Whitethorn

The pervasive theme throughout Whitethorn is that human suffering may be irremediable, yet in nature and language one may find a key to unlock the mysteries of sorrow. Osherow searches for that cipher by exploring a range of suffering, from the personal to the historical and cultural. In the poem "Orders of Infinity" she visits Treblinka and, in her inability to count the headstones or quantify the real loss of the Holocaust, recalls an infinity of unfinished lives, "undreamed daydreams, mute conversations, ungratified indulgences, failed hints . . ." A book of enormous scope and emotional intelligence, Osherow unflinchingly examines her own dark night of the soul and courageously probes the greater mystery of evil and suffering in the world.