QB VII (21 page)

Abe had been in Israel for well over a year, but be had avoided the cemetery outside Haifa. With the receipt of Shawcross’s cable he felt that he could visit his father, at last.

18

“THE HOLOCAUST” WAS PUBLISHED IN THE SUMMER OF I965. IT HAD TAKEN ME ALL MY LIFE TO BECOME AN OVERNIGHT SUCCESS. NOW THAT I HAD SPILLED MY BLOOD IN WRITING THE BOOK THE VULTURES AND PARASITES SWARMED IN TO GET THEIR CUT. MOST NOTABLE WAS LOU PEPPER, WHO WAS WILLING TO LET BYGONES BE BYGONES.

WHEN I TURNED THE MANUSCRIPT IN EARLIER IN THE YEAR I WAS FILLED WITH AN INSATIABLE DESIRE TO RETURN TO AMERICA. I SETTLED WITH A LONG TERM LEASE IN A LOVELY GLASS AND WOOD CONCOCTION IN THE HILLS OF SAUSALITO WITH A BREATH-STOPPING VIEW OVER THE BAY TO SAN FRANCISCO. THIS DRIVE TO RETURN TO AMERICA HAD GROWN OVER THE YEARS WITH MY DEEPENING CONCERN ABOUT THE THING THAT WAS SHAKING EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, AND THAT WAS THE ABILITY OR INABILITY OF MAN TO CONTINUE TO EXIST ON PLANET EARTH.

THE BAY AREA WAS THE “NOW” PLACE WHERE MUCH OF IT ALL WAS HAPPENING AND MUCH OF THE FUTURE FOR OTHER PLACES COULD BE PREDICTED.

IN ORDER TO FALL INTO A STATE OF DEPRESSION THESE DAYS ONE ONLY HAD TO THINK ABOUT THE MASSIVE DISINTEGRATION OF THE EARTH AND AIR AND WATER AND THE MORAL ROT, THE GREED, AND CORRUPTION AND THAT ENDLESS LIST OF HUMAN FAILURES THAT WE WERE SUDDENLY BEING MADE KEENLY AWARE OF.

MAN THE PREDATOR, THE PLUNDERER, THE DESTROYER WAS COMING FACE TO FACE WITH THE THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF SINS AND CRIMES AND THERE WOULD BE AN ARMAGEDDON IN THIS CENTURY. IT WAS ALL RUSHING TO A TERRIFYING CLIMAX.

IF WE WERE TO CATALOGUE AND MAKE CHARGES OF THE ABUSES OF THE HUMAN RACE, IF WE WERE TO CALCULATE WHAT MAN HAD TAKEN AND WHAT HE OWED, THEN HE WOULD HAVE HAD TO DECLARE BANKRUPTCY.

WE WERE NOW FACED WITH THE FRIGHTENING QUESTION OF WHETHER OR NOT WE WERE COMING TO THE END OF OUR PURPOSE TO EXIST ANY LONGER. THE OLD GODS AND WISDOMS FAILED TO PROVIDE THE ANSWERS. AND A HORRIBLE SENSE OF FUTILITY AND DESPERATION INVADED THE UPCOMING GENERATION.

GREAT AND GRAND WARS WERE NOW A THING OF THE PAST. THERE WERE TWO SUPER POWERS IN THE WORLD, EACH CAPABLE OF RAINING TOTAL DESTRUCTION. THEREFORE, FUTURE WARS WOULD HAVE TO BE FOUGHT IN COMPACT AND LIMITED BOUNDARIES AND UNDER STRINGENT RULES.

NOW THAT A GREAT WAR WAS OUT OF THE QUESTION, MAN SEEMED TO NEED SOMETHING TO REPLACE WAR. THE CRUX OF THE PROBLEM IS THAT THERE EXISTS A BASIC FLAW IN THE HUMAN RACE AND THAT IS MAN’S INEVITABLE DRIVE TOWARD SELF-EXTINCTION.

