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When and why did you decide to write "Ten Green Bottles?"
One day, when my mother was 80 years old, and we were walking along a main thoroughfare in Toronto, Canada, she stopped abruptly, staring at a man across the road. He was tall and slim wearing a long trenchcoat that flapped in the wind.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"He looks like a Nazi," she replied in a matter-of-fact way.
After that day I began to think about her life, the upheavals and fear that stayed with her for over 60 years and I decided that it was a story that should be told.
Why is the book entitled, "Ten Green Bottles?"
It is unusual to use a metaphor such as this for a factual, true-life account. However, as I was writing the story which is about my mother's life from the years of 1921-1949, I was guided by memories of my father who had already passed away. There are many anecdotes in the book which were given to me in my thoughts but resounding to me in his voice. The song, "Ten Green Bottles" is one example.
In Shanghai my parents operated a bar where naval personnel used to come and drink. The song was a British drinking song that they heard there. When the words came back to me, I didn't at first know what to make of it but gradually I visualized the scene, the hot steamy nights in the rowdy seaport, the drunken melodies of the sailors and the feeling of loss in my mother. The words of the song represented her string of disasters, traumas and alienation, each breaking her will to bits. Despite her bravery and resilience, I felt that the number of "bottles" was finite and that there would come a day when there was nothing but "the smell upon the wall."
When, in May 2006 she turned 90, there was a change in her. She said that she had no will to live. Within 2 weeks she passed away. I believe that all of her "bottles" were used up.
Why did you write in the present tense and first person?
I chose a very odd approach for a true memoir. My mother was still alive when I wrote the book and her voice was a constant presence. I wanted to re-live the years, through her eyes and with all her senses. It came naturally to me, the only way to give weight to the strange and complicated life of a strong, brave and stubborn woman. She was tough, a survivor.
By writing as I did, I wanted the reader to step into her shoes and walk the convoluted road that she had to travel, seeing through her eyes everything that happened moment by moment.
Did your mother dictate the story to you?
I have been asked this question numerous times and I would like to take it as a compliment. The intent of both the format and voice of the book was meant to resonate with her presence, a reflection of her feelings, and to capture the time and place of her experience. However, the concept of her remembering words and emotions to the extent that I described would be highly unlikely. She was amazed when she read the book that I was able to render the entirety of those years as though she were placed once again into those faraway times.
It seems like a daunting task, to recreate someone's life experience in this way but it came very naturally to me. In addition to the memories that I had stored in my mind of stories I had been told by my parents and my relatives over my lifetime, I spent 6 years in research, writing and re-writing to make certain that the work was as powerful as the life that it tried to document. In the end I was proud of it and am thrilled that it has touched lives and has had such impact on thousands of people worldwide.
Have you returned to Shanghai?
Yes, I was there recently and returned to the Hongkew Ghetto where my parents lived, where I was born and where the Jewish refugees were sheltered from the grip of the pervasive and deathly Nazi hoards. The experience was awesome for me. The area has been preserved and designated as a tourist destination. Although the rest of Shanghai is an ultra-modern city of glass skyscrapers and teaming traffic, time has stood still in Hongkew.
I sat in the restored synagogue where my parents were married and the past rushed back, images from the book, family members who have since died, all returned in my imagination. I saw the ramshackled streets, the dark little stairways to slum housing where they lived. Tears came to my eyes when I thought of my mother's misery and aching nostalgia for the home she had lost.
Is there a message that you would like readers to take from TGB?
My parents' lives were strange and complex. The road that they were forced to take away from home and family was due to their Jewish birth. I believe that they were more than individuals but representatives of the "wandering Jew syndrome." Their experiences formed a microcosm of all that occured in previous centuries of Jewish history. Just like the oppressed of the Bible, throughout the many pogroms in Europe, the Spanish Inquisition and finally the German Holocaust, they had to flee for their lives because of who they were.
For me, the essential lesson in the book and in so many others of this kind is that there must be a strong State of Israel supported without question and without reservation by the Diaspora and therefore a place that belongs to us, with an army and flag, a place where the heart of the Jewish people can always dwell.
Secondly there must be a sense of fierce determination by all people of conscience and good-will to remember the horrors of the Holocaust when the systematic and highly successful attempt at Jewish torture and genocide was carried out. None of us should be able or allowed to forget.
Are you working on another book? What is it about?
Yes.
I have a number of ideas for books that will, I hope, eventually be published. I do not want to write a sequel to "Ten Green Bottles" because I would like the story to stand on its own. I believe that delving further into the lives of those who were introduced in the book, namely my actual family members and others in their lives, would do nothing to further the understanding of the years of the story. The book ends purposefully in 1949 in Canada, the land of their destination and place where they all were able to plant new roots.
The current manuscript on my desk is a historical novel. It is nearing completion and I will update this website with any information I can about its publication and then details about its content. Please stay tuned.
What happened after your family arrived in Canada?
The family arrived in Canada under the sponsorship of long-lost cousins, but the government had further restrictions. They pooled their resources and bought farm land which is mentioned in the book. Unfortunately they were not rural people and had no qualifications for such work. The land was mostly neglected until the time when it could be legally sold. In the meantime they started various kinds of businesses and managed to survive and eventually prosper.
What happened to your brother who was born enroute to Canada?
My brother Bion, has settled in Toronto, is married, his wife is named Nancy, and he has one son, named Evan. They are all doing well.
Did your parents, Nini and Poldi live to see the book of their life in print?
My mother did live to see it published. She died in 2006 at the age of 90. She was thrilled that the story was finally told although many parts were painful to read and relive. Unfortunately my Dad died in 1990 and was not alive to see it. They are both greatly missed by children and grandchildren but the courage and fortitude that they exhibited in life will continue to inspire thousands of people world-wide.
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