Thorny Plots in a Bed of Roses: Rosenfeld by Maya Kessler
A Fiction Review by Michael Greenstein
Noa Simon, the protagonist of Maya Kessler’s debut novel Rosenfeld, falls madly in love with her CEO, Teddy Rosenfeld. If his name sounds like a Jewish version of Teddy Roosevelt, then it is meant to showcase the nature of attraction to powerful figures – whether the president of the United States or the head of Delmar Bio Solutions. This marine biotech company stretches from Israel to international relations, highlighting not only a start-up nation but also the startup between Noa and Teddy. Rosenfeld is a page-turner where lovers’ lust is counterbalanced by weighty psychodynamics framed by film-making.
Each section of the novel is marked by a > or >> indicating a forward or fast-forward pace and direction in the propulsive plot. The opening paragraph frames a scene narrated through Noa’s photographic lens: “He’s sitting by one of the white tables on the lawn, talking to his business partner. They laugh at something, but stop when everyone’s asked to quiet down. The lighting dims and he watches the movie projected on the screen by the stage. Up until that moment, he has no idea that there’s such a thing as me. But we’re soon to find out.” This balanced cinematography prepares for their intense relationship that follows, as well as her point of view directed not just at her boss, but toward herself as well. Although most of the novel consists of heated dialogue, the narrative paragraphs provide a framework for scrutinizing heated debates in and out of bed, in and out of focus, for Noa is frequently under the influence of nicotine, alcohol, and stronger drugs.
Animalistic passion passes between Noa and Teddy at first sight: “We’ve hardly uttered a word, and I already feel like I’m going to pounce on this man … I won’t let go until I swallow him whole …. hyenas leap, their teeth tearing through the exposed flesh of a carcass.” For Noa, there will always be a double exposure of flesh and flash camera, as she grabs Teddy and the reader in her sensual embrace. Round Teddy is the teddy bear from the missing part of her childhood with its neglected bear hug. Indeed, at the very end of the novel her mother Nurit flashes back to the doctor’s office when Noa was almost three years old. In the waiting room Noa hugs a fat man, and in the last line she says, “But Mommy, I love him” – a kind of summary of her love for heavy Teddy who is generous to a fault. Teddy’s business partner Richard approaches Noa “and very naturally envelops me into a huge bear hug.” In another flashback paragraph Noa remembers figures, “and there’s the bear I love because he smiles.”
Teddy repeatedly refers to Noa as “monster,” while his status appears as “His Majesty” and “the führer.” Yet there is a constant leveling of corporate hierarchy in the co-dependency of the lovers. After Noa’s traumatic automobile accident, their relationship develops in another dimension. When she tells him that she’s “an independent woman,” he replies “Dependent” in a decisive tone. Noa reflects on her situation: “Symbiosis is dangerous…. The codependency relieves the aloneness.” Symbiotic and symbolic, Ms. Simon speaks her mind and body.
“ In Rosenfeld’s chiaroscuro, Noa may be queen of the castle, but the castle crumbles.”
Although Kessler’s camera focuses on her main characters’ genitalia, she occasionally shifts perspective toward external evaluation that provides relief from all of the sexual episodes. “If anyone’s looking at my apartment from outside right now, they must see flashes of light and shadow moving across the little window at the very top of the tallest tower of a castle on the scariest mountain in the kingdom.” In Rosenfeld’s chiaroscuro Noa may be queen of the castle, but the castle crumbles. In the hospital she recalls the accident: “each moment gets a single frame, but since I only have a few, the whole thing plays in my mind on a maddening loop.” Kessler accumulates single frames and a little window to project Rosenfeld.
“The novel would arguably have been twice as good at half the length, but the psychological drama provides weight and insight that justify the repeated sexual scenes.”
After one of their heated arguments, she stares at him cutting vegetables: “CUT, CUT, CUT.” This action refers not only to the kitchen knife but also to the editing process in film or fiction. Some readers will find that despite the fluid and fast-paced prose, the novel would arguably have been twice as good at half the length, but the psychological drama provides weight and insight that justify the repeated sexual scenes.
The poignant reconciliation between Noa and her mother after so many years of separation is managed by Teddy who in turn saves his own mother’s apartment as a way to hold on to her memory. These maternal lines run counter to the power dynamics within the corporate world.
The shortest subsections in the novel are preceded by a + sign instead of > or >>. They are reflective and retrospective. In one such section Noa muses: “But better off deconstructing the elements and seeing the baby in the dream as representing an aspect of my battered soul, and not just representing the baby I haven’t had yet and who knows if I ever will.” Rosenfeld’s foetal position underlies many of the other positions in the Freudian struggle between the id and the super-ego. Amidst all the libidinal fluids and fixations, the amniotic finds its own oneiric place: “You can keep on dreaming about babies you need to take care of …. It’s not a nightmare, but rather like a rocky landscape with occasional sweet water reservoirs beneath.” A womb of one’s own disturbs dreams, landscapes, glass ceilings and lenses. Nothing gets lost in Maya Thomas’s capable translation of Maya Kessler’s Hebrew.
About the Author
Maya Kessler is a writer, film director, and producer. Kessler studied arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. She currently works as a filmmaker for a global oncology company, alongside writing and developing original content for the international television market.
About the Reviewer
Michael Greenstein is a retired professor of English (Université de Sherbrooke). He is the author of Third Solitudes: Tradition and Discontinuity in Jewish-Canadian Literature and has published widely on Victorian, Canadian, and American-Jewish literature.
Book Details
Publisher : Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster (Nov. 19 2024)
Language : English
Hardcover : 400 pages
ISBN-10 : 1668053454
ISBN-13 : 978-1668053454