The Neuman Family
and Staff of

On The Bookshelf

STAR DELI

IRIT

Michigan's Finest Deli Carry-Out
Acclaimed As
One Of America's Best
Carry-Out Only Delicatessens

24555 W. 12 Mile

352-7377

Wish Their
Friends and Customers
A VERY HEALTHY
AND HAPPY

NEW YEAR

May Our Prayers Be
Answered For
Peace On Earth

YoyeAheink ji
awl eeez.P''

Tell her in a
Jewish News
Classified ad.

3 Lines for Vir10_
4 weeks kikffi

9/29
2000

11,54

g

1•800354•5959I n

SANDEE BRAWARS KY

Special to the Jewish News

0

thers have written fic-
tion about post-immi-
grant Jewish families,
about coming-of-age
and assimilation, but Alice
Lichtenstein's impressive debut
novel, The Genius of the World
(Zoland Books; $13), is decidedly
different in its spiritual dimensions.
This is a soulful novel, chronicling
inner as well as outward journeys,
exploring the nature of genius, fami-
ly ties, the possibility of choosing
one's roots. It's The Jew in the Lotus
— Rodger Kamenetz's lively non-fic-
tional exploration of the connections
between Judaism and Buddhism —
meets the Jewish family novel.
In an interview, the author admits
to some discomfort with the label of
spiritual novel — "there's no New
Age music playing in the back-
ground," she says, but explains that
she has long been interested in exis-

God comes up
in unexpected places
in Alice Lichtenstein's
first novel, "The Genius
of the World."

tential questions of "faith vs. reason,
religion vs. science, destiny vs. free
will." The three generations in this
novel grapple with those questions.
The novel is told from different
perspectives, shifting in different
chapters between the points of view
of Ira Stein, his sister Phoebe and his
grandfather Abbey, a Nobel prize-
winning physicist and the family
patriarch. Playing supporting roles
are Ira's parents and younger sister
Molly, part of this educated, cul-
tured Jewish family with few signs of
being rooted in tradition.
Among the Steins, Abbey is the
"genius of the world," but Ira too has
great passion and the ability from a
very early age to see what others don't
— his is a kind of
spiritual genius.
Misunderstood by
teachers who don't
perceive his gifts, Ira
later experiments
with drugs and rebels
against the establish-
ment. From a child-
hood that is on one
level troubled and on
another level deeply
connected to some-
thing larger, he finds
meaning in
Buddhism when he
escapes to San
Francisco and meets
a band of Buddhists.
Invited to join
their communal
home, he takes the
name Milarepa and
becomes a Buddhist
monk. "You're a wan-
dering Jew, searching
for a path," his guru
tells him. "There's a
spiritual energy in
Jews. Why do you
think you scratch a