The newest books — by Jewish authors, about Jewish subjects or of interest to Jewish readers.
brates the virtues of idealism and
spirit."
'The First Stone'
No New Jokes
H
Bborn
By Steven Bloom;
Norton; $23.
Jokes are the de-
fense of a group of
five friends in 1949
Brooklyn. The fo-
cus is on Izzy, a
boxer-turned-jazz
singer and World
War II veteran
who carries the im-
age of his father ly-
ing dead on a
muddy street in
Poland. Bloom,
born and raised in Brooklyn,
now teaches at the University of
Heidelberg in Germany; No New
Jokes was the 1995 winner of
the Associated Writing Pro-
grams Award.
By John Briley; Morrow; $24.
loak and dagger ... and a veil. The intrigue builds
These are the basics of John as the husband's
Briley's latest novel, The envious brother, be-
lieving Lisa is a spy,
First Stone.
Briley, a film critic and lec- concocts many
turer, won an Oscar and a Gold- plans to trap her.
Lisa deftly ma-
en Globe award for his
neuvers
her way in
screenplay for Gandhi. In Stone,
Briley once again manages to the conspiracy-
laden harem,
work together personal
and the
intrigue and interna-
REVIEW
reader
goes
tional events. This fast-
along eager-
paced story is told with
exacting visual details; with ly because of Bri-
added touches of romance, he ley's artful weaving
has crafted a tale to suit all of real events and
figures with an in-
tastes.
Jewish-American Lisa Coop- side look at Saudi
er's niece and nephew are killed society from a
during her visit to their Israeli woman's point of
kibbutz. She is ripe for picking view. We go, as it
by the Mossad, which recruits were, behind the
her to meet and marry a promi- veil.
Marines
are
nent, rich Saudi and to live in his
killed in Beirut;
country as a mole.
Lisa lives in the harem and, Lisa's husband ris-
despite the dangers of politics, es to power and the
despite the great cultural dif- traps for Lisa grow
ferences, despite the existence more numerous
of another wife, she falls in love and difficult to evade. Finally,
she is forced to make a choice be-
with her husband.
tween
her husband and her peo-
Though reluctant to be sub-
missive to Muslim law, Lisa goes ple, between a love which has
along with the plan as she waits grown and a country she has
to be of service to the Mossad. sworn to serve.
Briley creates vivid scenes
throughout of desert landscapes
Sy Manello is our editorial
and cities, harem life, Saudi fam-
assistant and an avid reader.
C
FICTION
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82
Love Invents Us
By Amy Bloom; Ran-
dom House; $21.
Amy Bloom's col-
lection of short sto-
ries, Come to Me,
was a finalist for the
National Book
Award. In her first
novel, Love Invents
Us, Bloom tells the
story of Elizabeth, a
shy, chubby girl
who, less than per-
fect, is introduced to unimagined
places and unknown parts of
herself.
Gould: A Novel In Two Nov-
els
By Stephen Dixon; Henry Holt &
Co.; $24.
We first meet 17-year-old
ily manipulations and the poli-
tics of the time and place.
The book is a stimulating ex-
perience. It will, no doubt, make
its way onto the screen with
equally satisfying results. The
fast-paced intrigue and the vi-
suals are a winning combination
— Sy Manello
Gould Bookbinder as a freshman Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
in college. Soon after, he has got- The Armies of the Night and The
ten two girls pregnant, Executioner's Song here tells the
the second of which he story of a devout carpenter. It is
denies and refuses fi- a readable account of "a man
nancial assistance for thrust forward by the visions he
an abortion. He later receives, the sermons he offers,
learns the girl has died and the miracles he enacts until
of a drug overdose. he comes to the apocalyptic end
Gould is the story of an of his powers."
educated, immature,
"sexually voracious" An Independent Woman
male and his dragging By Howard Fast; Harcourt Brace;
$25.
struggle to-
First there was The
'n
ward matu-
Immigrants. What fol-
rity, by the
lowed was a saga of
author ofIn-
terstate, a finalist for ACCORDING one family, from gen-
the National Book TO THE SON eration to generation.
And now, said the New
Award.
York Times of the long-
awaited conclusion to
The Gospel Ac-
The Immigrants saga,
cording To The Son
Fast's writing is "sat-
By Norman Mailer;
isfying, old-fashioned
Random House; $22.
storytelling that cele-
The two times
GOSPEL
NORMAN
MAILER
Pandaemonium
By Leslie Epstein; St. Martin's
Press; $24.95.
Says the New York Times:
"Something awfully like hell
breaks loose in this wild Holly-
wood novel set early in World
War II and popu-
lated by dreamy
European exiles
and unsleeping
movieland types."
Touch And Go
By Eugene Stein;
Weisbach /Morrow;
$22.
The author of
Straightjacket and
Tie, Stein's stories
have appeared in
Harper's and The
Pushcart Prize An-
thology. In Touch
and Go, Stein has
followed up his previous novel
with a collection of 13 short sto-
ries, evoking strange, yet strange-
ly familiar worlds and feelings.
Inventing Mem-
ory: A Novel Of
Mothers And
Daughters
By Erica Jong;
HarperCollins;
$25.
The author of
Fear of Flying tells
the tale of four gen-
erations of head-
strong women
caught up in the
changes of the
times, and redefin-
ing what their roles
as women mean .
Five Women
By Rona Jaffe; Donald I. Fine
Books; $24.95.
The author of
Class Reunion is up
to her old tricks: Five
friends meet every
week at a restaurant
on New York's Up-
per East Side, re-
vealing their secrets
and their survival
tactics.
The Good Ameri-
can
By Ted Flicker; Sha-
lako; $19.95.
Joseph von Ritter,
a German Jew, immigrates to
America during the Civil War,
against a backdrop of an early
wave of immigration to the Unit-
ed States.
Eve's Apple
By Jonathan Rosen; Random
House; $24.
In his debut novel, Rosen (cul-
tural editor of The Forward) ex-
plores "how seductive illness can
be" — in the case of Eve's Apple,
anorexia nervosa and teen-age
suicide. Joseph's ob-
session with his
girlfriend Ruth and
the possibility of her
returning to her
teen-age bulimic
habits, spurred by
his own sister's sui-
cide at age 16, is as
morbid as any eat-
ing disorder.
NON-
FICTION
Old Books, Rare Friends:
Two Literary Sleuths And
Their Shared Passion
By Leona Rosten-
berg and Madeleine
Stern; Doubleday;
$21.95.
When trying to
obtain a doctorate in
literature, a profes-
sor said to Rosten-
berg: "Do not set
your sights too high.
You have two grave
disadvantages. You
are a woman and a
Jew."
It's been said that
Rostenberg and
Stern are an insti-
one
-