Jewish Book Fair Offers Enrichment And Entertainment For Young Adults T kink book fairs are for school marms, retirees and book-worms with nothing better to do? Think again. This year's Jewish Book Fair at the Jewish Community Center's West Bloomfield and Oak Park sites will 'host some of the hottest young authors in the country. From Rolling Stone Magazine contributing editor Rich Cohen to the cutting-edge, contemporary author of The Same Embrace, Michael Lowenthal, to Pulitzer- prize winner Wendy Wasserstein, these young voices promise to entertain and inspire creative read- ing among the twenty- and thir- tysome- thing set. Amy Brode, the book fair director, said the schedule should accommodate the needs of young profes- sionals, with speakers at 6:30 and 8 p.m. every evening, rang- ing from block- busters like Dr. Ruth to Congressman John Lewis. The accom- panying articles provide a closer look at three young writers with special tales. 10/30 1998 82 Detroit Jewish News Michael Lowenthal combines homosexuality and Jewish observance in a timely and moving work. LYNNE MEREDITH COHN Scene Editor M ichael Lowenthal didn't intend to become a spokesperson for gay Jewry. But in a way, the 29 year old author has taken that role, especially at Jewish book fairs, thanks to the provocative and searing story line in his first novel, The Same Embrace (Dutton, $23.95), about identical twin brothers, one of whom is gay, the other a fast-lane-frum bakl teshuvah. A graduate of Dartmouth College who now lives in Boston, Lowenthal said in a recent telephone interview, "I'm in this for the writing and the liter- ature, not necessarily a get-on-your- high-horse political activist. But there clearly is an aspect when you write about subjects like this, an aspect of being the cultural ambassador, I guess." Having been "right out front about most everything in my life," Lowenthal doesn't mind the role. "I'm perfectly happy, and actu- ally excit- ed and eager to go stand in front of groups and say, `Listen, maybe you don't talk about these issues much, maybe the word gay doesn't pass your lips much, but I'm here, I hope I'm non- - - threatening, and you can ask me any- Lowenthal recalls. "They were on the thing.'" conservative end of Conservative." Born in Washington, D.C., But after his parents' divorce (when Lowenthal was raised in a Lowenthal was 11), it was his father Conservative Jewish home. He dou- who kept the observance, while ble-majored in creative writing and Lowenthal lived with his secular moth- comparative religion at Dartmouth er. and graduated in 1990 as class valedic- Writing the book was, in a way, a torian. After six months of washing trip down memory lane for him, but dishes and tending bar, he also a journey into an began working for appreciation for Judaism. University Press of New "I definitely have a much England and later founded deeper understanding," says the Hardscrabble Books Lowenthal. "The kinds of imprint, publishing note- -°, 2 things you just do when worthy writers such as you're a kid because they're Chris Bohjalian, W.D. what you do and they're Wetherell and Ernest what your family tells you Hebert. to do, you follow along He says he's always want- pretty unreflectively. Now, I ed to write. "In second know what goes on behind Michael Lowenthal, some of the rituals. I can't grade, we made hand-made author of books as a Mother's Day gift, say it's made me personally The Same Embrace. more active in a conven- sewed them together, made covers, filled them with 'my tional sense; I don't do favorite food is...', 'my family consists much in the way of ritual or going to of...', and 'when I grow up I want to services, but it was fun to get immersed be...'. I wanted to play left field for the back in it all." Boston Red Sox for six months of the Lowenthal received a 1995-96 New year and the other six months be a Hampshire State Council on the Arts writer." Fellowship for fiction writing, based on Although he hasn't quite given up his the first chapter of The Same Embrace. dream of playing for the Red Sox, He has also edited several tomes, Lowenthal says he "feel[s] good that I'm including Gay Men at the Millennium at least working on the writer part." and Flesh and the Word 4. His stories But it's nothing new He has always and essays have appeared in the Kenyon "dabbled," with pen and paper, first as Review, the New York Times Magazine, editor of his high school newspaper, Other Voices and such anthologies as then trying his hand at fiction in col- Best American Gay Fiction and Wrestling lege. With the Angel. ri" Lowenthal says his book "partly came from experience and partly from Michael Lowenthal will speak at research." From his own Jewish back- the Jewish Book Fair at 3 p.m. ground, "I at least knew enough to Sunday, Nov. 15, at the Kahn know where I had to look for more." Jewish Community Center in His mother's family immigrated to West Bloomfield. His talk is the States in the late 1800s and was sponsored by Michigan Jewish assimilated and'secular, while his father's AIDS Coalition and Simcha. parents fled Germany in 1939. His For a review of The Same father's father was a rabbi, practicing Embrace, see The Storytellers in Orthodox in Europe and Conservative this week's Entertainment sec- when he came here. tion on page 94. "I grew up visiting them and defi- nitely partaking of that observance,"