INSTEAD OF WAR, HE HAS REPLACED WAR WITH THINGS AS DEADLY. HE INTENDS TO DESTROY HIMSELF BY CONTAMINATING THE AIR HE BREATHES, BY BURNING AND RIOTING AND PILLAGING, BY MAKING A SHAMBLES OF THE INSTITUTIONS AND RULES OF SANITY, BY MINDLESS EXTERMINATION OF BREEDS OF ANIMALS AND THE GIFTS OF THE SOIL AND THE SEA, BY POISONING HIMSELF INTO A SLOW LETHARGIC DEATH THROUGH DRUGS AND DOPE.

THE FORMAL AND DECLARED WARS HAVE GIVEN WAY TO A WAR DIRECTED AGAINST HIMSELF AND HIS FELLOW MAN THAT IS DOING THE JOB FASTER THAN IT WAS EVEr DONE ON A BATTLEFIELD.

YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE BRUSHED ASIDE AND TRAMPLED DOWN MANY OLD MORES AND ETHICAL CODES. IN MANY CASES IT WAS OVERDUE THAT OUR SOCIETY BE STRIPPED OF HYPOCRISY AND RACISM AND FALSE SEXUAL VALUES. BUT IN THEIR RAMPAGE TO RING OUT THE OLD, THE YOUNG HAVE ALSO BROUGHT DOWN THE GREAT VALUES AND WISDOMS AND FAILED TO REPLACE THEM.

WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THIS AS A WRITER? VERY LITTLE, I FEAR. AMONG OTHER THINGS I HAVE WATCHED A KIND OF INSANITY PERVERT LITERATURE AND ART AND MUSIC TO WIN FALSE PRAISE BY FALSE PROPHETS. WE HAVE IN MUCH OF IT THE SYMBOLS OF DESPAIR AND CONFUSION. LOOK AT A DANCE FLOOR, HEAR THE LOVELY MUSIC.

WELL, MY THING IS TO WRITE. ALL I CAN HOPE TO DO IS PUT A SINGLE FINGER IN A DAM WITH A MILLION LEAKS.

I FELT THAT IF I COULD CREATE A SINGLE FICTITIOUS AMERICAN CITY AND WRITE ITS HISTORY AND OF ITS PEOPLE FROM EVERY POSSIBLE ASPECT FROM ITS BEGINNINGS TO ITS RISE TO THE DECLINE IT COULD BE MY MOST VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION. WHAT I WANTED TO ACHIEVE IN FICTION WAS TO ISOLATE AND EXAMINE A COMPLETE ENTITY AND THROUGH LOOKING AT ONE TOTAL SEGMENT GAIN SOME INSIGHT INTO THE OTHER THOUSAND SEGMENTS.

ALL OF THIS WILL TAKE THREE OR FOUR YEARS TO RESEARCH AND EVOLVE INTO A NOVEL. VANESSA WILL BE FINISHED WITH HER MILITARY SERVICE IN ISRAEL SOON AND WILL JOIN ME IN SAUSALITO AND TAKE HER COLLEGE IN BERKELEY, WHICH HAS BECOME A RICH SOURCE OF MY OWN RESEARCH, INCIDENTALLY.

BEN? BEN IS SEGEN MISHNE/LIEUTENANT CADY OF THE ISRAELI AIR FORCE. I’M PROUD. I’M FRIGHTENED. BUT I BELIEVE THAT WITH THE TRAINING HE’S GOTTEN HE’LL BE THE BEST AVIATOR OF THE THREE OF US.

IT IS A COMPORT THAT IN FINDING ISRAEL THE CHILDREN HAVE A PURE AND UNCLUTTERED GOAL IN LIFE, THE SURVIVAL OF OUR PEOPLE.

AFTER ALL, THE ONLY THING THAT IS GOING TO SAVE MANKIND IS IF ENOUGH PEOPLE LIVE THEIR LIVES FOR SOMETHING OR SOMEONE OTHER THAN THEMSELVES.

I AM A SOUGHT AFTER SPEAKER THESE DAYS. I GOT INVITED TO A WRITER’S SEMINAR AND FOR THREE DAYS I GOT QUESTIONS.

“SURE, ANYBODY CAN BE A WRITER. I’LL PUT YOU IN BUSINESS. HERE’S A SHEET OF PAPER.”

“HOW? APPLY THE SEAT OF THE PANTS TO THE SEAT OF THE CHAIR.”

