Safe Harbors - Hardcover

Roth-Hano, Renee

3.6

5 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0027777952 ISBN 13: 9780027777956

Publisher: Four Winds Press, 1993

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In an autobiographical novel, the sequel to Touch Wood, Rene+a7e, now a teenager, comes to America in 1950 to begin a two-year job as a governess for a wealthy New York family.

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From Booklist:

Gr. 8-12. In this autobiographical novel, a sequel to Touch Wood (1988), which was about her experiences as a Jewish child hidden in a convent, Roth-Hano writes about her postwar coming of age in New York City, where she traveled at the invitation of Adele Miller, who needed a governess for her 10-year-old daughter. Roth-Hano's ruminative, unaffected telling combines memories of what she encountered in her new home with flashes of the past--about Fernand, her boyfriend; her postwar life in Paris; her strained relationship with her mother; and her beloved father, whose death she still feels partly responsible for. Her story is intriguing on several counts. A keen observer of human nature, she gives readers a vivid, concrete sense of the people she meets. And her candor about matters of religion is refreshing: she is openly awed by religious freedom in the U.S. and is straightforward about her loss of faith and disillusionment with traditional Judaism, her attachment to the Catholic Church, and her eventual discovery of a "safe harbor" in a Reform Jewish temple. Readers will applaud her when she accepts responsibility for herself and breaks away from the Millers, from her guilt, and from her mother's domination. An unusual fictionalized memoir that draws its drama from the strong voice of its narrator. Stephanie Zvirin

From School Library Journal:

Grade 9-12-An autobiographical novel in diary format that is a sequel to Touch Wood (Four Winds, 1988), the author's account of growing up in World War II France. It is 1951, and Renee Roth, now 19, has arrived in New York City as a governess for a wealthy family. She has come to learn English and to escape her domineering mother and is still haunted by memories of her father's death in 1946. A nonpracticing Jew herself, she is surprised to find a "strong, assertive Jewish culture" in New York. Through her friendship with the sister of her employer, self-centered Adele Miller, Renee comes to terms with her heritage. Needing money to return to Paris, where she wishes to be reunited with her boyfriend, she stands up to her mother and leaves Mrs. Miller to work for a publishing firm. An epilogue tells readers of subsequent developments in the author's life. Roth-Hano has created strong, memorable characters; while Renee's growth to maturity is the central theme, she has also portrayed with humor and sensitivity an individual's adapting to a new culture. She shows a fine historian's eye for detail and has re-created New York in the early 1950's, and Paris as well.
Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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