Yehudis Kormornick: relatability, despair, and the impossible balance of realism
The Last Slave hit our bookshelves last year and blew readers away. With emotional depth, sophisticated characters, and subtly woven themes of emunah, it excavates the familiar terrain of galus mitzrayim and brings it alive with fast-paced emotional and psychological drama that is surprisingly inspirational.
As we’re increasingly surrounded by the gut-wrenching tragedy of our own generation, it becomes harder to relate to those from the past, stories we’re so familiar with, in a vivid way that can make an impact. We improvise. We internalize the churban through personal holocaust accounts that let us see the pain from a different perspective. These human accounts stimulate our empathy when we recognize the underlying inner workings that mirror our own and finally feel what the numbers could never say. Yehudis Kormornick set out to accomplish the same for your understanding of galus mitzrayim.
“You learned to hate. You will learn to love.”
Tia is coming of age within her aristocratic family and is a beloved lady-in-waiting to Princess Basya. As she struggles to internalize the hate that surrounds her, the consequences of her skepticism become increasingly dangerous. When she takes the leap and follows her beliefs, she’ll live with the repercussions forever until she acquires hate in a form she least expected.
Since Naomi’s child was cruelly snatched from her arms, she faces her worst fears every day while continuing to raise her surviving children. She sees the blood of her dead child in the face of her newborn and hears shrieks in her children’s laughter. As she somehow pulls through each day, she is desperate for something to hope for but hardly dares to think of a better future without threatening the equilibrium she’s managed.
“Hope is a spark that could burn us alive if it goes up in flames.”
Far from a linear plot marching neatly toward a happy resolution, the plot diverges from the phases of geulah that make up the external conflict when characters find themselves in a new kind of despair. The expectation, and then unfolding, of the anticipated geulah brings them to a shocking standstill; while they’d been hoping for physical salvation, it will take much more than that to ever dream again.
“Even as we stand on the brink of salvation, and even though the sting of suffering has lost its deathly bite, it cannot ease the pain; the immense sorrow that weighs like an ache on our aching, broken hearts.”
Deep emotional threads blanket the familiar setting and awaken a resonance and relatability in the reader. From the central themes of hope, hatred, and connection to the small nuances hidden throughout the story for the discerning reader, relatable emotion lays the groundwork of it all. Tia’s logical struggles are powerfully juxtaposed with Naomi’s battle against despair for a story that touches all parts of us. The human experience that transcends the millennium passed and connects us to generations past makes it easy to see ourselves as if we have left mitzrayim.
Satisfying in entertainment, pure literature quality, and inspiration, you’ll get the most out of The Last Slave if you read (or reread) it before Pesach. Note that the intense emotions may not be appropriate for all ages, and some violent scenes are described graphically.
Yehudis grew up dreaming of being a songwriter. Her publisher husband encouraged her to take her writing to prose, and today she combines the two, writing novels and musicals to go along with them. In addition to The Last Slave, she published Bullied, an experimental contemporary novel narrated by Fear.
When we understand the arc of history and the different challenges of each generation, it can be encouraging to learn that they faced things just like we did and overcame them. In The Last Slave, you take us right into the character’s minds, and it becomes understandable how someone could stay in the comforting familiarity of idol worship, or give in to the despair of there ever being a geulah. How did you toe the balance between taking us into the heart of these nisyonos without getting too close to something so wrong?
This was probably one of the most difficult aspects for me to write in the entire book. I felt that it was really important to portray idolatry realistically because this was one of the main reasons why the Jewish People were enslaved. This was one of their greatest struggles throughout their time in Egypt and beyond. To skirt around the issue or to leave it out felt like a misrepresentation of the story of mitzrayim.
I received constant guidance on how to represent the heart of the matter appropriately from my husband, who is also my editor and the publisher of Adir Press. But even harder than walking this tightrope of understanding and appropriateness was the question of how to portray it at all. How do I portray something that is impossible to understand? I did so much research on Egyptian idols, but I had no way to relate those idols to us. How could I understand idolatry now, in a world where it basically does not exist? And how could I get my readers to understand it?
