Spinning at the Edges, the latest novel from author and poet Elizabeth Poliner, weaves an engrossing tale of a family attempting to find joy in the aftermath of the Holocaust. With vivid storytelling, Poliner follows Ruth Pearl and her parents as they flee German-occupied Amsterdam for America, describing their ever-increasing web of friendships and relationships over the decades. Employing shifting timelines and character perspectives, Poliner depicts the human struggle to build families, find love, create community, and, most of all, rediscover hope after life has brought challenges and devastating pain. Poliner also expertly conveys the devastating effects of miscommunication within families and even between acquaintances and neighbors, along with the power of empathy in healing.
The novel toggles between two main timelines and settings. In the earlier timeline, a young Ruttie Pearl endures her sister’s murder before her family escapes the Holocaust. In the second central timeline, Ruttie’s name has been Americanized to Ruth; she’s an older woman who lives in a small New England town and is intent on preserving her lake view.
The novel centers on one dramatic moment when Ruth, heading out to skate, stumbles upon a teen boy just as he’s falling through the ice. Ruth and a local judge rescue the teen and care for him. The encounter not only alters the trajectory of their lives but also affects the people who love them, including Stephanie, Ruth’s daughter. Poliner also sets the unfolding drama on frozen Lake Topaqua against the backdrop of the uncertainty of the controversial 2000 U.S. presidential election. The juxtaposition allows her characters to puzzle through how to pursue loving relationships and stability in an uncertain political climate.
The novel also explores the damage that results when family members keep secrets from each other. The central two characters — Ruth and Stephanie — are shown as unable to fully connect, in part because Ruth skates around her truth, unable to fully reveal the pain of her childhood. Poliner is particularly effective in describing the painful relationship between Ian, the teenager whom Ruth helps rescue, and his mother, who isn’t aware of the degree to which her son is struggling emotionally.
Throughout the novel, Poliner shows her mastery of language and her background in poetry through beautiful imagery. She moves seamlessly between Amsterdam, Washington, D.C., and Connecticut, allowing readers to immerse themselves in each setting and time period. In addition, by skipping between close third person perspectives, Poliner convincingly tells the stories of multiple, sometimes seemingly unrelated, characters, ultimately revealing how their complicated lives are interconnected. Poliner goes backwards in time to describe the hopes and needs of Ruth’s parents, along with how their spirits were crushed. Understanding Ruth’s mother and father helps the reader absorb how their trauma affected not just Ruth, but Stephanie, their granddaughter, even though she was born decades after the war’s end.
Ultimately, in Spinning at the Edges, Poliner has created a powerful study of the strength and fragility that comes with every human connection, as well as the effect of intergenerational trauma.
Anna Stolley Persky, a journalist and lawyer by background, writes fiction and creative nonfiction. She’s been published in The Washington Post, Mystery Tribune, Ellery Queen, and Pithead Chapel.
