"Fran saw Eve, still one with her thoughts, reach up and begin to tap the feet of that crucified body tenderly and she kept tapping, as if to say what? I'm sorry you are in such pain. It will be better. It will be all right. That simple act of such childlike sincerity filled Fran with a pain that cut right to the heart of memories which floated up into her throat."
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The World Eve Left Us by Boston Teran Brutus Productions
book review by Wendy Strain
Do not expect to sit down and breeze through the pages of this book in an evening. Not only is it a bit too long for that at more than 300 pages, each page contains such haunting beauty, such masterful artistry, that you're going to want to linger over the words and savor the experience.
This is not a pretty story to read, either. Centered in the Bronx in the decades from the 1950s through the 1970s with a quick summary of changes occurring through the 1980s, it is a story of survival in the midst of brute violence. It is a tale of pure love in the face of pure hatred.
Eve Leone is born the second deaf daughter to an unhappy, impoverished, uneducated couple in a tiny room with an alcove. Because it had the addition of a stove, a sink, and a refrigerator, this basement room gained the title of apartment while a bed sheet fastened across the entrance converted the alcove into a girl's bedroom. It is where the family will live for as long as they remain a family.
Born premature and helpless, Eve will become the third member in a triad of beautifully strong women who strive to persevere despite a world ideologically set against them and eager to take advantage of their weakness. She will become a role model and savior in her own right, yet remain a victim of the reality of injustice which she faces without fear.
The first tragedy of Eve's life occurs within this basement space but serves as the catalyst to relationships she will come to rely on for her very survival in later life. Clarissa determines, against her husband's wishes, to give her remaining daughter Eve the education only Fran, a woman touched by Eve's sincerity, can negotiate.
Learning to communicate with the outside world, discovering the magic of photography, Eve becomes more and more able to exercise the strong independent streak she inherits from her father tempered by the loving spirit she gained from her mother.
Facing down her peers when her father is convicted for drug dealing and deliberately rejecting him following the disappearance of her mother, correctly blaming him for Clarissa's death, Eve gains strength and courage from Fran. Fran's strength comes from her ability to survive, in however damaged a form, some of the more brutal elements of Nazi Germany. With Fran's strength and understanding of human nature, Eve is able to mostly escape her father's illegal activities but must learn some of the rules of the game herself in order to help protect the next generation of potential victims.
Through it all, Eve finds connection and separation through the lens of her camera, capturing moments in time that chronicle her life, the lives of those she loves, and the brutal realities of life in the increasingly dangerous streets of New York. While these images don't actually appear within the book, the reader will gain a strong impression of them through the flowing, lyrical descriptions provided. The story seems to float through the mind as an almost tactile experience rather than a collection of words on a page. Its profound beauty will continue to haunt the senses long after the covers have closed.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review