ALL AFTERNOON

In Kleinman’s literary novel set in 1978, a suburban homemaker becomes disenchanted with her marriage and intrigued by a successful author.

Marilyn Weisfeld lives in the New York City suburb of River Ridge, New Jersey, with her husband, Jerry, and their four daughters. Jerry is an economics professor at the local Maplefield College, and Marilyn, a homemaker, spends most of her time tending to the family’s needs—cooking for dinner parties, getting her daughters to do their homework, and preparing for Shabbos. The Weisfelds are part of an Orthodox Jewish community, where synagogue activities are a central part of their lives. Marilyn finds herself wanting more from life; she once dreamed of being a writer, and the romance in her marriage has disintegrated. Jerry is old friends with a successful author: Henry Goldfarb, a regular guest at Weisfeld dinner parties who often brings a young, attractive new girlfriend with him. Marilyn finds herself taken with Henry’s work, which includes frank sex scenes; soon, she’s similarly intrigued with Henry himself, and starts to meet him regularly in the city—alone, without Jerry. She sees Henry as just a friend and writing teacher, but she starts to wonder: “What was it that the rabbi had said in his sermon last week about…supplementary laws to keep the faithful far away from the tempting top of a slippery slope?” After all, she’s a married woman with a family, even if she “felt suffocated by the girls’ needs and their demands.” Kleinman’s novel effectively brings Marilyn’s struggles to life with moments of comedy. For instance, when one of her daughters listens to Led Zeppelin, Marilyn imagines that the lyrics are obscene: “Who could tell with the singer shrieking like that?” The humor extends to her relationship with Henry, as readers will surely be less captivated by Henry than Marilyn is; he manages to impress her by, for instance, adding horseradish to a tuna sandwich. However, they’ll still be intrigued by her situation, in which something must give. Will Marilyn go against her values and her community and leave her husband? Can she stop seeing a man whose company she enjoys so dearly? Such questions are sure to keep readers highly engaged.

A funny, touching tale of a woman caught between desire and responsibility.