With a belief that individuals have a huge cadre of ancestors backing them up–and depending on them to complete unfinished business–SYNCHRONICITIES ON THE AVENUE OF THE SAINTS by Deborah Gaal dives into multi-timelined stories infused with hidden darkness that is striving to be uncovered and reconciled in the light of a brand new day. Beginning with Hadassah baking rugalach in her rural Russian village back in the year 1918 as she waits in vein for her beloved husband to return during a time of impending revolution, and alternating between such perspectives as those lived by 24-year-old Noah Friedman who is possibly achieving enlightenment via the drug Selexikote in modern-day St. Louis to the olden-day legends shared by his 98-year-old Great-Grandma Sara (a relative way more important to Noah than his own annoying mother), this novel serves up a sublime, eccentric, complex mix of exceptional possibilities substantive enough to sink one’s teeth into.
Readers will need to hold onto many details from various stories switching back and forth between timeframes, along with a whole host of supporting characters in order to make sense of the tales being told. In this vein, a hyperlinked Table of Contents for convenient navigation between chapters would have been useful to be able to recheck clues laid down earlier, so that conspicuously absent facet of typical e-book construction is one of the novel’s only obvious flaws as its plot jumps from Cossacks invading the Russian village where Hadassah’s evil eye witchcraft skills are the one thing keeping Sara’s family alive, to Noah and his eclectic band of brother-friends including the journalist Fleck who has caught wind of a potentially big story that involves: Noah’s mother. Underlying the narrative are such pivotal questions as: Is awareness the ability to exist in a fifth dimension? Are the curses someone casts actually real and dangerous? Must promises made and broken generations ago be healed in order for the living to no longer be troubled by the dead? The camaraderie, affection, and animosity between these characters are palpable. As is their ancient pain. As is the underlying sense of evil needing to be put to rest. Dotted with Jewish idioms and philosophical theories smacking of high physics, this is a romp in a universe peopled by saints and sinners alike. Some of the ghosts are particularly opinionated and humorous.
A tale of good and bad medicine, Deborah Gaal’s SYNCHRONICITIES ON THE AVENUE OF THE SAINTS is the kind of fiction likely to leave readers breathless with laughter, deep contemplation and suspense, as family members mess with each other’s lives from beyond the grave.
~ C.S. Holmes for IndieReader