Tunes For Bears To Dance To (New Windmill) (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
ROBERT CORMIERI was lucky to read this book and not other Robert Cormier books which are much bleaker and darker. This is a book that takes place in the years following WWII. Racial prejudice against Jews is still strong. Henry and his parents have relocated to a different town to escape the memories of his brother Eddie who died. They live in a tenement. His father is in a deep depression and can't work. His mother waitresses to support the family. Henry works for a bigoted shop keeper--Mr. Hairston-- who beats his wife and daughter and is prejudiced not only toward Jews, but people of any nationality. He stands at the window of his shop disparaging all who walk by. Henry misses his friends and his brother who is buried in the town they just left. He politely works for Mr. Hairston to help his mother support the family. Henry lives near a "crazy house" as the kids call it in an apartment where he can see an older Jew leave every day. He wonders where he's going. One day he follows him to the building. When the owner--George sees him lurking, he asks him why he is there. He scares Henry and he runs off. In the meantime at the shop, Henry tells Mr. Hairston that he wants to buy a proper headstone for his brother. Mr. Hairston, in an unusual act of kindness, tells Henry that he knows a man who can make one for him. This is all part of Mr. Hairston's plan to ensnare Henry into doing bad things for him. Henry often sees Mr. Hairston's daughter, Doris, luring around the shop. One time he sees her with a bruise on her face. Henry realizes Mr. Hairston is not a decent man when Doris warns him to be careful of her father. Henry follows Mr. Levine again to the building. This time George invites him in and apologizes for frightening him the time before. The building is a sort of arts and crafts center in the middle of the city. People are working on all kinds of projects. Henry learns that Mr. Levine is a Holocaust survivor and is painstakingly carving a replica of his own village the Nazi's destroyed. Mr. Levine is kind and Henry and he often watches him work. Mr. Levine can't speak English, he speaks Yiddish and George explains, but he reaches out to Henry by teaching him how to carve. Henry's father has become so despondent that his mother is forced to take him to a mental hospital. This is hard for Henry because ever since his brother died, he has always thought that the reason his father was so sad was because he loved the brother more than him. One day Mr. Hairston sees Mr. Levine walking down the street. Henry tells him that he is a Holocaust survivor but is a kind person. He explains how he goes to work on his village every day, and that he is going to display it at a city event. The next day Mr. Hairston asks Henry to do something unspeakable. He asks him to sneak into the craft center and destroy Mr. Levine's village. Henry refuses, but Mr. Hairston says that if he refuses, he will make sure Henry's mother is fired from her job and Henry is picked on at school. He tells Henry to think about it. That night Henry has a nightmare, but won't tell his mother when she comes into his room to comfort him. The next day, Henry agrees to do what Mr. Hairston asks because he is worried about his family with his father not working and Mr. Hairson threatening his mother's job. Mr. Hairston convinces Henry that destroying Mr. Levine's village with a sledgehammer will be a good thing because Mr.Levine will have nothing to do after it is finished and will have the opportunity to rebuild it. Henry thinks maybe is is right. Mr. Hairston convinces Henry to destroy the village before it is displayed. That night Henry stays behind in the craft center when everyone else has gone home. He is deathly afraid of rats, and sees several in his hiding place. He slowly moves over to the village. He raises the hammer. He doesn't think he can destroy the village. Just then a rat runs over the village and Henry is so frightened he lets the hammer drop. His horrified and runs out of the center. Mr. Hairston is waiting. He tells him congratulations for destroying the village and that Henry can keep his job and his mother will keep hers. Henry asks him why he asked him to do what he did. Mr. Hairston replies that it is because Mr. Levine is a Jew. Henry realizes there is another reason why Mr. Hairson wanted him to destroy the village. It was because Mr. Hairston didn't want him to be good anymore, that he was jealous of his goodness. Henry tells him he doesn't want his rewards. Mr. Hairston begs him to accept the rewards. He refuses again and runs away, almost knocking Mr. Hairston down. Henry and his mother move back to Frenchtown where Henry's brother is buried. When Henry returns to the arts and crafts center he sees Mr. Levine busily working on a new village. When he learns Henry is moving, Mr. Levine embraces him and gives him a 3-inch statue of himself. Henry puts Eddie's baseball and bat on Eddie's grave when they return and prays for Doris, his parents and asks God for forgiveness
