Synopses & Reviews
A captivating debut novel,
Hidden marvelously re-creates New York City in the 1920s, from the hustle and bustle of the Lower East Side to the hushed hallways of the homes of the rich and powerful. In graceful, eloquent prose, Victoria Lustbader presents a fierce, compelling story of loyalty, forbidden desire and the end of innocence.
Both panoramic and intimate, Hidden teems with complex characters readers will embrace and remember for a long time to come. Concealing their passions and innermost thoughts even from those they love most dearly, the Warshinskys and Gateses love, lust, seize power, do battle, and strive to rule themselves and their city during a decade of turmoil at home and abroad.
The battlefield traumas of The Great War cement an improbable friendship between Jed Gates, scion of the wealthy Gates family, and David Warshinsky, first-generation American from New York's poverty-ridden lower East Side. David sacrifices his family and his Jewish heritage in pursuit of his untamable ambition, while, in eerie parallel, Jed sacrifices his private desires to assume the burdens of familial expectations.
David's young sister Sarah suffers the torments of a sweatshop and hardens her heart to the brother she once adored. Jed's rebellious sister Lucy becomes a nurse in Margaret Sanger's revolutionary birth control clinic. Sarah finds a tender love in sensitive Reuben Winokur, an immigrant tailor destined to prosper in his new country, but Lucy's path is more treacherous - she falls hard for David, who belongs to another.
David's mother Anna loses her struggle to preserve her shattered family, sundered by hatred and privation. And not even the Gateses' vast wealth can protect Jed's aunt Zoe from the violent abuses of her alcoholic husband, or his artist father Philip from the pain of his wife's rejection of his love and kindness.
Brilliantly evoking time, place, and person, Hidden draws readers deep into the past to illuminate the present. For nothing is more eternal than human feeling, and nothing more important to the human heart.
Review
“It is a great achievement when a novelist manages to make the personal seem political, and the political seem personal. Victoria Lustbader achieves just this in her epic first novel, HIDDEN. With characters ranging from robber barons to spiritualists, and settings as seemingly disparate as the trenches of World War I and the concrete canyons of Manhattan,
Hidden explores the impact that a world in flux has upon its citizenry. Deftly, masterfully, and with the utmost compassion, Lustbader writes of families - and a world - suffering the pangs of growth while searching for grace.
Hidden is a truly spirited debut.”
--James Reese, author of Book of Shadows and Book of Spirits
“Hidden is a rich, massive tale of three generations of two families the twain of which scarcely ever meet. But these did, and the meeting was both a collision and an enrichment. Taken together, these engrossing characters personify a volatile decade in the life of New York. Perhaps best of all, the city itself is a living complex, and dynamic character in its own right. What a fine first effort for Victoria Lustbader.” -Anne Rivers Siddon
Review
"The fully dimensional and deftly drawn characters--especially Jed's grandfather, Joseph, and mother, Sally--keep the reader entranced with their conniving and duplicity. This hard-to-put-down, historically accurate tale is filled with conversations that are both realistic and entertaining."--
Library Journal on
Hidden
"The story of these two families comes to life as the marriages, deaths, births, desires and ambitions of the different characters jump off the page and into readers' imaginations. The characters are vibrant and full-bodied: the factory hand, the Henry Street Settlement worker, the financier, the artist, the flapper, the religious conservative. This is a gripping story that's lots of fun."--Romantic Times BOOKReviews (4 ½ stars) on Hidden
"With characters ranging from robber barons to spiritualists, and settings as seemingly disparate as the trenches of World War I and the concrete canyons of Manhattan, Hidden explores the impact that a world in flux has upon its citizenry. Deftly, masterfully, and with the utmost compassion, Lustbader writes of families - and a world - suffering the pangs of growth while searching for grace. Hidden is a truly spirited debut."
--James Reese, author of The Book of Shadows and The Book of Spirits "Fun to read . . . Lustbader [has] skill in making us genuinely interested in
[her] characters . . . delivers robustly on its promise to take readers
into another era."--The Washington Post Book World
Review
“It is a great achievement when a novelist manages to make the personal seem political, and the political seem personal. Victoria Lustbader achieves just this in her epic first novel, HIDDEN. With characters ranging from robber barons to spiritualists, and settings as seemingly disparate as the trenches of World War I and the concrete canyons of Manhattan,
Hidden explores the impact that a world in flux has upon its citizenry. Deftly, masterfully, and with the utmost compassion, Lustbader writes of families - and a world - suffering the pangs of growth while searching for grace.
