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Friday September 22, 2006

Tedious ‘Bodies and Souls’ has little of either

by yelena shuster
j. intern

Isabel Vincent, an investigative reporter for Canada’s National Post, proves to be a big tease with her latest novel, “Bodies and Souls: The Tragic Plight of Three Jewish Women Forced into Prostitution in the Americas.”

Although her novel promises to describe, well, the tragic plight of three Jewish women forced into prostitution, the reader is left unsatisfied — feeling cheap and dirty for trusting yet another book by its rousing title. Vincent allows us only to peek at glimpses of these women’s lives, which are mixed in with an otherwise dry historical treatment of the subject. “Bodies and Souls” is neither an investigative addition to history nor a gripping tale.

Vincent describes an ignored slice of history that is indeed fascinating. Starting in the 1860s, the Zwi Migdal, a powerful band of Jewish pimps, organized their own prostitution ring by preying on the naiveté of Jewish women living in poor shtetls of Eastern Europe.

Selling the American dream, the men duped the girls — as young as 13 — into fake marriages with the promise of delicacies and luxuries in the Americas (where everyone eats oranges and chicken every day!), though their gifts of silk dresses had an altogether different purpose from what the girls had in mind.

In the novel arise issues of class inequality, severe poverty, gender power dynamics and rejection among the Jewish community. These women became victims not only of the aggressive pimps, but also of the ostracizing Jewish communities. Deemed impure, the prostitutes were excluded from synagogue and burial rights. A group of prostitutes in South America that had no support system created their own — forming an organization in 1906 called the Society of Truth that would ensure proper Jewish burial and elderly care-taking.

Unfortunately, this portion of history has been so well-buried that there is simply not enough information to make for a compelling 233 pages, and that is Vincent’s biggest problem. Rather than succinctly describe the sad lives of the three women, she takes it upon herself to offer historical analysis and background, just the thing to slow down any narrative’s pace into a dull murmur.

Told in third-person narrative, her research and mastery of detail is impressive: she peppers her historical tale with examples of exciting trials, conspiring matchmakers and heroic women who succeeded in convicting their exploiters. But the examples can keep us adrift for only so long. Vincent teases us with snippets of action, and then lets us down each time by receding into historical sermon.

She tries to fill in the gaps of these women’s lives with unanswered questions and unconfirmed assumptions about the hows and whys of their lives. Vincent is so disadvantaged by the lack of information that she has to rely on superficial, rhetorical questions to explore their thoughts: “At that moment Sophia must have realized that her life was going to change forever. What went through her mind as she prepared to leave her family? Was this stranger, with the beautiful almond-shaped eyes, her savior? Was this the Messiah? Or was he a devil?”

Vincent seems to have over-reached in her novel: she aims to both enlighten about an ignored lesson in history and paint the portrait of three women’s lives as a psychological thriller. Her interspersed history lessons, though, decrease any momentum she achieves while describing the women’s stories, undercutting both goals.

Vincent writes, “It can only be guessed how women like Sophia Chamys felt when they were treated with such scorn by their fellow Jews.” And it can only be guessed that such knowledge would make this book more enjoyable.

“Bodies and Souls: The Tragic Plight of Three Jewish Women Forced into Prostitution in the Americas” by Isabel Vincent (233 pages, William Morrow, $25.95).

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