July 1, 2020
Returning to Toronto to sit shiva for her sister, Eve finds herself entering a seven-day hiatus from life, a time in which to not only mourn, but rethink the past, ponder the future, and reevaluate the sibling lost forever. Methodical, conscientious Tam had achieved it all. Canada's premier anchorwoman, she also possessed "a great marriage, a wonderful daughter and a new baby, fame and fortune." Her sister, Eve, however, chose a different, messier life plan. Fleeing Canada to travel, then settling in New York, Eve, now 35, has a semiavailable boyfriend, an incomplete dissertation about unmarried British women writers in the interwar years, and a job teaching continuing education courses. Eve's return to the family home to grieve her sister's untimely death comes with the added discomfort that at their final meeting, two week earlier, the sisters argued so vehemently that they never spoke again. Being back also revives Eve's feelings for Laurence, her childhood love, who is newly single and just as desirable. Could a cozy future in Toronto be hers? Rapoport's tightly structured novel uses the seven-day Jewish mourning ritual to delve claustrophobically into Eve's psychology and the family history that shaped it. Parents, grandparents, the sisters' seesaw relationship, and Eve's childhood memories are repeatedly scrutinized, interrupted by occasional plot nodes like a date with Laurence and a video from Tam, prepared before her death. Was Tam as perfect as she seemed? Who envied whom? Can Eve make better choices? These questions, both familiar and overworked, will all resolve themselves neatly as suggestions of moral lapses are excused by extenuating circumstances, and a couple of surprises help other issues melt away. The scenario is sympathetic but the conceptual bones poke too visibly through this novel's narrative skin.
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August 1, 2020
Spanning the seven days of shiva (the Jewish mourning ritual), this new work from Rapoport (Preparing for Sabbath) opens in 1990 in Toronto before the funeral of Eve's older sister Tam, a mother of two young children, an admired TV journalist, and a pillar of the community. Eve, 35, irritated by Canada's tameness, has long ago fled to New York City, escaping familial pressures and what she sees as a stultifying, overly conventional existence. Always close to her sister despite their differences, Eve recalls a lifetime of trying to truly understand Tam, who seemed always to have known exactly what she wanted out of life. Eve, in contrast, has never settled down, endlessly researching a PhD dissertation about women explorers between the two world wars who were striving to escape their Victorian upbringings. As Eve withdraws from the family tragedy into a liaison with her first love, she is confronted with stark evidence that there was more to her "perfect" sister than was evident on the surface. VERDICT Somber but hopeful, this work reveals truths about family dynamics, which are always messier and more complicated than unquestioned family lore.--Lauren Gilbert, Ctr. for Jewish History, New York
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Starred review from August 17, 2020
Rapoport’s smart, darkly funny novel (after the memoir House on the River) considers the travails of a Jewish family in contemporary Canada. Eve, 35, returns from New York City to her native Toronto for the funeral of her older sister, Tam, and to sit shiva. Hardworking, straight-arrow Tam was a famous TV news anchor, married with children; unmarried Eve, the rebellious bohemian, teaches adult education classes. Tam sneered at Eve’s lack of accomplishment, particularly in domestic life, and Eve remains tortured by guilt and rage over their final, unresolved fight in the hospital, which occurred shortly before Tam’s death from breast cancer. When Eve receives a card Tam had left for her that contains a cryptic note asking for Eve’s forgiveness, Eve’s attempt to decode the rest of Tam’s note (“The last time we were together, he said, ‘I want to breathe you into me’ ”) brings up memories of serene summers at the family’s house on Lake Ontario. Eve then cheats on her boyfriend with her high school boyfriend, Laurie, and as Eve learns details of her family history, she grasps the meaning of Tam’s confession. Rapoport’s prose crackles with wit (“the past is making guerrilla incursions into my life”) and erotic heat, as Eve remembers her first sexual experiences with Laurie. Suffused with deep feeling, Rapoport’s narrative boldly faces the darkness that can fuel sisterly rivalry.
September 1, 2020
Thirtysomething college professor Eve returns to Toronto following the death of her sister, Tam, to spend a week sitting shiva with her family in her childhood home. Eve, who decamped to New York City to build a life for herself outside the family circle, must now contend with the family dynamics she has long ignored and, it turns out, often wrongly interpreted. An argument with Tam two weeks prior to her death has left Eve with many fences to mend along with secrets to discover. For Eve and her family, the past and the present are not always what they seem. Rapoport (House on the River, 2004) examines the inner workings of a grieving family as Eve reexamines her past, the assumptions she has made about the people she loves, and the illusions that must be reshaped in order to make peace. Beautifully written, with expertly crafted dialogue and meaningful characters, Evening is an emotional look at one family's tragic loss and a powerful reminder that the only way to move forward is to go through.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)