Hidden is a truly spirited debut.”
--James Reese, author of Book of Shadows and Book of Spirits
“Hidden is a rich, massive tale of three generations of two families the twain of which scarcely ever meet. But these did, and the meeting was both a collision and an enrichment. Taken together, these engrossing characters personify a volatile decade in the life of New York. Perhaps best of all, the city itself is a living complex, and dynamic character in its own right. What a fine first effort for Victoria Lustbader.” -Anne Rivers Siddon
Review
"Engrossing characters personify a volatile decade in the life of New York [which] is a dynamic character in its own right."
Anne Rivers Siddons, New York Times bestselling author
Review
"Masterfully, with utmost compassion, Lustbader writes of families suffering the pangs of growth while searching for grace."
James Reese, author of The Book of Shadows and The Book of Spirits
Review
Questions for Discussion
1. Hidden begins and ends with David Warshinsky/Shaw, the character who most obviously hides in plain sight, living an entirely new life only blocks from his estranged family. Jed and Zoe also harbor secrets around which their lives are structured. Who do you think is the most “hidden” in this story? What secrets do other members of the families hide, and what, if anything, ultimately reveals those truths? Is it a relief or a catastrophe when that happens?
2. The family relationships in Hidden are rife with reversal of the relationships between parents and children, as seen in Libbys desire to protect her mother from her fathers violence. What are the boundaries between parents and children in the Gates and Warshinsky families? Do you think that the qualities of these relationships are primarily a function of the era in which the book takes place, or are they more determined by the personalities of the characters? What obligations do you think children have to their parents, realistically? Who in Hidden fulfills some or most of those obligations, and what cost, if any, does that person pay?
3. Sexuality and sexual desire play an enormous role in the lives of most of the adult characters in Hidden, sometimes with disastrous results. How does sex influence the choices that these characters make? What are the forms their urges take, and what are the different ways they find to express, tame, or otherwise cope with them? Do you think that sexuality exerts as powerful an influence on human behavior as it does in this story? How might these characters struggles with sex and sexuality be different if the story took place today?
4. Monty seems to be the serpent in the garden of the wealthy and privileged Gates family. But does he have another role in the arc of the story? Is he a truth-teller? A foil for other characters arrogance? How do you feel about the punishment that Joseph and David ultimately mete out to him? Is it sufficient to his crimes?
5. David vanishes from the world in which he grew up and transforms himself into a new person. Yet he never leaves the city of his birth and ultimately lives in splendor within walking distance of his discarded and impoverished past. What does this say about the stratification of New York in the 1920s? Does that stratification still exist in American cities and towns today? Where in the story do people of different classes and different cultures intersect? What happens when they do?
6. Redemption is a major theme in Hidden. Many characters look to other family members to save them from unhappiness or painful experiences, to redeem their terrible losses or shattered dreams. Which characters seek redemption, and to whom do they look for it? Are human beings ultimately responsible for their own happiness? What responsibilities do family members have in securing happiness for one another?
7. David and Jed are best friends, devoted to one another as to no one else. What binds them? How much of that bond is honest and altruistic and how much unacknowledged or selfish? How do you think the love between friends differs from the love between family members or partners? Despite their devotion, David and Jed ultimately cannot help one another deal with the most difficult issues in their lives. Why not? What are the responsibilities of friendship? What do you believe would have happened to this friendship if David had learned the truth about Jed while Jed was still alive?
8. How are different religions portrayed in Hidden? Are Judaism, Christianity, and Christian Science helpful and strengthening to the characters who practice them, or are they oppressive or misleading? Does anyone disavow religion and, if so, why? Does religion function differently for the Gateses than for the Warshinskys? Are the various religions in the story portrayed in sufficient depth to allow you to understand their beliefs and precepts? Anti-Semitism is a subtext throughout the book. At what points does it come to the forefront of the story, and who displays it? What sort of a Jewish life, if any, do you think David will go on to have after the storys end?
9. Davids presence in the Gates family creates, as the author says, enormous ripples of consequence. How does David influence the lives of various family members? What roles does he play within the Gates family? Do you think that he, more than other characters, is a catalyst for change? What do you think would have happened to the Gateses if David had not become part of their lives? Do members of the Gates family find him easier to relate to precisely because he isnt a blood relative, and does David feel the same way about them? Which characters in the story do you think are most truly kin?
