Curse of the Blumenthals

“Journalist Karas blends memoir and true crime in this intriguing family history. Along the way, she nimbly balances the disclosure of scandalous family secrets with a prevailing sense of empathy. It’s a bruising portrait of generational trauma.”
—Publisher’s Weekly

“The book is a meditation on memory, scandal, injustice, and the enduring consequences of tragedy within one family. Karas handles every painful revelation with compassion and extraordinary care, creating a work that is both historically fascinating and profoundly moving.”
—Jewish Book Council

As seen in the Jewish Journal

Over three generations of whispered secrets, crime, and lies in a Jewish-American family.

The Blumenthals are one of millions of Eastern European Jewish families who immigrated to the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. Settling in Providence, Rhode Island, they grow and prosper. During Prohibition, the Blumenthals become bootleggers—starting their fraught history with alcohol and crime. Once Prohibition is repealed, Barney Blumenthal opens a liquor store in Boston. Life is good—until fate intervenes.

In May 1935, a drunk driver takes the lives of six Blumenthals, including three children. Horrific photos run in newspapers across the country. Six months later, Ronnie Blumenthal is born: a phoenix rising from the ashes of devastation, a golden child upon whose blond head the family’s hopes and dreams are placed. He grows into a handsome and spoiled teenager, driving a fast convertible and surrounded by beautiful girls. The Blumenthal legacy is resurrected—until one July night in 1954, when he is arrested for murder.

The victim is his mother’s seamstress, who was allegedly having an affair with his father. Newspaper and TV coverage is relentless. Ronnie pleads guilty, yet dark questions remain unanswered. Upon Ronnie’s release from prison, his drunken behavior causes the family—who faithfully visited him behind bars—to finally wash their hands of him. At the end of his life, not one family member will contribute to his funeral. The once golden child is buried in a pauper’s grave, etching the Blumenthal curse in stone.

A decade later, New York Times bestselling author Phyllis Karas, a Blumenthal cousin, uses her well-honed instincts as a journalist to peel back layers of long-hidden family secrets. Karas sensitively chronicles the generational trauma affecting Phillip and Rose Blumenthal’s six children and their children—the fifteen Blumenthal cousins—who were left to build their lives in the fallout. The Blumenthals’ story proves that, by learning from the past with care and love, curses can be broken.