Tunes for Bears To Dance To by Robert CormiertEleven year old Henry Cassavant, with his father and mother, moves to a new town in Vermont after the sudden death of Henry’s much-loved older brother. They are poor, lonely, and grief-stricken. Henry takes a part time job at Mr. Hairston’s grocery store and also becomes friends with Jacob Levine, an elderly Holocaust survivor who works out his sorrows by carving a replica of his village which was destroyed by the Nazis. Mr. Hairston, a bigoted, abusive man, notes Henry’s friendship with Jacob and tries to blackmail the boy into destroying Mr. Levine’s woodcarving. Henry must make a wrenching moral choice which causes him a great deal of internal conflict.tThis short (101 page) realistic novel is simply but beautifully written. Its strength lies in its sympathetic, inspirational characters who overcome loss, loneliness, and staggering evil by reaching out to other hurting people. These characters are so vividly drawn that I still remember them clearly eight months after reading this book. Especially memorable is Mr. Hairston, a terrifying personification of evil. Cormier does evil well; he presents an equally chilling Satanic antagonist in his novel The Chocolate War. Here Cormier takes on big ideas, (grief after the death of loved ones, the healing power of art, and the lack of real communication between human beings), and makes them understandable through the lives of these compelling characters. And he accomplishes this without any obvious “preaching.”tTunes For Bears To Dance To is not a book to choose when you’re looking for belly laughs, but it is wonderful when you feel like reading something serious and reflective that also has a good plot. Ultimately, I don’t think it is a sad book. It ends happily because human goodness and compassion triumph over cruelty and hatred. (295 words)
What do You think about Tunes For Bears To Dance To (New Windmill) (1995)?
So far this is making me very uneasy. I hope all ends well or I may not read Cormier again. I'm starting to think he's a bit of a misanthrope, or at least a hopeless pessimist.(After finishing) Well, now I need to think about what Cormier chose to do with his characters. Are they metaphors for key players in WWII? I was surprised, not unpleasantly, to find that Cormier offered hope in the face of evil, faith in the face of... well, sadism. Or the destruction of innocence. It's a pretty good story, really, as was the much more depressing (ultimately) I Am the Cheese. Hmm.
—Kate
Ever since Henry's brother died, his life has been a lot more difficult. His father suffers from crippling depression, his mother works long hours at a local diner, and Henry's job at the local grocery store is important to making ends meet. When Henry follows a mysterious old man to a community center, he discovers something amazing: the old man is slowly recreating the village he lost to the Nazis, right down to the people. While Henry finds this amazing, his prejudiced boss, Mr. Hairston, doesn't agree and tries to force Henry into destroying the village. With threats directed toward his job, his mother's job, and a gravestone for his brother hanging over his head, Henry is faced with a terrible choice - destroy the old man's family or his own.This book was a difficult one. Mr. Hairston's prejudice is wide reaching and applies to essentially everyone except himself. Henry is clearly struggling with his grief over his brother, Mr. Hairston's manipulation of that and Henry's family's financial well-being is difficult to read about. However, it would be disrespectful to treat these issues as anything less than genuinely terrible, and in that sense the book is a success.
—Alex
Quick read but leaves you wondering if there is more depth to the story that warrants revisiting the story. The characters each play an interesting role in this story about what happens when you make a deal with the devil.The ending is kind of a sad one for a typical young adult novel. You may be left wondering if the protagonist finds redemption or not, or if the women who suffer at the hands of men in their lives find any sense of hope.Another theme in the book I found were the memorials for the dead who were murdered. The old man spent his life creating the village to honor the memory of those he loved before the holocaust. And the monument that Henry wanted to create to honor his brother Eddie who was murdered by being hit by a car. How these symbols are treated by the characters is important to understand. There is a lot going on in this book. Don't be deceived by the number of pages. This book contains a character who frequently uses racial slurs which may be offensive to some. But it is completely necessary for the development of the novel.
—Robert
