Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Fortunate Ones
Ellen Umansky
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Fortunate Ones
Ellen Umansky
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Fortunate Ones by Ellen Umansky is about two women, Rose who lived in Austria before World War II, and Lizzie who lives in southern California in the 20th century. It’s also about their search for a stolen painting by Chaim Soutine, stolen during a party Lizzie had given when her parents were away.
After Lizzie’s father dies, the two women meet and compare experiences each had with Lizzie’s father. The painting by famous artist Soutine binds them together. Rose, from a Jewish family, was sent to England as a child to get her away from the Nazis. When the war ends, Rose is eighteen and her brother Gerhard, comes; in uniform, to visit her. He tells her their parents are dead, that he’s heard terrible stories and she knows he’s right. When they go out to dinner he has a woman with him, Isobel, who wears real silk stockings. She must be rich, Rose thinks, and why didn’t Gerhard tell her about Isobel?
In later chapters, author Umansky tells us about Lizzie after her father dies in an auto accident. She falls in love with his best friend, Max, who lives in Venice, California. The author describes the area as she walks the streets in L.A. near the La Brea Tar pits where dinosaurs are buried in tar. Rose and Lizzie are very much alike, even though their histories are not similar. Rose has lost everything but married her special man. Lizzie had everything she ever wanted but never married. Rose never stopped looking for the painting, “The Bishop”, by Soutine that her mother had loved. She is devastated when her brother tells her “It’s over. The past is over.” Rose feels things don’t just disappear; their parents didn’t disappear; they were murdered. The painting was stolen, maybe by someone at Lizzie’s party.
In Beverly Hills, Lizzie meets with the private investigator her father had hired when the Soutine went missing. He tells her things he knows, some things she can’t believe. She had been only a child then. When an exhibit of Soutine’s paintings comes to an L.A. museum, Rose goes to see it, hoping to find “The Bishop.” She and Thomas had moved to L.A. Will she ever find it? Will it mean as much to her as it did to her mother when they lived in Vienna? Will Rose and Lizzie become friends? Find this fine novel on the new fiction shelf of your community library.
After Lizzie’s father dies, the two women meet and compare experiences each had with Lizzie’s father. The painting by famous artist Soutine binds them together. Rose, from a Jewish family, was sent to England as a child to get her away from the Nazis. When the war ends, Rose is eighteen and her brother Gerhard, comes; in uniform, to visit her. He tells her their parents are dead, that he’s heard terrible stories and she knows he’s right. When they go out to dinner he has a woman with him, Isobel, who wears real silk stockings. She must be rich, Rose thinks, and why didn’t Gerhard tell her about Isobel?
In later chapters, author Umansky tells us about Lizzie after her father dies in an auto accident. She falls in love with his best friend, Max, who lives in Venice, California. The author describes the area as she walks the streets in L.A. near the La Brea Tar pits where dinosaurs are buried in tar. Rose and Lizzie are very much alike, even though their histories are not similar. Rose has lost everything but married her special man. Lizzie had everything she ever wanted but never married. Rose never stopped looking for the painting, “The Bishop”, by Soutine that her mother had loved. She is devastated when her brother tells her “It’s over. The past is over.” Rose feels things don’t just disappear; their parents didn’t disappear; they were murdered. The painting was stolen, maybe by someone at Lizzie’s party.
In Beverly Hills, Lizzie meets with the private investigator her father had hired when the Soutine went missing. He tells her things he knows, some things she can’t believe. She had been only a child then. When an exhibit of Soutine’s paintings comes to an L.A. museum, Rose goes to see it, hoping to find “The Bishop.” She and Thomas had moved to L.A. Will she ever find it? Will it mean as much to her as it did to her mother when they lived in Vienna? Will Rose and Lizzie become friends? Find this fine novel on the new fiction shelf of your community library.