The Sweetness of Forgetting

Rose’s chapter opens with a recipe for North Star blueberry muffins. Rose has long been haunted by images of the death camps and the guilt that she sent Jacob back to die by asking him to help her family. She feels that she drifts in an underwater world as she imagines the death of her siblings and parents. She aches most for Alain, her favorite. Jacob’s face is clear in her mind, though 70 years have passed.

She recalls her 50th birthday, though no one knew that it was her birthday because her visa has a different birth date—the same date her family was taken. She missed her birth family and felt that every birthday of hers took her further from them. Rose walked to the bakery and watched Josephine at work. She had never been able to tell Josephine the truth, so instead she told her fairy tales composed of her memories. Rose was there as Josephine went into labor. She asked about the baby’s father, and Josephine refused to name him. Rose felt that Josephine’s hard heart was Rose’s fault: “Her heart had simply ceased to exist on that dark, empty day in 1949 when Ted returned to tell her that Jacob had died. Josephine had been just a little girl then, too young to know she had lost her mother that day” (229). Ted arrived to rush Josephine to the hospital. He was thrilled about being a grandfather. Josephine decided to name her daughter Hope.

Annie has no luck locating Jacob Levy. Gavin comes into the bakery for pastries and suggests that it might help if they knew Jacob’s birthdate. Annie realizes that she can be both Catholic and Jewish, and it occurs to Hope that Jacob might have gotten involved in interfaith organizations, and perhaps she can locate him that way. She spends the day with Alain, whose company she enjoys, and asks if he knows Jacob’s birthday. Alain describes how he was there when Rose and Jacob met in the Luxembourg Gardens on Christmas Eve, 1940. Rose liked the replica of the Statue of Liberty, and there they saw Jacob. Rose fell in love with him at first sight, and Jacob mentioned that the next day was his 16th birthday. Hope asks Gavin if he believes in soul mates, and he says that he does. Gavin echoes Alain’s thought that Hope has layers around her heart because she has been hurt.

As she sits with Mamie, Hope thinks about the ways she became independent and prided herself on not relying on anyone. She felt left out of both her grandmother's and mother’s worlds, and she doesn’t want to lose Annie in that way. Matt visits the bakery and tells Hope that the investors have decided not to take over the bakery. Alain hadn’t realized that the bakery was in trouble. Alain scolds Matt for thinking about numbers when the bakery represents a family tradition that was stolen from them by “men who did not understand family or conscience” (250). Alain says that Hope is a survivor.

Hope begins calling interfaith organizations and is contacted by a woman named Elida who wants Hope to visit her grandmother. Her grandmother is a Muslim woman from Albania, and her family helped to save Jews during the war. She wants to tell Hope her story. Hope goes, and Elida translates as her grandmother speaks. She believes that love transcends religion, and she shares a cultural value called besa, which is an obligation to help those in need. The grandmother’s parents helped a Jewish family hide during the war, and later, the family’s daughters found them to thank them. Now Elida is married to the son of one of the daughters. He is a police officer, and he has located Jacob Levy. Elida gives Hope the address.

Rose’s chapter opens with a recipe for cinnamon almond cookies. Rose recalls a memory of nearly drowning when she was a child and being saved by her father. Now she feels underwater again, but she is not sure that she wants to surface. She hears the voice of her brother, Alain, and thinks that she might be dying.

Annie tells Hope to go to New York City the next day to find Jacob Levy. Alain thinks that Hope should ask Gavin to go with her; he is sure to agree since he is in love with Hope. Hope offers many reasons that Gavin wouldn’t suit her, and Alain urges her to open the door. Hope confirms to Annie that she will always put Annie first, and Annie replies that she doesn’t want Hope to be alone. As they drive to New York, Hope asks Gavin how he knows what rules to live by, and he says that you figure things out as you go. Hope reflects on her choices and realizes that she’s lived to please others. Gavin asks what Hope will do if she loses the bakery, and she realizes how much she wants it. She is touched that Gavin believes in her.

Along the highway, Hope sees a sign reminding her that, in the Bible, Joseph is the son of Jacob. She wonders if Josephine was Jacob’s child after all. In New York City, Hope reflects on the loss of life during the 9/11 attacks and the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. As Hope reflects on how differently her life has gone from what she planned, Gavin shares his own experience of wanting to be an artist, becoming a handyman instead, and learning to roll with the punches.

Jacob Levy is not at the address they were given, and when they ring the bell at his new address, he is not there. Hope contemplates the Statue of Liberty and what it must have meant to those entering the country for the first time. Then she recalls the fairy tale Mamie told and tells Gavin that she knows where Jacob is.