"The Cost of Something Priceless," by Elizabeth Zelvin, in Jewish Noir II, edited by Kenneth Wishnia and Chantelle Aimee Osman, PM Press, 2022.
This is the second appearance
here by my fellow SleuthSayer. Zelvin has written other novels and
stories about the Mendozas, a fictional family of Sephardic Jews, some
of whom sailed with Columbus.
And this tale combines two generations widely divided by time. The story begins as a letter from a modern Mendoza bequeathing to her granddaughter the family's most precious treasures: a necklace and the documents proving it belongs to them. But there is a lot more to her history than that.
Intertwined with this tale is the third-person story of how Rachel Mendoza really acquired the necklace half a millennium ago. Let's say that both women found their way through considerable difficulties.
My favorite part of the story is Grandma trying to explain life in the 1950s to her grandchild, and especially what it meant for her to marry a WASP.
People say so glibly that two people come from different worlds. Everyone said it about Foster and me. I laughed it off. I had no idea what it meant. Take "going to Princeton." When a Jewish boy went to New York went to Princeton, it meant he was exceptionally smart. He'd competed successfully in academics, athletics, and an array of showy "extracurricular activities," to make the extremely small quota of New York Jews the university was prepared to tolerate. When Foster Gale Bentbridge IV went to Princeton, it means that Foster Gale Bentbridge I, II, and III had gone to Princeton. Period.
A skillful story with a powerful ending.
