A novel that is as enjoyable as it is intelligent: a truly brilliant book and a remarkable achievement.
A campus novel set in 1959 that explores a footnote in the life of Benzion Netanyahu, father of Benjamin Netanyahu, the then-future Israeli prime minister.
Cohen's narrator, Ruben Blum, is an economics professor at a college in upstate New York (a thinly veiled Cornell); he specializes in the hilariously boring field of tax history, and he is the lone Jewish faculty member in his department. As the token Jew, he is assigned to lead the committee considering whether to hire one Benzion Netanyahu. As Blum considers Netanyahu's case, he receives letters from various colleagues and associates of the candidate about the man and his scholarly work, which lead him to peruse Netanyahu's scholarship himself. This scholarship and these accounts—vastly varied as they are—illuminate the foibles, strengths, and contradictions (ranging from the minor and humorous to the significant and existential, and every combination in between) of a fascinating individual and, on Cohen's part, a richly imagined character. Netanyahu's foibles, strengths, and contradictions in turn illuminate the complexities of Jewish history and sociopolitics; the result is a wide-ranging, truly original novel that limns these topics from what feels like infinite angles. Cohen has taken on a hugely ambitious project, and if each element that his narrative explores—Jewish history, the history of Zionism, the history of antisemitism, the status of Jews in higher education, the conditions and results of Jewish American assimilation—is a proverbial stone, Cohen's project involves not just leaving no stone unturned, but also thoroughly inspecting each stone first. The result is a densely intellectual novel, and if it is at times pedantic, the pedantry is rarely unwarranted; it is simply a function of this conscientiousness. Formally, the novel's style is as energetic, expansive, and exploratory as its content; Cohen is an extraordinarily skilled writer, and his nearly manic prose is well suited to this ambitious and expansive, yet masterfully controlled, novel. If this sounds complex, that's because it is. But the complexity does not diminish the novel's readability; it is in no way a lightweight work, but it is a delightful and gratifying one.
A novel that is as enjoyable as it is intelligent: a truly brilliant book and a remarkable achievement.Pub Date: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68137-607-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: New York Review Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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