OR

“I’M A WRITER TOO, BUT I DIDN’T GET AS LUCKY AS YOU, MR. CADY.”

IT CAME MY TIME TO SPEAK AT THE BANQUET. I STUDIED THE TENSE, EAGER FACES AS I APPROACHED THE ROSTRUM. “WHO HERE WANTS TO BE A WRITER?” I ASKED. EVERYONE IN THE ROOM RAISED HIS HAND. “WHY THE HELL AREN’T YOU HOME WRITING?” I SAID, AND LEFT THE STAGE. THAT ENDED MY CAREER IN WRITERS’ SEMINARS.

HOWEVER, THE JEWS DISCOVERED ME. JEWISH CHARITY WAS ALWAYS A WAY OF LIFE WITH MY FATHER AND MY FAMILY. TAKING CARE OF OUR OWN HAS BEEN OUR KEY TO SURVIVAL. IT IS THE ESSENCE OF ISRAEL. I REMEMBER IN THE BEGINNING IN THE JEWISH SHOPS ON CHURCH STREET IN NORFOLK THERE WAS ALWAYS A “PUSHKE”— A LITTLE COLLECTION CAN FOR SOMETHING IN PALESTINE.

WELL, LET ME TELL YOU, JEWS NEVER RUN OUT OF CAUSES FOR WHICH TO RAISE MONEY AND IN I965 I SPOKE FOR ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN OF THEM. THE WHOLE SPEAKING SCENE IS A BAD ONE. I DON’T LIKE IT FROM THE WELCOMING COMMITTEE AT THE AIRPORT TO THE TV INTERVIEWS TO THE INTIMATE DINNERS WITH THE BIG DONORS AND I’M SO TERRIFIED WHEN I APPROACH THE ROSTRUM I HAVE TO BE LOADED WITH BOOZE AND TRANQUILIZERS. ANYHOW, SINCE “THE HOLOCAUST” I’M THE HOT NUMBER THESE DAYS, AND IT’S VERY HARD FOR ME TO SAY NO TO THESE PEOPLE.

Abe’s secretary, Millie, let in Sidney Chernoff, who represented Einstein University, which was the second fully accredited Jewish educational facility in Chicago.

“Mr. Cady phoned that he would be a few minutes late. Would you like to wait in his office?”

So, this was where he worked! Chernoff gloried and drank it in. The aging leather chair, the battered typewriter, the desk filled with trinkets, photographs of his two children in Israeli uniform. It was food for a week’s conversation! There was a floor to ceiling corked wall.
MARK TWAIN CITY, CALIFORNIA
. Pinned to the wall were sheets of dates and statistics and names of characters and family groups and the educational, political, industrial, and cultural make-up of the city.

Imagine! A city born out of a man’s mind.

A long table opposite held stacks of books and documents and photographs covering every possible facet of urban life. Reports on the influx of minorities, riots and floods, strikes, police and fire methods.

Sidney Chernoff’s trek through the inner sanctum was abruptly halted by the loud sound of an approaching motorcycle. He looked out of the window down to the driveway where some roughneck gunned the bike, switched it off, and dismounted. My God! It was Abraham Cady!

Chernoff tried to be nonchalant as the booted, leather-jacketed Cady introduced himself, plopped into the seat behind his desk and propped his feet up and ordered a Bloody Mary from Millie.

“That’s quite an interesting piece of machinery,” Chernoff said, trying to say
SOMETHING
cool about the bike.

“Harley C. H. Sportster 900,” Abe said, “that mother takes off like a striped ass ape.”

“Yes, it appears very powerful.”

“I’ve got to bust loose and clear my head now and then. I’ve been riding with the narcotics squad for over two months. It’s an ugly scene. We found two kids, age twelve and fourteen, dead from an overdose of heroin last night.”

“That’s ghastly.”

“Only trouble with a bike is that it doesn’t fly. The
CAB
is giving me a lot of static about a private pilot’s license. The eye, you know.”

Abe’s Bloody Mary and Chernoff’s tea arrived.

