April 23, 2012
A Time to Cast Away Stones, tells the story of Janet Magill, a shy, straight-arrow Berkeley freshman with compelling reasons to join the antiwar movement. Janet’s brother has been shipped off to Vietnam, and Aaron Becker, her childhood sweetheart, might well be next. When Janet’s parents banish her from Berkeley to what they expect will be a safe, idyllic springtime in Paris, she runs headlong into the 1968 May Revolution and falls in love with a secretive Czech dissident. Far from the distant and haunting City of Light, Aaron makes plans to evade the draft and join her. He follows Janet’s journey through an embattled correspondence, witnesses the wrenching exploration of her capacity for love, responsibility and sacrifice, then loses contact as her “safe” year abroad turns into a dangerous coming of age.
In this powerful novel, Elise Frances Miller poses a question of intense interest to Jewish audiences. In today’s political climate, how do we remain independent moral entities while coping with political and social forces beyond our control? Although not writing on a Jewish theme, the author’s values and neshama as an active Jew, whose husband is a progressive rabbi, inform the story and shape its characters.
In this powerful novel, Elise Frances Miller poses a question of intense interest to Jewish audiences. In today’s political climate, how do we remain independent moral entities while coping with political and social forces beyond our control? Although not writing on a Jewish theme, the author’s values and neshama as an active Jew, whose husband is a progressive rabbi, inform the story and shape its characters.