Song of Ascent

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

The 11 interconnected stories in this collection portray the lives of
Hannah Birnbaum and members of her family. As a young Jewish teenager
during the early Hitler years in Germany, Hannah rebels against the
rigidity of her traditional home. Eventually she escapes to Jerusalem,
marries, and moves with her new family to Montreal, where many of the
stories are set. Rebellion is an underlying theme: Hannah’s son Avi
rebels against his bar mitzvah; her daughter Rachel has a sordid affair
with a famous Yiddish poet-professor. The rebellions are small-scale,
however, and change nothing.

Each story offers a different point of view and insight into different
relationships in the family: Ernest and Avi, Ernst and Rachel, Rachel
and Hannah, Hannah’s sister Edith, Hannah’s friend Gerda. Often we
look through Rachel’s eyes, although the stories focus on Hannah’s
life, her despair, frustration, and aloneness.

Each story is chronological, jumping forward in time from young Hannah
in the first story to old Hannah at the end. The final story is a
surreal portrayal of a Prague cemetery, Kafka, and a glimpse of a
missing relative named Thomas. This is a story of memories, rebellion,
lack of communication, stubbornness, and independence. The whiffs of
fresh air that Hannah yearns for as a young woman are few and far
between. For Hannah and her family, there is only pain, endurance, and
solitude.