A sometimes-charming, sometimes-tedious Winesburg, Ohio–style look at the life of a synagogue.
Three generations of Jews clash in their search for fulfillment in this novel in stories from Taub, author of Prodigal Children in the House of G-d (2018).
When Arnold Kestenberg, the entrepreneurial founder of Kestenberg’s Car Service, can’t find a seat at his yeshiva student–dominated synagogue, he decides to start his own. After all, how hard can it be? And so Congregation Haverim Ahuvim is born, the Orthodox synagogue with a twist: It has no rabbi. As Arnold explains to his co-founders: “We will lead each other.…We will care for each other. This will be a synagogue of comrades, in the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood.” The congregation is a success—sort of—creating a multigenerational community of people whose lives and families intersect over the decades. Their individual struggles represent the constant tension between tradition and modernity at play in Haverim Ahuvim—and in Judaism itself. There is Yehudah Ariel, the principal of the Torah and Midot Academy, the closest thing to a spiritual authority the synagogue possesses and a man still figuring life out. There is the boy—and later man—Yehoshua Weissman, who is forced to keep his sexual orientation secret from the congregation, though many people already know it. There is Yehuda’s daughter Braynah, an artist who decides to hold a retrospective of her work in the synagogue—and whose art becomes a method of preserving the past. Taub’s measured prose adeptly captures the personalities and worldviews of his characters: “Mame never used any of the cleansers and creams from the department or specialty stores for her face, either. There too, it was just plain soap. Not dish soap, of course, but hand and body soap. Mame’s face had been a testament to the wisdom of her practice.” The book is slower and less zany than it initially appears to be, and the lack of serious drama in the lives of several characters who temporarily receive the spotlight can make for dull moments. The author succeeds in immersing the reader in this very particular, very Jewish world, however, which seems to have been his goal. Those who are interested in the daily rhythms of such a community will not be disappointed.
A sometimes-charming, sometimes-tedious Winesburg, Ohio–style look at the life of a synagogue.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68114-524-2
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Anaphora Literary Press
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
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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