The Tavern at the End of History
Generations whose stories are informed by the Holocaust converge at a sanitarium by the sea in Morris Collins’s surrealistic, affecting novel The Tavern at the End of History.
Brought together by chance, fate, or inevitability, Rachel and Jacob head to Maine for the sale of a reemerged sketch by a famous artist. Jacob, a displaced philosophy professor facing unwanted divorce, has a connection to the disgraced Kabbalist heading the sale; Rachel is an art historian in mourning for her sister-in-law and husband, ex-Hasids whose wounds she could not salve. Both hope to do right by Baer, a Holocaust survivor who claims that the sketch was stolen from him as a boy.
The novel’s early portions are consumed by accounts of the duo’s regrets. Jacob wonders if his latest failures are reflective of deep character flaws, first evinced in his inability to bridge the distance between himself and his father, who was haunted by his parents’ Holocaust experiences. Rachel, meanwhile, is plagued by imposter syndrome and worries about wasted opportunities.
Once Rachel and Jacob arrive in Maine, their introspection shares space with surrealistic turns, and the sometimes academic prose becomes earthier and more tactile. In a tavern on a cliff, forgetful angels are fed reminders of Jewish history; a possible ghost turns up on the doorstep to haunt the Kabbalist, Baruch, with his ghastly truths. Epigenetic concerns are given narrative form in each cast member’s tale—of hiding in cramped cupboards, stealing from fellow refugees, and feelings of unworthiness; of mass murder, sexual violence, and generational despair. In the novel’s final pages, opportunities for redemption and restitution also emerge, though even they are dogged by tragedy.
A philosophical novel written with otherworldly flair, The Tavern at the End of History is about intergenerational wounds and self-forgiveness.
Reviewed by
Michelle Anne Schingler
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