Book Review: *The Puzzle King* by Betsy Carter

• The Puzzle King by Betsy Carter
• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (August 25, 2009)
• ISBN-13: 978-1565125940

Back-of-the-book blurb: On a gray morning in 1936, Flora Phelps stands in line at the American consulate in Stuttgart, Germany.  She carries a gift for the consul, whom she will bribe in order to help her family get out of Hitler’s Germany.

This is the story of unlikely heroes, the lively, beautiful Flora and her husband, the brooding, studious Simon, two Jewish immigrants who were each sent to America by their families to find better lives.  An improbable match, they meet in New York City and fall in love.  Simon—inventor of the jigsaw puzzle—eventually makes his fortune.  Now wealthy, but still outsiders, Flora and Simon become obsessed with rescuing the loved ones they left behind in Europe whose fates are determined by growing anti-Semitism on both sides of the Atlantic.

Inspired by her family’s legends, Betsy Carter weaves a memorable tale; she explores a fascinating moment in history and creates a cast of characters who endure with dignity, grace, and hope for the future.

She is Too Fond of Books’ review: Betsy Carter has combined family legend, historical research, and creative fiction to produce a wonderful story of family.   She examines what it means to be a family – whether a biological family or a pseudo-family created from happenstance.  What are our obligations to, and expectations from, either type of family?

The novel opens in 1892, when Simon Phelps, age 9, boards a ship from Lithuania to New York; his mother has sent him to find a better life in America, and promises that she and his six siblings will follow soon.  Simon has a talent for drawing, and loses himself in his art, among the squalor of the ocean crossing.

A network of immigrants helps the newcomer to find housing and a job as a newsboy; he is treated like family by his landlords, and attends school with their son.  We read the story of his courtship with Flora Grossman, and learn about her family.  Her sister, Seema, who changed her name from Grossman to the more neutral Glass, also lives in New York, the mistress of a married Episcopalian man.  Another sister, Margot, stays behind in Germany, far from the optimism and opportunities of America; Seema thinks that Margot and their mother are:

old trees who’d sunk their roots into the German soil to which they would cleave until the day they died.

Over time, Simon’s talents lead him to a rags-to-riches story of his own, succeeding in the advertising business with innovative ideas.  But, despite this apparent success, Simon fails to find any news of his mother and siblings, from whom he has been separated for decades.  He places such importance on the bonds of family that, in addition to searching for his own, he insists that he and Flora do all they can for her extended family.

The characters are well-developed with traits that make them endearing.  For example, Simon removed his eyeglasses the first time he and Flora were physically close (he was a bit shy, this may have given him a barrier); as they became more comfortable with each other and their roles as husband and wife, the removal of Simon’s glasses (by either Simon or Flora) became a signal.  I thought this was an adorable detail:

She was the only one …to see him as he was.  “Take off your glasses.”  In the years to follow, those four words became their code for wanting each other.

Several of Carter’s characters are based on real family members, and significant plot turns on family lore.

This is the focus of the novel, the bit and pieces of family lore that Carter has mined to produce this narrative.  I really enjoyed it, as I, too, have snippets of stories that have been passed down (nothing as interesting as being descended from the inventor of the jigsaw puzzle!), and an ultimate goal of tying them together in a background that will bring these ancestors to life for my own children.

Those of you looking for a strong history of the era might want to read The Boston Bibliophile’s review of The Puzzle King.  She feels the book is appropriate for “readers of light fiction, Jewish fiction and immigrant stories” but that Carter “spends too much time on ordinary and unremarkable elements of the story and rushes the most interesting part.”  I can’t argue with her assessment, except to say that the format worked for me, perhaps due to my goals with my own family history.

About the author:  Betsy Carter is the author of two previous novels, Swim to Me and The Orange Blossom Special, and a memoir, Nothing to Fall Back On.  More information can be found at Betsy Carter’s website. Read the “about” page for a Q&A with the author, and the “image gallery” for some fantastic photos and pictures of “The Puzzle King”‘s creations.

FTC disclosure: review copy provided by the publisher.