Holding My Breath: A Novel
by Sidura Ludwig
THE JEWISH POST AND NEWS
7 March 2007, review by Joseph Leven
Sidura Ludwig's 'Holding My Breath' a fine first novel
Dialogue believable, characters keep developing
A young Jewish girl is born and spends the first few years of her life in an apartment above her father's drugstore just off Main Street. A few years later her family moves into Baba's house on Alfred Avenue. Many years later, having become prosperous at last, they move once again into a big house on McAdam Avenue East. Her mother shops at Oretzky's and Gunn's and goes to movies at the Palace. Guess what city the book is located in, and what the book's theme might be (Winnipeg and growing up Jewish in the North End, for anyone who might be reading this review in Addis Ababa).
Holding My Breath is the debut novel for author Sidura Ludwig. Ludwig was born and raised in Winnipeg and now lives in Toronto. With Holding My Breath, she takes her place in a long line of authors including Sheldon Oberman, Harry and Mildred Gutkin, Joseph Wilder and Reubin Slonim, who have written works of biography or fiction on the theme of growing up Jewish in Winnipeg's North End. And, I might add right up front, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
There are men in the story of course, but essentially this is a novel about women. The narrator, Beth, is the only child of Saul and Goldie Levy. Goldie has two sisters, Carrie and Sarah. The narrative revolves around the three sisters, Beth and, while she is still alive, Baba. The story takes place in the late 1940s and onward.
Goldie is the strong sister, the one who takes on all work and gets it done. Whether it's caring for her dying mother or organizing book sales for Hadassah, Goldie is there front and centre. Goldie is also the sister who holds on most strongly to the Jewish traditions and customs.
Carrie is the sister who cannot let go of the past, whether the death of her soldier brother Phil, or the events that took place in her own life when she was younger. She keeps looking backward, but as the novel progresses, we see the past gradually loosen its grip, and Carrie begins to blossom.
Sarah is the beautiful sister who wants more from her life than Jewish Winnipeg can offer. She cannot wait to be free of her family and hometown, and wants to try everything, but sadly, she finds the big outside world to be much less wonderful than what she had dreamed.
Beth grows up under the sway of her mother and two aunts, and inevitably absorbs a little bit of each of them as we watch her growing up and becoming her own person.
Ludwig writes with a straightforward, free-flowing style. Her dialogues in particular sound real and believable. The characters keep on developing throughout the novel, showing us new sides of themselves as the story progresses. This is a fine first novel with a special appeal to anyone who grew up Jewish in Winnipeg.