It starts off with
a story of 21 year old Frances, who comes from an almost broken family. Her father
and mother want to go their separate ways, and her younger sister who is
looking to get married to her non-Jewish fiancé, also looks at moving away.
Frances, who is back
after breaking up with her boyfriend, due to the fact that she had a pregnancy
scare, and also, because he does not care for what she does. He believes that
her job has no purpose and will not help anyone whereas he is looking at a future
in politics. She is back in New York from where she grabs a painting apprenticeship
and moves to Norway.
The second part of
this story is 17 year old, Yasha. In his final year at high school in Brooklyn
after moving there from Russia almost 10 years ago, Yasha and his father run
the local bakery. This they do, while they wait for his mother, Olyana to join
them. But she never does
all this time, but instead finally comes to his school, to find Yasha.
She tells
Yasha that she has been in New York for three months and is looking for a
divorce from her husband, so she can marry her boyfriend. She gives the divorce
papers to Yasha, but he tries to delay it, telling her of his father’s weak
heart.
In the meanwhile,
Yasha’s father, Vassily buys tickets to Russia to look for Olyana. When they do
arrive, Vassily is in for a rude shock, as the divorce papers are handed to him
by his brother. His father then dies of a broken heart, and it falls upon Yasha
to bury his father on top of the world. This was Vassily’s last wish.
The place where
the two, Frances and Yasha are to meet and carry the story forward is Norway.
This was where the beauty of the story begins. Frances is at the place of the stand-alone
art installation, 'The Yellow Room', where she would begin the art work.
The beauty of 'The Sunlit Night' by author, Rebecca Dinerstein lie here. In the yellow room and the place where she begins to discover, true exquisiteness,
thanks to its isolation from the rest of the world are two things, which are
wonderfully described and would touch your heart. In this place, is where she
meets Yasha.
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| Rebecca Dinerstein |
The love story
begins to unfold here, and it is here where you notice what the parents of both
sides realty want. Even the four-year gap between them, seems significant when it
funnily is at 17 and 21.
One, in the swarming
New York city and the other in the vast, almost empty spaces of Norway. One is
struck by the contrast, which the author draws for us. Of the midnight sun and
of the tastes of all that is baked in Yasha’s bakery are two points, which
stayed on in my memory. Her descriptions of the Arctic are almost psychedelic
and one wishes to travel far north too. Dream of the colour yellow too…
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