Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons

Mr. and Mrs. Rosemblum are able to be among the lucky few who escape Berlin before Hitler and his ilk put their plans for the eradication of the Jewish people into full effect. When they arrive in England, Mr. Rosenblum eagerly pursues the path of assimilating as completely as possible. Mrs. Rosenblum misses her home. Relations between the two remain cordial, but distance develops.

Mr. Rosenblum at first thinks he has come to a place where a Jewish man can be an equal. He learns how wrong he is, that there is discrimination, even though there are not concentration camps, even though there are no ovens, there are golf clubs (i.e., private clubs formed for the purpose of playing golf) that still won't let you in, no matter how successful your carpet manufacturing business is, no matter how perfect your bespoke tailoring, no matter how hard you have worked to embrace idiom and erase accent.

But the British man plays golf, and so Mr. Rosenblum must also play golf. What is a man to do?

What Mr. Rosenblum does is purchase a large tract of land in Dorsetshire, with a house on it that could be called either dilapidated or in need of TLC, depending on your tendency to be generous.

And he builds his own golf course.



Author Natasha Solomons based this novel on the experiences of her own grandparents, arriving in Dorsetshire following evacuation from Germany. It is clearly a labor of love, and the novel begins to take off once the Rosenblums reach this beautiful place, full of people who are either quaint, welcoming, and tolerant of if puzzled by the newcomer who wants to mae a golf course, or inbred upper class types who invite the unwitting Rosenblums over as amusement for their other guests, who will stay for dinner after the Rosenblums have left when cocktails are over.

Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English has something of Babette's Feast about it, the desire to do a thing for its own sake, whether anyone else understands it or not. Also in common with Babette is the theme of embracing the place where you are, and finding the joys it has to offer, whether they are the chance to build a golf course where no golf course has been dreamt of before, or the rediscovery of the flowers of one's childhood.

Solomons writes with a gentle style, aware that her protagonist will seem a little silly, perhaps ridiculous, and investing him somehow with a kinds of rare dignity, his determination and courage overcoming the strange dream of building a small course to rival the links of St. Andrews, or Bobby Jones' achievement at Augusta.

It's a gentle book, filled with insight, and poignant moments. It should be enjoyed without hurry, but maybe with a glass of really good wine.