offers works of fiction fir every taste.

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'Redemption'

Howard Fast's most recent
novel combines courtroom
drama with an
examination of love.

H

oward Fast, still active in
his mid-80s with 40 novels
under his belt, has been system-
atically ignored or derided by
academics through his long
career but has been embraced by
aM, "'W
lefffli Waff*V
„
the segment of the public that
values a novelist who knows
how to tell a story.
Although Fast, like his con-
troubled woman 30 years
temporary Herman Wouk,
younger
than he, from her
probably won't be remembered
planned
leap
off the George
as a literary giant, he is almost
Washington
Bridge.
Hopper,
compulsively readable. Look at
never
the
most
stable
of women,
this passage, drawn almost
had
suffered
in
an
abusive
mar-
randomly from his new court-
riage
and
had
reached
a
point
of
Redemption
room drama,
utter lack of self-worth.
(Harcourt Brace, $24):
These two lonely
This was no
people,
quite different
youthful crush or sim-
from
each
other,
ple physical attraction.
gradually
find
corn-
I had been living with
fort
and
renewal
in
some part of my soul
each
other's
arms.
absent, and no knowl-
(Hopper is a relatively •
edge of what was miss-
devout
Catholic,
ing and no real desire
Goldman
a relatively
for it. Charlie had let
indifferent
Jew Fast
drop once that he
makes
good
use of
Howard Fast
thought I was the
this
contrast.)
'They
father she had never
set
up
housekeeping
together.
known, but he was way off the
Soon, Hopper is accused of
mark. If there was any parent-
murdering her ex-husband --
ing, it came from her constant
with
Goldman's gun.
solicitude and understanding."
The
ensuing trial tests the
Redemption, Fast's first sus-
new
relationship
to its limits.
pense novel after many efforts in
A
good
deal
of
evidence
points
the historical genre, begins with
in
the
prosecutors'
direction,
an intriguing premise. Widower
and Goldman more than once
Isaac Goldman, a 78-year-old
is forced to rethink his rela-
retired Columbia Law professor,
rescues Elizabeth Hopper, a
REDEMPTION on page 86

'The Pigskin
Rabbi'

PIGSKIN

In Willard Manus' comic
novel an Orthodox rabbi
becomes a pro football
superstar.

I

es fall and even if you are
not an avid sports fan you'll
get a kick out of Willard -
Manus' The Pigskin Rabbi
(Broadway Books; 23).
How could you not enjoy a
Willard
plot that's ripe with cheers like,
Manus
"Give 'ern a zetz, Give 'em a
whisk, Give 'em a frosk in
ing kippot and tallitot to eat in
pisk!"? This is satire of the all-
a New York deli — the outra-
American sports fantasy in
geousness was sustained and was
which the hero is a young,
funny. There was, also, a feeling
Orthodox rabbi who becomes
_ that the sexual exploits and use
a pro-football superstar.
of expletives were overdone.
By an unusual set of events,
Nonetheless, the book is a
Ziggy Cantor becomes the quar-
light, fast and interesting read.
terback of the New York
Ziggy knows that
Giants. His Judaism
"football was meant to
soon becomes conta-
be played with a love,
gious and is believed to
or at least enjoyment.
be the source of all the
The more you liked
good that befalls him
,
what you were doing,
and his teammates. It
the easier it became."
becomes so rampant
This well deserves
that soon designer skull-
to be the reader's'!‘ •
caps are the rage of New
credo.
York and Bubbe's chick- Willard Manus
en soup replaces
Gatorade as the sideline
drink of choice.
Ziggy, however, must come
to terms with his religion, his
Willard Manus speaks at 1
relationship with his father and
p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, at
the animosity stirred in the
the D. Dan and Betty Kahn
American public, not all of
Building of the Jewish
whom share a love for Jews.
Community Center in West
Though I found the over-
Bloomfield. His talk is
the-top humor a bit too much
sponsored by the Michigan
in some parts — the team wear-
Jewish Sports Foundation.

10/2,
199

Detroit Jewish News

85