Notes

Davita’s Harp was published in 1985 which features a female protagonist. This book was set in New York city in the 1930s. Davita is a child who is in a mixed race marriage. Her mother was a Polish Jewish while her father was a Christian with a wealthy background from England. Her parents have suffered bitter memories from their past but they turned their backs on their past and became active members of the Communist Party which is a political party that advocates the application of social and economics principles of communism through state policy. Davita did not had the best childhood. She suffered with a lot of mystery and struggles. When Davita’s father (Michael Chandal) was wounded in the Spanish Civil War, she began to look for answers at the local synagogue which is a Jewish or Samaritan house of prayer located in Italy and became friends with a Jew including her neighbour Ruthie Helfman. Davita’s father died in Spain after the war and Davita together with her mother had difficulty coping up with his grief. Davita became more interested in traditional judaism and said kaddish (hymn of praises to God) to her non Jewish father. Book 1 basically focused on the protagonist's intention in escaping her childhood and the environment she is leaving in. The characters who were born in both Saul Bellow Chicago and Philip Roth Newark might remember their neighbourhood they grew up in with affection or rage. Their speech retain traces of immigrant English that they might have tangled emotions towards a parent they have left behind but, they have also set out to create themselves anew.
Book 2 - Vanessa (Chapter 3 & first half of 4)
Ilana Davita’s fathers heading to Spain to write about the war. Ilana Davita was introduced to the synagogue by one of her neighbors, Ruthie. She was very curious about the things that she saw and asked many questions. At the same time, she was faced with her father being away and only had the visuals that Jakob Daw (a family friend) described in his letters. He described Spain as “hell beyond the ability of even a Dante to depict.” He wrote, “Chaos is king in Spain. Here little children carry flags and guns. Here priests urge on the killing.” Her father ended up being sent home from Spain due to falling ill with dysentery and with jaundice. When winter came, Ruthie was the one that told her about the celebration of Chanukkah. Her aunt Sarah, introduced her to Jesus Christ and the three wise men.
As soon as Illana’s father was cleared by the doctor he returned to Spain, leaving her mother and her behind.
Book 2 - Evelyn
During Davita’s father’s second trip to Spain, he was sent to a city named Guernica to write about the war and the chaos. After a few weeks of him being there, Davita did not receive any more letters from him and did not see any of his writings on the newspaper for which he wrote for. He was nowhere to be found. One night a man went to the apartment to tell Davita and her mother that her father had been killed in an explosion trying to save a nun. Being devastated with the news, Davita thought that just having a memorial service wasn’t enough, so she kept going to the synagogue to recite Kaddish for her father.
Jakob Daw returned from Spain and was staying with Davita and her mother until one day immigration police took Jakob and sent him to France. These devastating events led Davita to fall ill, and after an accident in the lake, her aunt Sarah took Davita to her grandfather’s farmhouse in Maine. Aunt Sarah took care of Davita and she would often pray for her.