To the Land of Cattails (Appelfeld, Aharon) Paperback – April 14, 1994 by Aharon Appelfeld (Grove Press)

The title of this fascinating 1987 novel is ironic. A mother and her son, she in her early thirties and he about 16 or 17, are returning to the home of her Orthodox Jewish parents after an absence of close to two decades in a carriage led by two horses. The year is 1938. They were unknowingly entering Hitler’s Germany.

She left home when she married a non-Jew, despite her parent’s warnings. He turned into a drunk and wife-beater. She assures her son that they are going to a pleasant area where flowers bloom. Their trip takes months. They encounter many experiences of anti-Semitic hatred, including the murder of a Jewish Inn Keeper. Readers may feel the urge to warn her “Don’t go!” But she is sure her longing for happiness and fulfillment is in front of her.

She is beautiful, but uneducated, knows little of Judaism, and is very fearful, although she has no idea why. While wanting to reunite with her Jewish parents, she utters defamatory remarks to her son from time to time, such as “Jews are short” and “Jews dislike pleasure,” while her disparaging remarks are equaled in number with her praise for her parents and Judaism, for she wants her son, who was raised as a non-Jew, to be Jewish. It seems clear that she has absorbed her husband’s hatred, although she left him long ago. After separating from her husband she had many affairs because of her beauty, including one with an elderly man who left her money when he died. While she looks Jewish, her son does not. As a result, peasants make insulting remarks to her during the trip, but not to her son.

She is addicted to cigarettes and coffee, but frequently warns her son not to drink like his father, who he saw only as a child, once in his life, and he promises that he will not do so. But when the two reach an Inn that is just two hours from her parent’s home, he overly indulges in beer and is intoxicated for days.

She decides to proceed alone. Readers will find what follows disturbing, but they will enjoy the book because Appelfeld is such a good writer.