Chernoff sipped and nodded in approval with large puckered lips. He oiled his way into the subject of his visit, speaking in the deep melodious voice of the practiced super intellectual. Cady had an idiosyncrasy with the motorcycle, but he was a great novelist who understood the lofty language of a fellow cultured creature. Chernoff sprinkled his presentation with Hebrew phrases, wisdoms of the Talmud, and quotes from personal conversations he had had with other great men. He explained why a man of the stature of Abraham Cady should identify with Einstein University, the second major Jewish institute in the country. There were a number of chairs in the arts and letters that Abe could raise funds for. In turn, Abraham Cady would receive great spiritual reward in knowing he was advancing the cause of Jewish education and intellectualism.

Abe dropped his feet from the desk with a thud. “I’ll be glad to appear for Einstein,” he said.

Sidney Chernoff could not conceal his unabashed joy! Cady was not the monster he had been painted. A Jew is a Jew and if he is appealed to correctly his Jewishness will shine through.

“I have one small condition,” Abe said.

“Of course.”

The money I raise is to be used for the sole purpose of recruiting a major football team, hiring a big name coach, and working toward a schedule against the top teams in the country.”

Chernoff was puzzled. “But Einstein has a fine program of inter-mural sports.”

“It’s like this, Mr. Chernoff. We’ve got enough scholars, learned men, doctors, scientists, essayists, lawyers, mathematicians, musicians, and fund raisers to stock every under-developed country in the world, including Texas. The way I see it is like this. The Jews have engaged in conversation for two thousand years without notable success in matters of human dignity. A few thousand of our people in Israel went out and kicked the piss out of somebody and that is where our respect comes from. I want Einstein University to put eleven big buck Jews on the field against Notre Dame. I want Jews who can knock other people down, face mask, pile on, get penalties for unnecessary roughness. I want a Jew who can throw a ball fifty yards to another Jew who can catch it with three monsters hanging on his back.”

After a long siege of research at the longshoreman’s hall, debating with the scholars on civic upheaval, looking for action in the ghetto of Fillmore Street, hobnobbing at the Pacific Union Club, riding with the police on emergency calls, freaking with the beatniks, marching with and against campus rebels at Cal ... Abe would find respite sailing his boat over the bay to San Francisco and going out with the fishing fleet. A few days in rough water, bending his back on a salmon run, letting the beard grow, leaking over the rail, drinking with the Italians, all flushed him for another run at his work.

He was at sea for four lovely days on the
Maria Bella II
in the chilled buffeting January wind and waves. He was sad as she chugged through the Golden Gate into the arms of the great bay.

Dominick, the skipper of
Maria Bella II,
handed Abe a sack of crabs.

“If my mother saw these crabs she’d turn over in her grave.”

“Hey, Abe,” Dominick yelled, “when you going to write something about me?”

“I already have. It’s a one page book called the
Complete Encyclopedia of Italian War Heroes.
”

“Very funny, Jew writer. You’re lucky you only got one eye.”

“I’ve got two. I wear an eye patch because I’m yellow.”

Maria Bella II
wobbled in the swells, veered right before Alcatraz, and eased toward Fisherman’s Wharf and the magic alabaster city that rose up behind it.

Dom’s father was on the pier as they tied up. “Hey, Abie, you secretary, she call up. She say for you to call her right-away.”

“Millie, Abe. What’s up?”

“A cable arrived from Shawcross in London two days ago. I didn’t know whether to radio out to the boat or not.”

“Read it.”

“Libel proceedings launched against
The Holocaust
naming author, publisher, and printer by Sir Adam Kelno former inmate doctor in Jadwiga Concentration Camp over reference to him on page 167 stop Kelno involved in extradition case in London nineteen years ago and freed and later knighted by British government stop Send us all your sources of information immediately stop He is demanding all books on sale be withdrawn stop Unless you can support allegations we are in extremely serious trouble. And it’s signed, David Shawcross.”

iii/ brief to counsel

PREFACE

G
REATER
L
ONDON ENCOMPASSES THE
city of London and thirty-two boroughs, among which are the former city of Westminster, and the former Royal Borough of Kensington, and such other famous areas as Chelsea, Harrow, Hammersmith, Lambeth, and the picturesquely named Tower Hamlets.