartedly recommend this book, it certainly has everything I look for and enthusiastically enjoy in a novel.

This novel of two couples; wounded surrivors of several political upheavels and wars of the twentieth century, is beautifully written. This romantic, but dark story, focuses on the power of love to heal, albeit incompletely. Its relative bleakness and pessimism, rings true and gives the novel a level of authenticity that is seldom found in contemporary historical fiction. I strongly recommend this book. G. Seliger

In the 1970s, Pablo Neruda asks movie star Octavio Ribeiro to teach Salvador Allende how to work the media while he runs for the Chilean presidency. Only for his personal idol Neruda would Octavio get involved with politics, but he pays quite a price after Allende's reign falls; thugs of Allende's opponent Pinochet abduct and torture his wife Salome to frighten Allende supporters and to personally make Octavio pay. After Salome is rescued, she, Octavio and their children receive political asylum in Sweden. Salome visits Dr. Samuel Rudin, an expert on post-traumatic stress syndrome. Samuel has his own troubles as his French Jewish parents never mentally escaped the Holocaust though they fled to Peru before Hitler's invasion. His wife Kaija also has parental issues as her parents sent her to the safety of adoption in Sweden during WWII. Samuel and Salome have a brief affair, but the doctor knows it's wrong and ends it. Two decades later, Salome is asked to testify against Pinochet. With Samuel dead for years, she turns to Octavio, whom she still loves, asking him what she should do as she fears repercussions. SWEDISH TANGO is an intriguing look at family vs. society told by the perspectives of Salome and Octavio. The story line is at its best when it places an Ayn Rand lens on societal ethics against personal loyalty and safety. When the tale spins into a possible second chance romance, it still hooks readers interested in what happens to the lead couple, but also loses its deep thought provoking philosophical questions on the needs pf an individual and a family against the demands of deadly leadership and a nation. Harriet Klausner