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Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English
Natasha Solomons
2010, 355 pages
Fiction
Jack Rosenblum is a refugee, having escaped Berlin with his wife and baby on the brink of WWII. He carefully studies a resettlement pamphlet, adding his own notes over the years, so that he can become a true Englishman. Eventually Jack builds a successful carpet factory, wears a Savile Row suit, and drives a Jaguar. But one thing eludes him: golf membership. No club will admit a Jewish member. So he decides to build his own, buying a rundown cottage in Dorset with land enough for his links course and studying plans for the Old Course at St. Andrews and Augusta National. He even writes to Bobby Jones. As he and his wife, Sadie, settle into village life his dream seems precarious – “wooly pigs” and snobbish lords, bank loans and broken looms at the factory all stand in Jack’s way. Sadie misses the convenience of London and still struggles with the loss of her family left behind in Germany. In their thatched cottage with its ramshackle garden, among their new Dorset neighbors Sadie and Jack find solace. This is a cozy tale with a serious side, based on the author’s grandparents’ own stories of resettlement in England.
