An empathetic story of faith and desire.
Jaffe’s (The Genealogy of Understanding, 2014, etc.) coming-of-age novel tells the story of a Jewish adolescent attempting to square his homosexuality with the teachings of his religion.
On the cusp of his 16th birthday, Jake Stein notices a prohibition in the book of Leviticus that never caught his eye before: “ ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.’…Jake read further still: anyone who committed such abomination ‘shall be cut off from among their people.’ ” As part of a Conservative Jewish family in 1970s South Jersey, the dictates of his religion are important to Jake—and even more important to his father, Sol. At the same time, Jake has been fantasizing about some of his male teachers and engaging in sexual exploration with his best friend, Dave. Jake joins the school play in hopes of finding a distraction from this identity crisis, but it only makes things worse: The play is The Diary of Anne Frank, a story laden with heavy guilt, and he quickly becomes obsessed with the lead actor, Steve. Jake concocts daydreams around his unrequited attraction but ends up feeling as lonely as ever. He attends Princeton University after high school, still committed to trying to be a yeled tov—a good Jewish boy—but the temptations at college prove even greater than those in high school. Throughout the novel, Jaffe writes in a polished prose style that successfully captures Jake’s anxiety from his perspective: “Jake glanced quickly down at his book, but couldn’t read what now appeared to be one big blur. His stomach clutched and his breathing nearly halted. Streams of perspiration jetted out under his arms.” Along the way, he does an admirable job of locating Jake’s conflict in the particulars of Judaism and Jewish culture while also presenting a story that will feel relatable to a wide audience. Jake’s road to self-acceptance is a long one, and it will perhaps frustrate some readers. But the details of his experience are so particular and humanizing that most people will stick right with him to the end.
An empathetic story of faith and desire.Pub Date: April 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-59021-671-2
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Lethe Press
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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