Early on he tells his skeptical sister, Miri: “Gravity bends space and light. Vanya is convinced that Einstein’s original theory is doubly flawed: it failed to take into account the effects of gravity, and it was based on the assumption that objects move at constant speeds. Through it he hopes to disprove Einstein’s early theories about relativity and to secure a life in the United States, where his family can live safely.
And for one of this novel’s protagonists, Vanya Abramov - a passionate young scientist whose hazardous journey we follow over 450 pages - it holds his future. As the Earl of Gloucester warns in King Lear, “These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good for us.” For some, an eclipse is a sign of the devil for others, it foreshadows the end of the world. The significance of these celestial events radiates far beyond science. Set in Russia at the beginning of World War I, her novel takes us on a harrowing ride in pursuit of the solar eclipse of 1914. Now add to that list Rachel Barenbaum, who places an eclipse squarely at the center of her ambitious, sweeping debut, A Bend in the Stars. Shakespeare and Milton used it, and so have American writers from Mark Twain to Stephen King.
It is hard to imagine a celestial symbol better suited to a dramatic tale than a blackened sun. Not since 1776 had America been awarded an eclipse all its own, and for one sweet day we were one nation under God, indivisible, heads tilted in awe and anticipation. From a cruise ship, Bonnie Tyler belted out her signature song, “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” to the swaying, bespectacled crowd.
Millions tweeted, blogged, broadcast, live-streamed. The heavens were about to upstage the new president, turn off the lights, and cast our world into a profound, welcome stillness.īut as the skies darkened, traffic jams clogged the roads. For a few brief minutes we could forget about the hate exploding in Charlottesville and Donald Trump’s “blame-on-both-sides” travesty. It was ours and ours alone, starting in Oregon and ending in South Carolina. I REMEMBER THE FRISSON of excitement that rippled through this nation two summers ago as we anticipated the Great American Eclipse.
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