By
– August 6, 2012
A parent’s mental illness is not often addressed in children’s books. Waiting for Eugene addresses it directly by showing its symptoms, its causes, and its effects on a family. Twelve-year – old Sara Goldman loves her father’s stories and derives artistic inspiration from them, drawing the people that he describes as having lived with him and sustained him during the war years. The killing of his family and his horrendous experiences as a small child hidden in darkness under a barn floor have never been emotionally resolved, and Papa’s retreats into the past through psychotic episodes become more frequent with the stories he tells. The relationship between art and experience is never completely established, but through the conviction of the narrative and the appeal of the characters, its influence is felt. The story is set in the 1960’s, and the war that so damaged Papa is not named, although it is clear to readers with a historical perspective that it is the Holocaust. The author’s decision not to situate the story in specific terms is meant to universalize the suffering of war, whether it is the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, or genocide in Rwanda. In a work where historical setting is important, this would be a detriment, but in this story, which deals obliquely with several inter-related but non-historic themes, it may puzzle children but not deter them from understanding the story’s emotional content. For ages 11 – 14.
Linda R. Silver is a specialist in Jewish children’s literature. She is editor of the Association of Jewish Libraries’ Jewish Valuesfinder, www.ajljewishvalues.org, and author of Best Jewish Books for Children and Teens: A JPS Guide (The Jewish Publication Society, 2010) and The Jewish Values Finder: A Guide to Values in Jewish Children’s Literature (Neal-Schuman, 2008).