Adel
A Novel in Linked Stories
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Release Date: March 5, 2015
Pages: 221
Synopsis
Adel: A Novel in Linked Stories is a collection of 17 stories that run from the abuse of Adel's mother in 1912 to the burgeoning romance between Adel and her former psychiatrist, Nicky Covo, in 1960. The Literary Lollipop has said that the first story -- “Nate & Adel” -- "is especially touching [and that] Nate’s sense of loyalty to his daughter is so sweet and genuine, but wonderfully unique.” The stories take Adel's life and tribulations forward and also look back at the brutality of war and racism, as experienced by Norm Williams, an African American, during World Wars I and II; allow Adel to describe in her own words the daily strain of mental illness, the glimmers of hope emerging in her group therapy and her job with Norm, and her ultimate despair at the recognition of the evil forces that conspired against her. The author himself enters two of the stories as a character to pump Adel for information. Three stories show Nicky as a youth in Holocaust-torn Greece.
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Praise
“Berger's writing style pulls you in, and you feel a kinship to the characters --- both in terms of what they are saying and doing, and what is being related through their interior monologues. Very believable, and very engrossing...”
Excerpt
Nate and Adel
Smoke curled up lazily from the ashtray where Adel had placed her cigarette, adding to the haze that always permeated the small two-bedroom walkup where Nate tried with difficulty to make a home for himself and his daughter. The noise from 53rd Street was unusually quiet for Saturday afternoon, but Nate knew that many of their neighbors in Borough Park were doing as were they, listening to the Dodgers game. In the Miller apartment, even with a small television set in the corner of their living room, the preferred method was to tune in on the old radio that Nate had owned since before his only child was born. They both loved the voices of Vin Scully and Red Barber and loved to imagine their heroes on the field rather than watch them through the grainy, ghostlike images on WOR.
The game hadn’t been going well for the Dodgers. Billy Loes, the Dodgers’ starting pitcher, had pitched out of a jam in the first, gotten through the second giving up only a walk, but in the third two quick singles in front of a mammoth home run by Wally Post put the visiting Reds ahead by three. The Dodgers escaped further injury only when Carl Furillo rifled a strike from right field to Don Hoak at third, nailing Gus Bell, who’d foolishly tried to pick up an extra base with two outs.
Adel had chain smoked through her Marlboros, but didn’t seem particularly anxious. Instead, she focused on the announcers' voices and kept meticulous score in the notebook that she used to track every Dodgers games. Between innings, during the Schaefer Beer jingles, Adel closed her eyes and hummed off-key.
After the top of the fourth, Adel turned to look at Nate and giggled.
“Adel, what are you hearing?”
“Jackie Robinson says that I'm beautiful and that he wants to marry me.”
“Again?”
“Of course. And he says that the Dodgers will win it in the ninth inning. He didn't say how, though.”
Nate sighed. It had been three years since the advent of Adel's illness and two years since Louise had fled. For the first sixteen years of her life, Adel had been, not only normal, but brilliant. In high school, she’d started out as a straight A student. Nate had foolishly hoped that she’d follow his footsteps into law. And then, overnight as it seemed to Nate, Adel lost interest in school, started eating voraciously and gaining weight at a monumental clip, began to smoke, heard voices that no one else could hear, and often garbled her speech. Occasionally, she’d dig her fingernails into her body until bloody streaks appeared. Adel would moan and claim that she was being eaten by insects crawling under her skin. To prevent serious injury, Nate and Louise tried without much success to keep bandages wrapped around the ends of her fingers.
The doctors to whom they took Adel turned out to be useless. They all agreed that Adel had schizophrenia, but none could offer acceptable treatment advice. One doctor claimed Adel's hormonal balance was off and that she needed estrogen, but another doctor said the opposite. When Nate and Louise couldn't get consistent answers, they decided not to fool with drugs. One doctor recommended electroconvulsive therapy, an idea that sickened them, and two told them that Adel's disease had no cure and that they should just put Adel into a psychiatric hospital for the rest of her life, an idea that sickened them even more. Adel’s parents concluded that somehow they’d have to take care of Adel without professional help. But as the three wound their way to the end of the string of consultations, Adel’s condition worsened.
In her only episode of violence, Adel had gone after Louise with a knife, screaming that she was the devil. Nate couldn’t understand what had led Adel to attack her mother, although, never particularly stable herself, Louise had always been hypercritical of Adel. As Adel’s serious mental problems mounted, Louise had been less and less able to cope. On the day in question, Louise managed to escape harm by locking herself in the bathroom until Nate got home from work and discovered the pathetic tableau, Louise crying behind a thin wooden door that looked as if it had suffered a few hard kicks, Adel sitting on the sofa muttering and periodically punching herself in the head, the bread knife lying beside her.
Nate managed to coax Louise out from her hiding place and tried unsuccessfully to piece together the story as she began packing her suitcase, still sobbing, protesting that she’d had enough and would be moving back in with her mother. The next morning she called a cab, not saying anything to Adel and merely yelling over her shoulder at Nate that she'd be in touch.
The contacts between them since had been sporadic, and Nate couldn't be sure when he'd last spoken to her. Adel hadn't minded that Louise was gone, hadn't even seemed to realize why she’d left, content to interact only with Nate, never mentioning her mother. After the initial shock of her departure, Nate adjusted as well, he thought. In a way, he felt relieved at her absence; now he could focus only on Adel.