BRISKIN, Mae 1924-

PERSONAL: Born October 20, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York; daughter of Sam (a millinery worker) and Yetta (a homemaker; maiden name, Rubin) Seidman; married Herbert B. Briskin, December 1, 1946 (died September 23, 1990); children: Jonathan, Lauren Briskin Lincoln, Allen. Education: Brooklyn College (now of the City University of New York), B.A. (magna cum laude), 1944; Columbia University, M.A., 1946; attended Stanford University, 1979-80 and 1983-84. Religion: Jewish

ADDRESSES: Home—Palo Alto, CA. Offıce—c/o John Daniel & Co., P.O. Box 7290, McKinleyville, CA 95519. Agent—Ellen Levine, Ellen Levine Literary Agency Inc., 15 East 26th St., Suite 1801, New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Brooklyn College (now of the City University of New York), Brooklyn, NY, instructor in economics, 1944-45; New York State Department of Labor, New York, NY, investigator, 1945-47; New York City Housing Authority, member of tenant selection and management staffs of housing projects, 1947-50; writer, 1973—.

MEMBER: International PEN, California Writers Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best American Short Stories selection, 1976, for "A Boy Like Astrid's Mother"; syndicated fiction project awards, International PEN, 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1987; journalism award in short story category, Catholic Press Association, 1988; short fiction award, P.E.N. Center USA/West, 1989, for A Boy Like Astrid's Mother.

WRITINGS:

A Boy Like Astrid's Mother (stories), Norton (New York, NY), 1988.

The Tree Still Stands (novel), Norton (New York, NY), 1991.

A Hole in the Water (novel), John Daniel (Santa Barbara, CA), 2002.

Work represented in anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, 1976. Contributor to Jewish Monthly.

SIDELIGHTS: Mae Briskin once told CA: "My first career was as an economist, because I thought that, by ending economic hardship, we could end war and racial conflict. My second was as a suburban housewife and mother, and when at last I started to write at the age of fifty, I wrote about the world I knew.

"Then, in September, 1983, I saw a tiny newspaper item that said: 'Last weekend, the Israeli ambassador to Rome went to Siena to deliver the Medal of the Righteous Gentile to. . .' and it listed four names, '. . . for saving the Sadun family.' As if a hand had gripped my shoulder, I knew I had to write their story, or the story of other Gentiles who, during the Holocaust, had risked their lives to protect and shelter Jews, in most cases Jews they hadn't even known.

"My reaction was instinctual, and I could not at the time have explained it. Later I could. I felt that if all we learned of human nature from the Holocaust was about humanity's capacity for unspeakable cruelty, or of our capacity for indifference to it, how could any of us ever again feel secure—since we are all potential victims of somebody else? Why should we become humane? If no one but our family, friends, and ethnic group will help us in our time of need, why should we help someone else? I had to write this largely unwritten chapter of the Holocaust—of people who had taken risks, had resisted the evil and made it possible for others to survive—so that we today could regain our trust, and know that we can resist and be trusted, too, should the need arise.

"I stopped everything else, learned Italian, got the names of the Gentiles in Italy who had been recognized by the State of Israel for protecting Jews, and went to Italy to interview them. I read the literature then available in English and Italian, and I used all this as background for the stories in Part II of A Boy Like Astrid's Mother and for the novel The Tree Still Stands."

The 1988 collection A Boy Like Astrid's Mother features four stories based on the brave acts of these ordinary Italians. While each tale explores wartime events, "they are all set in the present and bear the added weight of reflection and remembrance," Alix Madrigal commented in the San Francisco Chronicle. The rest of the collection includes several stories set in America in more contemporary times. The title story, for instance, deals with an abandoned seventeen-year-old boy who learns to find hope in other people. As Los Angeles Times critic Elaine Kendall explained, "one way and another, the eleven stories in the first section of the book explore the terrible fragility of connections between parents and children." Nevertheless, it is the four Italian stories that are most memorable, the critic added, concluding that these stories "not only astonish the reader with their technical sophistication, but restore his flagging faith in humanity."

Briskin returned to wartime Italy for her 1991 novel The Tree Still Stands. The novel opens in Warsaw in 1936 and traces the journey of the Levy family as they are forced to flee to Paris and eventually Florence. At each step of their journey, they are aided by Jews and Gentiles alike, despite the danger of discovery by the Nazis. Narrated by young Ruth Levy, the novel "becomes a series of interlocking vignettes recalled by the child whose maturity is accelerated by terror and annealed by anguish," as Kendall observed in the Los Angeles Times. While a Publishers Weekly critic faulted the novel for an overabundance of minor characters and the occasional confusing flashback, the writer added that "Ruth is an admirable protagonist, both as a child of war and as a young woman achieving intellectual and emotional independence." Library Journal contributor Beth Ann Mills found The Tree Still Stands "simply told yet resonant," while Kendall concluded that "Briskin's tales are more than fictionalized history. Though her fact and invention occasionally threaten to separate, Ruth Levy's vitality provides the cohesion that effectively transforms her from narrator to heroine, her story from documentary to literature."

Briskin's second novel, 2002's A Hole in the Water, took her nearly a decade to complete. While it makes use of the Italian setting so familiar to the author, the plot is set in the present and is another examination of estranged family members. Widowed Anne is an expert on the Italian resistance of World War II who made many trips to Italy after her teenage daughter was sighted in Florence after running away from home. Anne never found her daughter, but she is still haunted by the memory of Vincenzo, an anti-Fascist activist who helped in her search. After the death of her husband, Anne returns to Italy hoping to see Vincenzo and starts an affair with him—a relationship made even more complicated when Anne's daughter resurfaces. A Kirkus Reviews writer noted that despite some flaws, the novel's "complex story is insightful in its portrayal of an older woman still able to experience life in all its pleasures and pain." Booklist contributor Carol Haggas praised the hopeful tone of the novel and the author's "compassion and sensitivity" in portraying Anne's romance. The critic concluded that "Briskin's characters, complex yet circumspect, romantic yet rational, resonate with noble humanity."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2002, Carol Haggas, review of A Hole in the Water, p. 920.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2002, review of A Hole in the Water, p. 6.

Library Journal, December, 1990, Beth Ann Mills, review of The Tree Still Stands, p. 157.

Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1988, Elaine Kendall, "Fragility of the Parent-Child Connection," p. 8; January 11, 1991, Elaine Kendall, "A Tribute to Rescuers of Jewish Families," p. E8.

Publishers Weekly, November 23, 1990, review of The Tree Still Stands, p. 55.

San Francisco Chronicle, August 30, 1988, Alix Madrigal, "Family Tales Touch on Nazi-Era Heroes," p. E5.

ONLINE

Jewish Bulletin of Northern California Online, http://www.jewishsf.com/bk020607/ (March 10, 2003), Marina Krakovsky, "Author Shows How to Live Life with Passion through New Novel."*