REVIEWS - Book: Tell Me Why Nights Are Lonesome

            “In her latest book, “Tell me Why Nights are Lonesome”, Westmount author Muriel Gold tells the love story of a Jewish Montreal family over three generations set against the backdrop of a developing Montreal and world events. Gold has skilfully woven autobiography and memoir to create a compelling tale that dates from the turn of the last century to the present Gold has also shared important social history of Montreal by weaving familiar Montreal places and events into her family’s story...” Marilyn Vanderstay, The Westtmount Examiner

            “...Gold provides a uniquely informed perspective on post-First World War Jewish immigration to Canada, as her father was the first director of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society in Montreal. Although the Haltrecht family led a charmed existence in some ways, living comfortably on St. Louis Square, in Outremont, then in N.D.G., they weren’t immune to discrimination. Haltrecht would have been prevented from becoming a notary had he not had the audacity to sue the Quebec Board of Notaries in 1937. He won...”

                   Pat Donnelly, Gazette Books Critic

            “...History is always a backdrop in their relationship. Bernard astutely observes World War I, the Russian Revolution (he remained attached to communism) and the hopes for a Jewish homeland in Palestine after the Balfour Declaration. Both are interested in the suffragette movement (one of Dora’s sisters is an early feminist) and watch the devastation of the 1918 flue epidemic....His years at JIAS were among the most rewarding of his life, as he dealt with the thousands of desperate Jews from easter and central Europe flooding in...”

                    Janice Arnold, The Canadian Jewish News

             “...Surrounded but not overwhelmed by the events unfolding on a larger stage, the story of Dora and Bernard offers a revealing glimpse of life in Canada during the turbulent period from the early 1900s to the late 1950s......Big events unfolded - the work of Walter Scott, first Premier of Saskatchewan, the Canadian debate about conscription, the Halifax explosion, the Spanish flu, the Great Depression, World War II, concentration camps, post-war prosperity - but in the forefront was love, marriage, birth, death, tradition, celebration, a new generation holding fast to their roots. That’s the real story of the times and Muriel Gold has captured it.”

                    Joan Eyolfson Cadham, Saskatchewan journalist in MCRTW Newsletter