Leviant’s quirky blend of irreverence, exuberance, and sobering history ultimately makes for a ragtag novel in which the...
In what is decidedly not a typical Holocaust-themed book, a renowned Yiddish scholar struggles with an ailing wife, her changeable young successor, and his own decadeslong effort to avenge murders committed in a post–World War II pogrom.
At age 70, Shmulik Gafni stirs up gossip among his colleagues at the University of Israel and much of Jerusalem that he is “involved, invalved, invulved with a blonde, full-chested, slim-waisted Polish Catholic shikse” half his age. This bombshell, figurative and full-figured, drops only after many digressions in the three sentences totaling more than 2,000 words that open Leviant’s (Zix Zexy Ztories, 2012, etc.) ninth work of fiction. The quote and logorrhea say much about the novel, which is full of detours and persistent punning, verbal verve and self-indulgence. A descendant of Mozart the size of a pecan owns a Vienna cafe. A group of elderly Jews in Warsaw achieves immortality. An eminent scholar forges author autographs in old university library books. And the author makes a cameo—among other intrusions—as the undisguised translator of S.Y. Agnon, C. Urtl Eviant. Inventive, with a touch of magic realism and a dollop of plain silly, Leviant is the sort of compulsive entertainer who may leave his audience wanting less. But he can cut the levity when the moment demands it: with the death of Gafni’s wife, in the rapid souring of his marriage to the shiksa, and especially as he seems near his goal of finding the man who killed his father and uncle. They were Holocaust survivors whose deaths Gafni witnessed some 50 years earlier during the July 4, 1946 pogrom in Kielce, Poland—an actual atrocity.
Leviant’s quirky blend of irreverence, exuberance, and sobering history ultimately makes for a ragtag novel in which the author is clearly having a lot of fun—maybe more than the reader.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60489-160-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Livingston Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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