10. Family expectations play a huge part in how both the Gateses and the Warshinskys raise their children. Do you think that parents expectations can be helpful in guiding children? Are they ever helpful in Hidden? Who flouts family expectations most consistently, and, conversely, who suffers the most from the burden of those expectations? How do expectations differ in the two families, based on socioeconomic class, culture, and religion?
11. Hidden takes place at the dawn of feminism. Which female characters are feminists? In what ways do the women in the story try to obtain and assert power? Does their ability to do so change due to the burgeoning of the womens movement during the years in which the book takes place? How do you think that these womens lives would be different if they lived decades later? How many of the issues faced by the women in the story are still faced by women today?
12. Though the book is filled with highly emotional characters and situations, the value of emotions is constantly in question in Hidden. What role does emotion play in the Warshinskys family and community, and how does it differ for the Gateses? Who suppresses emotion most vigilantly, and why? Typically, women are said to be more in touch with and guided by emotional life than men are. Is this true in this book? Does class play a part in determining whether displaying or even feeling emotion is a virtue or a weakness? Which of the books many emotional moments do you find most affecting?
13. Hidden seems to wrangle with the character of Joseph Gates. Is he an admirable and decisive leader and mentor or a rigid, hidebound dictator with unflinching expectations of his family? Or is he both? How much esteem do you think he deserves, and why? Toward the end of the book, we discover that Joseph believes his grandson did the right thing by committing suicide to avoid disgracing the family with the revelation of his homosexuality. How does this affect your opinion of Joseph? What qualities set Joseph apart as a leader, and how do those qualities color his family life? How is David—the heir Joseph believes is most like him and best able to continue his leadership— similar to Joseph, and how is he different? "Engrossing characters personify a volatile decade in the life of New York [which] is a dynamic character in its own right."
Anne Rivers Siddons, New York Times bestselling author
Synopsis
Concealing their passions and innermost thoughts even from those they love most dearly, the Warshinskys and Gateses love, lust, seize power, do battle, and strive to rule themselves and their city during a decade of turmoil at home and abroad in the 1920s.
Synopsis
A captivating debut novel,
Hidden marvelously re-creates New York City in the 1920s, from the hustle and bustle of the Lower East Side to the hushed hallways of the homes of the rich and powerful. In graceful, eloquent prose, Victoria Lustbader presents a fierce, compelling story of loyalty, forbidden desire and the end of innocence.
Both panoramic and intimate, Hidden teems with complex characters readers will embrace and remember for a long time to come. Concealing their passions and innermost thoughts even from those they love most dearly, the Warshinskys and Gateses love, lust, seize power, do battle, and strive to rule themselves and their city during a decade of turmoil at home and abroad.
The battlefield traumas of The Great War cement an improbable friendship between Jed Gates, scion of the wealthy Gates family, and David Warshinsky, first-generation American from New York's poverty-ridden lower East Side. David sacrifices his family and his Jewish heritage in pursuit of his untamable ambition, while, in eerie parallel, Jed sacrifices his private desires to assume the burdens of familial expectations.
David's young sister Sarah suffers the torments of a sweatshop and hardens her heart to the brother she once adored. Jed's rebellious sister Lucy becomes a nurse in Margaret Sanger's revolutionary birth control clinic. Sarah finds a tender love in sensitive Reuben Winokur, an immigrant tailor destined to prosper in his new country, but Lucy's path is more treacherous - she falls hard for David, who belongs to another.
David's mother Anna loses her struggle to preserve her shattered family, sundered by hatred and privation. And not even the Gateses' vast wealth can protect Jed's aunt Zoe from the violent abuses of her alcoholic husband, or his artist father Philip from the pain of his wife's rejection of his love and kindness.
Brilliantly evoking time, place, and person, Hidden draws readers deep into the past to illuminate the present. For nothing is more eternal than human feeling, and nothing more important to the human heart.
About the Author
Victoria Schochet Lustbader has had a long and varied career in publishing, including stints as the editor of
Analog magazine and as Senior Editor for SF/Fantasy at the Berkley Publishing Group. Marriage to bestselling author Eric Van Lustbader led to retirement and work as a freelance editor. It also led to a new career in environmentalism when Victoria Lustbader joined The Nature Conservancy as a local volunteer. She soon became a member of the Development and Communications Staff and later a member of the Board for Long Island and all of New York State.
Lustbader and her husband, both native New Yorkers, have homes in New York City and Southampton. They travel frequently and have spent a lot of time in Los Angeles, Boston, several locations in Florida, and Paris, France.