White Oleander\nBy Janet Fitch\n\nLittle, Brown, $24..\n\nWhen author Janet Fitch was 9, her longtime friend disappeared into the netherworld of the Los Angeles foster care system.
The High Holy Day period that just ended is, for most Jews, a time of solitary reflection, aptly called the Days of Awe for its mood of confrontation with the Eternal. For some of us, though, it\’s also a season for family togetherness, a cozy time to snuggle up with the ones you love most.
Where does a parent — a Jewish mother — begin a frank consideration of her daughter\’s sexuality? As the Zen master says, you have to start from where you are, and then let it flow.
I\’ve been a single parent a long time now. I knowa lot about it. When Jewish organizations need a speaker on single parenting, they often ask me — and I\’ll be at the Westside Jewish Community Center this Sunday for the daylong conference, \”Creating Family Life as a Single Parent,\” sponsored by Jewish Family Service\’s new Jewish Single Parent Network (818-762-8800.)\n
My mother called to give me an update on my aunt Ruthie\’s condition. She had a cancer-spotted kidney removed a few days ago,and the family Jew-Ex was hot with medical reports. My mother, whose curse it was to be the firstborn, was cursed a second time by havinga daughter who she used to liken to her sister Ruth whenever I stepped out of line — which was often, according to my mother.Ruthie\’s curse was to be born two years after my mother and to neverhave had a daughter.
In addition to the usual bathing suits,socks and shorts, as suggested by Camp Hess Kramer on its inventory list, my daughter, Samantha, needed an orange sweat shirt with blue (preferably royal) lettering\nspelling out the words \”Leadership \’97\” on the front and her name on the back. Right away, I could foresee trouble.
The restaurant billboard advertised its Father\’s Day brunch in letters too large to miss. \”If I had a father, we could take him out to eat,\” my daughter, Samantha, said, as we drove by.
Remember that great scene in \”Inherit the Wind,\” when Clarence Darrow asks William Jennings Bryan if a book that details rape, incest, slaughter, nudity and sodomy should be banned? The fundamentalist Bryan answers, \”Of course!\” and Darrow, with a flourish, whips out a copy of the Bible and declares, \”Then you must ban this book!\”
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