DINNER AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by Nathan Englander

For me, this book was a challenging read, particularly at the beginning.  The narration jumps around between the General (obviously former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon), who is in a vegetative state but whose memories we are witnessing, and Prisoner Z, whom we eventually discover to be a double agent.  How Prisoner Z comes to be caught and incarcerated is the biggest happening in the novel, but he’s hoodwinked just as obviously as he hoodwinks a Palestinian businessman.  For me, he represents sort of an Israeli with a conscience, as the Israeli retaliations are way out of proportion to the Palestinian attacks that motivate those retaliations.  The General is the flipside of that coin, as he seems to have no remorse for the several massacres of civilians that he instigated.  A love story consumes the latter part of the novel, but neither the male character in the relationship nor the relationship itself is very well-developed.  Overall, I thought there were too many things going on in the novel, none of which received sufficient treatment.  Actually, a map of Israel and the surrounding area would have been helpful.  I felt that the author took too much for granted with regard to his readers’ knowledge of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  Since reading the novel, I’ve familiarized myself with the geography a bit and read a little about the tunnel system, but I wish I had boned up on such stuff beforehand.  As for the conflict itself, I just read Philip Roth’s The Counterlife, which I thought was a much better commentary on Israel, and it was published over 30 years ago.  My sense is that not much has really changed.

FOR THE RELIEF OF UNBEARABLE URGES by Nathan Englander

I don’t usually read short story collections, but this one has been on my bookshelf for a long time.  Suffice it to say that these stories are all very Jewish, although the themes, of course, transcend religion.  As a non-Jewish reader, however, I found many words unfamiliar, such as “gilgul,” which apparently means a sort of reincarnation.  In this particular story, a non-Jewish man suddenly realizes during a taxi ride that his soul is Jewish.  I think this is perhaps the most unusual story from a spiritual perspective, but none of the stories are exactly mundane.  The first one sets a very morbid tone, and the last one is about an American who narrowly escapes a bombing in Jerusalem.  All the intervening stories have a little more humor and usually a dash of irreverence.  My favorite is the second story in which a group of Jews, clad only in their long underwear, accidentally board a circus train during the Holocaust.  They are mistaken for acrobats and proceed to develop their act in the corridor of the train.  Ludicrous perhaps, but the mental image will stay with me, I think.  Another absurd story is that of a Jewish department store Santa who loses it when a child requests a menorah for Christmas.  For me, short stories are just not as satisfying as a full-length novel, but there is something to be said for being able to finish a story in one sitting.  In this case, each story is fresh and unique, and I enjoyed all of them, except the first one.  They all, except for the first one again, seemed a little unfinished, but I think that is perhaps the nature of the short story.  Not everything can be resolved in twenty pages.

THE FIG EATER by Jody Shields

I really enjoyed most of this murder mystery that takes place in 1910 Vienna.  It’s full of gypsy lore and superstitions, giving it a sinister flavor that just enhances the rather detached tone of the novel.  However, the ending is extremely abrupt and unsatisfying with loose ends galore.  The book opens with a young woman named Dora having been murdered, with pieces of an undigested fig having been found in her stomach.  A man known simply as the Inspector is in charge of investigating the crime, but his wife Erszébet decides to undertake her own parallel investigation on the side.  She even locates a key witness before her husband does but never tells him where to find this witness.  Erszébet is fascinated by the fig and determines exactly what type of fig it is, simply from its appearance.  All I can say to this is Dora apparently didn’t chew up her food very well before being murdered.  There are lots of other clues and leads for both the Inspector and his wife to follow up on, but none of these enigmas are resolved at the end of the novel.  I don’t need for everything to be tidied up at the end, but in this case I’m not sure if these various pieces of evidence are red herrings or teasers or if the author just didn’t know what to do with them.  Another possibility is that the reader is supposed to draw some conclusions that certainly were not obvious to me.  That said, sometimes the journey is more worthwhile than the destination, and this novel has a unique aura that makes it a journey worth taking.

THE COUNTERLIFE by Philip Roth

This much we know is true:  Henry is a 39-year-old dentist, married to Carol, and his older brother Nathan is a writer.  Everything else is fluid.  In the first section Henry has a heart condition, and his medication has rendered him impotent.  Surgery will resolve the heart condition, but the surgery is not without risk.  However, Henry is not sure life is worth living without sex—not sex with his wife but with his assistant.  Then the second section completely contradicts the outcome of the first section.  What is going on here?  Alternate realities?  Parallel universes?  In any case, Henry is now in Israel, having abandoned his family to become an “authentic Jew.”  The third section is the shortest and wildest—about hijacking a plane.  The fourth section is yet another contradiction but explains the first three sections—maybe.  I would give this novel 5 stars if it didn’t get bogged down occasionally.  Roth is a fantastic writer, even if he is obsessed with sex and being Jewish.  The subject matter is his usual stuff, but the format and twistiness are not, and they are what make this novel special.  If you’ve been put off or disappointed with his novels in the past, consider this one or The Plot Against America.

PAPERBOY by Vince Vawter

This novel may be more suited to young readers, but I couldn’t resist the story of an 11-year-old paperboy in 1959 in my hometown of Memphis.  My brother also had a paper route for the Memphis Press-Scimitar and threw the afternoon papers from his Spyder bike with a banana seat.  I think my brother dreaded collecting from his customers almost as much as the boy in this novel did, although not for the same reason.  In this book, the paperboy in question has a stuttering problem, which makes conversation, with adults or other kids, difficult.  Also, he is paperboy for only a month, subbing for a friend who is spending the month of July on his grandparents’ farm.  Most of his customers leave their payments in an envelope, but two of the ones he has to speak with are his favorites.  One is a beautiful woman with a drinking problem and an abusive husband.  The other is a former seaman with a vast collection of books and an unusual manner of speaking.  The boy harvests some life lessons from encounters with these two customers, as well as from his black housekeeper/babysitter, whom he calls Mam.  Both the boy and Mam have an impetuous streak, which doesn’t always serve them well.  The most important lesson, though, is one about love, and the paperboy figures that one out for himself.  This was a nostalgia trip worth taking, as well as a reminder that the 1950s were not as rosy as some people think.