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98 SHOFAR Spring 1993 Vol. 11, No.3 a gender-polarized model. In this later rabbinic conception, women are a threat to men and to stability. No longer is woman epitomized as "mother Rachel" or "Sabbath bride"; now she is Rahab, Yael, Michal, Delilah, Jezebel-all women of dangerous erotic power. With the elimination of multiple deities in the monotheism of Israel, the one god acquired and controlled all facets of natural order. In the absence of female deities-"in the wake of the goddesses"-it falls to Yahweh to exercise all roles, both male and female and neither male nor female. This is a goal toward which, Frymer-Kensky argues, Israel's radical monotheism and its heirs are still striving. The work is admirably researched and documented, and the author's command of the pertinent primary and secondary literature is impressive. (The endnotes provide a wealth of bibliographical data for the interested student to follow up the many tantalizing avenues opened by this work.) The strength of this work is its honesty and faithfulness to the primary documentation. Frymer-Kensky has written a thoughtful and thoughtprovoking study of the goddess and of the female in and out of monotheism that is sure to stimulate and enrich further studies. Martha T. Roth Oriental Institute University of Chicago Eve's Tattoo, by Emily Prager. New York: Random House, 1991. 194 pp. $19.00. . Yehuda Bauer, the Israeli historian, some years ago argued that the key issue is how to anchor the Holocaust in the consciousness of the following generations.1 Subsequent events reveal that the Shoah has in fact been appropriated, if not anchored, by various novelists representing a spectrum ranging from kitsch to sensitive reflections on the existential and civilizational implications of the systematic mass murder of the Jewish people. This development was inevitable and invites speculation on the role of the novelist in both developing and deforming historical memory. But a basic question arises concerning the relationship of the nonwitnessing writer to the Holocaust. What, for example, is being remembered when 'Yehuda Bauer, The Holocaust in Historical Perspective (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978), p. 45. Book Reviews 99 there exists neither common memory of the event nor a common narrative expression? In short, what happens when the Shoah is domesticated and utilized as a background to prove a (politically correct) point? Seeking a response to this question will help clarify the authentic meaning of bearing witness to the Holocaust. Emily Prager's novel is a sophisticated example ofpostmodern writing. Ostensibly it tells the story of Eve Flick who, like the author, writes a monthly column for a men's magazine. On her fortieth birthday Eve has her arm tattooed with the same number-S00123-that she has seen in a photo on the arm of a female prisoner in Auschwitz to whom Eve bore an uncanny resemblance. Eve arbitrarily names the anonymous woman Eva. The heroine vows to wear the tattoo like an MIA bracelet. Charles Cesar, her erstwhile Catholic lover to whom the photo belonged, is so distressed by the tattoo that he moves out of their apartment. While awaiting historical information on the true identity of the woman in the photo, Eve assumes the role of Holocaust teacher. Each time she is asked about the tattoo, she constructs a different narrative. Ultimately, she tells seven such stories, each revealing a different aspect of the fate of women under National socialism. For example, "Eva Klien" is a 1930s yuppie Jewish woman sent to her death at Auschwitz; "Eva Hofler" is a Lutheran supporter of Nazism until it is discovered she is "of Jewish ancestry"; "Eva Berg" is a gynecologist arrested by the Nazis for the "treason" of abortion; "Eva Beck" is an animal lover who takes in the pets of deportees and is arrested for selling the SS "Jewish" dogs; and "Eva Marks" is a Red Cross Nurse sent to Auschwitz for having given water to Jewish prisoners. Eve's Tattoo treats serious issues. But, despite its good intentions, it creates more problems than it solves. Thus, on the one hand, the author sheds light on the largely unknown fate of National Socialism's women victims, an...

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