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By: Allison Kugel
It All Began with Caroline bridges a textured tale from Israeli hope and hardship in the 1960s and 1970s to American ambition and luxury during the 1980s and 1990s yuppy boom, all through the eyes of author and celebrated baby bedding designer, Nava Writz Bogaard.
Entering the world in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 7, 1957, Nava Writz Bogaard had committed a cardinal sin in her mother’s eyes when she failed to arrive on her scheduled due date of January 23rd, two weeks prior. Her mother’s disappointment that Nava was not born on the same day as Princes Caroline of Monaco set the stage for a tense relationship that left a young Nava eager for her reluctant mother’s approval. One of seven children growing up in a fledgling pre-prosperity Israel, Nava’s book recounts the struggles of Israel’s pioneering citizens to establish even the most basic necessities.
Stories of Holocaust survivors with freshly inked numbers on their arms and immigrants like her parents who ventured to the newly minted Jewish state from Europe and Israel’s surrounding Arab countries are sprinkled throughout Nava’s childhood and adolescent recollections.
It is one thing to visit Israel in its current incarnation with thriving agriculture, technology and commerce. It is a privilege to go back in time, through the author’s eyes and read the account of someone who came of age alongside the beloved Jewish state as it was finding its legs, and to discover what that meant for its people in the country’s earlier decades of existence. It All Began with Caroline allowed me to be there in my mind’s eye; a gift that this memoir offers.
Following the life of a young, privileged Princess Caroline grew tiresome as Nava turned her attention and dreams towards America, and her fixation soon turned to American royalty, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
Feeling neglected and misunderstood by her over-burdened and religiously strict parents and retreating inward, Nava’s rich dream life did not include formal education. She drops out of school, pursuing work in Tel Aviv’s high-end hospitality business, falling for a string of cads who were traveling to and from Israel on business; some of whom took her on glamorous tours of Europe before breaking her heart and leaving her with some complicated problems to deal with on her own.
With the promise of America in still in her sights, Nava networks and makes her way to New York’s Times Suare at age 22, riding the coat tails of some American friends she met overseas in Tel Aviv and Europe. Nava finds herself in Times Square watching a live taping of Good Morning America (now abbreviated to “GMA” in our current acronym age) with Joan Lunden, a national morning television treasure of the day in the early 1980s. Right then, Nava has a clear vision that she will one day be interviewed by Joan for Good Morning America.
The book is rife with the theme of The Law of Attraction, with Nava imagining outlandish and seemingly out of reach dreams into reality decades before such a concept erupted into our cultural zeitgeist. Her story gains some extra points for this.
An illegal immigrant as her tourist’s visa expires, Nava makes her way from New York City to Los Angeles, staying with a would-be love interest turned platonic friend as she scrapes by to survive until her first marriage offers her permanent resident status.
Though New York captivated her, Los Angeles is where Nava eventually lands a legitimate job at baby furniture store Bellini in Sherman Oaks in LA’s San Fernando Valley. Her accent, unsinkable confidence and creativity wins over the valley and expectant parents start asking for Nava by name as they enter the famous baby store.
Never satisfied standing still, Nava dreams up a Bellini store in Beverly Hills, she begins scouting out locations independently and manages to convince her boss to open a second location in the wealthy enclave.
All the while, Nava’s love life continues to be turbulent and rife with turmoil and missteps. In parallel irony, as Nava is climbing her way into the upper echelon of the high-end baby industry, she suffers a miscarriage and a dangerous ectopic pregnancy.
She soon launches her own baby bedding and nursery design company, Nava’s Designs, becoming the toast of the baby industry with customers that read like a “Who’s Who” of Hollywood, New York Society and Washington DC’s Elite. Think JLO, Michelle Obama, a Kardashian and even Henry Kissinger, and yes, Nava’s TV idol Joan Lunden.
Then tragedy strikes with a diagnosis of late-stage cervical cancer that threatens to take her life and robs her chances at biological motherhood. Some passages are hard to swallow as Nava’s neglectful mother, now residing in Europe shows little interest in being there for Nava during her recovery from a radical hysterectomy. These interactions drive home the complexities of a human life, while demonstrating the theme of a protagonist undeterred by painful setbacks.
The book also unwittingly reveals the author’s deep-seated need for approval and adulation as the foundation of her drive for success.
The story culminates with Nava finding true love in an unlikely place with a Dutch businessman, adopting two sons, befriending Joan Lunden and eventually landing the dream that manifests her American landmark moment, an appearance on Good Morning America sans Joan Lunden that leads to some lifelong friendships, without giving too much away.
It All Began with Caroline is a lesson in early Israeli life in the mid-twentieth century, dreaming big and glamourous dreams, the American immigrant experience, some measured risk taking, overcoming heartbreak and finding love on the road less traveled.
Follow Nava Writz Bogaard’s adventures on her national book tour at itallbeganwithcaroline.com.
