Gravitational Fields: A Novel of Peacetime & War

by Harry Rajchgot

The Holocaust–six million Jews murdered. Then the war is over, a remnant is saved, and all drift back into the normal world. But for those who survived and their children, it is never over. Duvid’s sons, Simon and his twin brother Adam, born in Israel, raised in Montreal, grow up haunted by their father’s memories. The secret stories from the war that they overhear in disconnected, whispered bits and pieces only create confusion. After the death of their father, they find strange writings on crumbling scraps of cloth, hidden in his father’s old valise. Are they clues to a hidden past, this past which their father always avoided talking about? Simon, his life torn apart by personal adversity, hopes also to discover something about himself in them. He doesn’t imagine, though, the wonders they will lead his father’s secret and surprising history. Shifting from the small town Jewish life of pre-war Poland to the wilds of Russia, from Europe to Montreal, and on to Israel, Gravitational Fields is a moving, lyrical story, an epic tale of family, adventure, survival, determination, and especially, love.

521 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 27, 2016

About the author

Harry Rajchgot was born in a displaced persons’ camp in Pocking, in what was then West Germany, after the end of World War II. He is the son of Holocaust survivors who spent the war years in the Soviet Union after escaping from Poland in 1939, soon after the war began. He now lives in Montreal. In his day job as a dentist, he is a staff member of the McGill University Health Centre, and a faculty lecturer at McGill University. Gravitational Fields is his first novel. Formerly co-editor of the Harvest-HaAsif Literary Anthology, he is currently editor of JONAHmagazine, an online literary magazine. He amuses himself by writing musical plays for the Jewish festival of Purim, and is a founding member of the Greene Writers Collective.

Reviews

[Matthew Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars

This novel, about the Holocaust and its aftermath, as experienced by members of a single Jewish family originating in Poland and later settling in Montreal, is an intriguing, emotional and multilayered story that takes its time to tell a very in-depth and often terribly tragic story. In it, Simon, a Montreal journalist, and his brother Adam, a doctor, learn about their father Duvid, who was stoic and distant when they grew up, but who it turns out has led a very interesting, at times horrific, and sometimes tragic life. We are privy to his adventures during the war in Poland, and later in the young state of Israel; as well as some very interesting encounters in Montreal. As well, the upbringing and lives of Simon and Adam in Montreal are realized, and provide a counterpoint to the old-world horrors and adventures of Duvid’s life. Overall, as said, it is an intriguing and emotional story, well-told—but I have a gripe. Though the writing itself is strong, at times the author shifts from narrative to metaphysical explorations that in and of themselves can be interesting, but that are not well worked into the story and thus can really affect the pace and flow of the novel, and thus make for an uneven reading experience at times. Overall, however, the novel is well realized, and the author skilfully weaves the various threads of the story together into a satisfying, and ultimately affecting, whole.

[Patricia Boksa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense and passionately written. Reads like a story that had to be told. Emotionally powerful but also subtle, very open. We can only imagine what it is like to live someone else’s experience, perhaps especially our own parents’, and this book helps us to imagine. Eminently readable writing style. Placed in a compelling story arc, I was particularly struck with how authentic and fully realized the characters are. The book is a moving tribute, dedicated to the author’s father and mother.

[Jim Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subtitled "A Novel of Peacetime & War", Gravitational Fields (2016) by Harry Rajchgot is an epic (450 pages) story that covers the events of the Jewish people from pre-WWII through the struggle to establish the Israeli State to living in Canada. In particular, it is the story of Duvid Grynstzyn (later David Gryn) and how he escaped the small Polish village that was exterminated of Jews by the German army, losing all of his family in a moment of time. Duvid then sets out on a trek to get to Krakow, where Miriam, the love of his life is staying with relatives. In order to survive, he must disguise the fact that he is a Jew. He is without family, friends or anyone he can trust. Soon, he ends up fighting along with the Polish resistance where he finds Miriam who turns out to be a fierce fighter herself. Their reunion is short-lived, for Duvid believes she was captured and shot by the Germans. Duvid is eventually captured and is confined to one of the Nazi death camps, but manages to escape death by working as a tailor, using skills he learned from his father. Later, after the camps are liberated, he meets Hanna whom he eventually marries and settles down within Israel after serving as a freedom fighter for the fledgeling post-war state. Tired of all the strife he has faced in his life, the family emigrates to Canada to start a new life.
Despite its length, Gravitational Fields is not a sprawling, disjointed novel. Mr Rajchgot maintains an even pace to the storytelling, rarely wandering off the main path. When he does, it is to explore some metaphysical thoughts on existence, the universe or religion, all which play a role in creating the differing gravitational fields the main characters experience, in particular, Adam and Simon the twin sons of David and Hanna. When Simon, a journalist decides to go to Israel to interview Jews who, like his father came to Israel from other countries to help establish a Jewish nation, he then stumbles upon his father's own story, one that David kept carefully hidden away in an old valise in a closet in their Montreal home for years.
I enjoyed Gravitational Fields, and while I at first found the threads of the story difficult to piece together, they do eventually get stitched together to form a tapestry-like story that has both depth and breadth, and most importantly, significance and purpose. A good, meaningful début novel from Montreal's Harry Rajchgot.

[Samuel Leopold · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book is riveting, as the characters are defined, both past and present are interlocked, and the reader is trusted with the callbacks to previous events, characters, and plot props. You always know where you are in reference to history and the characters lives. Tidy and sharp writing and dialogue keep you reading for more. It's a page turner and transports you to Poland, Germany, Israel, Canada, and into the minds of the characters in some of the most turbulent years for Jews. You understand the complexity of the situations, the turbulent emotions, and so many secrets.

But then, briefly, the book takes a turn for the stream of consciousness during one of the most pivotal moments of the novel. Whose mind am I in? Simon's? Duvid's? The author's? To be fair, the book brings the reader into the confusion one would likely experience after the death of a father (the central figure), the passing of a child, and the disintegration of a marriage all in short order. It's a difficult transition, and it may just be my recent aversion to similar writing that I experienced earlier in the year with The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov or years ago with On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I don't like, unexpectedly, being jerked out of the story to navigate a whole different literary technique. Let's just stay in the tale, shall we?! But I digress.

And I got my wish. The writing snaps back to vivid experiences that bring you into the chaos that was the war in Europe, the post war struggles of the survivors, and the fears in the early days of Israel. The present also continues to be sown into the plot as it ties the past to characters still living through their own challenges and the mysteries they are navigating.
Their lives are revealed moment by moment, the secrets are incorporated into the building anticipation of the storyline, and it all comes together through clever coincidence and serendipity.

One of the hallmarks of a good story and strong character development is if you can imagine the characters continuing to live on after the last page. I certainly can, and hopefully they all find happiness and contentment in all they discovered and each other.

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting read.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

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