By Philippa Miller
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The mid-1960s. The Catskills had many kosher hotels catering to Jews mostly because other hotels in the region did not. This was something Natalie Marx found out as a teenager when her mother had sent inquiries to hotels and inns in various places including Cape Cod, Hamptons, and Vermont. One hotel, specifically, sent a letter back responding that the guests who felt most comfortable at their inn were gentiles. In a post World War II world, young Natalie thought that meant the owners were Nazis, but her mother told her it was just that some people didn’t like Jews and they would be finding another place for their summer vacation because “you shouldn’t go where you aren’t wanted.”
Since that letter , Natalie become a bit preoccupied with being a guest there, at The Inn at Lake Devine, and while she may not have been wanted there, she wanted to be there.
The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman explores the journey Natalie begins as a teenager. Eventually spending a week in Vermont at the Inn, she becomes tied to it in ways one wouldn’t expect. Exploring themes of anti-semitism and intermarriage, through Natalie we see how the generations post-WWII chartered their own path at the behest of their parents.
For me, this story hit home. While I did not know my great-grandparents, I have been told that when my mother was engaged to my father, a non-Jew, my great-grandfather was very unhappy about the situation. Intermarriage was an act that resulted in sitting shiva, as Natalie mentions when her sister decides to marry a non-Jew. But as Mr. Feldman, the father of a friend of Natalie, finds out, “Young people . . . It’s different today . . . my niece, my nephew, my own daughter, my own son, his friends said.” With the Inn a key piece of her story, we see Natalie finding love herself there—with a non-Jew—and eventually returning to the Inn many times in her 20s. A place where she wasn’t wanted but wanted to be.
While this book is almost 30 years old, I think it would resonate with many younger generations. There may not be official Nazis anymore and excluding Jews from places may not be officially accepted anymore, we unfortunately still have some hatred today and understand there are places Jews aren’t welcomed or would feel funny if they were to go there. Intermarriage is also a prevalent occurrence in our society, with younger generations creating new mixed traditions while older generations may not be as open to it. Some romance, some Yiddish, food, and confronting hatred, The Inn at Lake Devine is a wonderful quick read.