All the scenes concerning idolatry and belief in One God took me five years to write. It was a long process of writing and rewriting until my husband felt that these scenes rang true. After four years of struggling with this concept, I heard a shiur by Rabbi Tuvia Singer that provided me with my answer. Someone asked him why non-Jews believe in their god when it is completely illogical. The answer he gave was this – because they love him. As soon as I heard that I knew how I would portray idolatry. Trying to show all the different idols and make them relatable had been too difficult. But one idol. One god that my main character loved with all her heart. That I could do. That my readers could understand.
On the flip side, the despair was probably one of the easiest parts for me to write. Who has not felt despair at some point in their lives? Who has not felt hopeless and helpless and everything in between? Are there not times when we, too, question, “When will salvation come already?” Developing and strengthening our emunah is one of the main focuses of our generation, so I did not feel like I was walking much of a tightrope in this area. The characters and their despair are naturally relatable because the first redemption mirrors the final redemption.
What were the most fundamental shifts that your book went through during that five year revision process? How did the core themes change over time?
I’m not sure if any of the core themes changed over the course of writing the book. The primary themes of hatred, suffering, holding onto our emunah, and yearning for redemption remained throughout. One of the main things I worked on was aligning the sources with the story. Entire scenes had to be rewritten many times before my husband was assured that we had faithfully represented the sources, written up extensively at the end of the book. The scene with Basya and the ladies-in-waiting by the river was one scene that was changed numerous times, as were all of the throne room scenes and plague scenes. The original plagues were nothing like the final version.
The other thing that took me hours of rewrites was developing my characters and their emotions, especially the main character, Tia. It took me a very long time to portray her in a way that didn’t make her sound like she had a split personality. She hates the Hebrews, she loves the Hebrews, on and on. It took me so long to get her internal struggle right.
The Last Slave highlights the close relationship between sisters, Naomi, Rina, and Lyla in such an authentic way. This is uncommon - it’s rare for a novel to describe any relationship so deeply. Why did you choose to make this a core part of Naomi’s story?
I really appreciate that. I definitely spent a long time developing my characters and their inner world. I tried to make all of my characters, even the villains, relatable on some level. I specifically wanted there to be three sisters so that I could show the three different traits/struggles that each one represents – Hope, antagonism, and despair. I think that the sisters are typical of many sibling relationships. There is an intrinsic bond that ties families together, no matter how different they may be.
The story of yetzias mitzrayim is one that everyone knows so well. How were you able to make The Last Slave’s setting and conflict feel so fresh and new, not like something we’ve heard before?
That’s a great question. It was hard! I was constantly asking myself questions that I had never thought to ask before, and only when I had come up with an answer that satisfied me was I able to write that specific scene. I think because we all know the story, there are so many things we take for granted. But by delving into the minute aspects of yetzias mitzrayim, examining the sources, and trying to piece it all together to make a cohesive novel, I had to rethink and question everything I thought I knew.
Also, by developing my character’s emotions and internal conflict, particularly the main characters, Tia and Naomi, it allowed people to not just read about mitzrayim but to experience it along with the characters.
What frum books have you read recently that you can recommend?
While I was writing my book, I heard two speakers within a week of each other saying something along the lines of, “How can so many non-Jews read the Tenach and not us?” Hashem has given us the most incredible gift and most of us haven’t even read it. It really got me thinking. I know so many ideas and messages of the Torah. I know all the stories and many midrashim, but I’d never read the Tanach cover to cover. I’d never even considered doing so. I decided I would try my best to read the whole of the Tanach.
It took me months, and some parts were very difficult to get through, but I’m proud of myself for setting this goal and striving to achieve it. It definitely helped me to write The Last Slave on a more elevated level, specifically Iyov for writing about suffering and Tehillim in terms of connecting to Hashem through our struggles and challenges.
Most people have a Tanach collecting dust on their bookshelves. It’s not an easy read, but it’s very rewarding. I would definitely recommend it! 😊
What are you working on next?
I received so much interest in the musical adaptation of The Last Slave (which, boruch Hashem, has been received really well) that I decided to work on the musical of my first novel, Bullied. I write original songs, lyrics and melody, that combine inspiration with entertainment. While writing both Bullied and The Last Slave, I simultaneously made up songs for the musicals.
As for my next novel – ironically, I’m not sure I’m ready to leave Egypt after all!