Neurotica: Jewish Writers on Sex, does a
wonderful job of creating a character
the reader gets to know intimately.
Long after the story ends, Nathan
will stay with you. Just shut the book,
and close your eyes.
— Howard Lovy
CONEY
By Amram Ducovny
(Overlook Press; 320 pp.; $26.95)
opulated with Jewish gang-
sters, Yiddish-speaking intel-
lectuals and circus freaks
ly lost everything in Europe: her son,
than send those responses, forwarding
and cultural references that any Middle
sharing prostitutes, Amram
her husband, her mother (her father
instead witty and flippant replies.
East news junkie would appreciate.
Ducovny's
latest book has been
had been killed earlier by anti-Semites),
Although the characters in Louisa
Being set in the Middle East, it begins,
described
as
"part-noir thriller, part
her home, her life in Budapest.
might not always be likable, they're
of course, with violence. Nathan, a failed
coming-of-age
novel and part irresistible
She is accompanied by the German
always compelling.
Russian emigre poet who found another
chronicle
of
1930s
Coney Island."
young woman who was married to her
The novel opens up engaging dis-
career in letters as the speechwriter for a
And
if
Ducovny's
name seems famil-
late son. Her first thought in Israel is
cussions on themes of memory, dis-
hawkish Israeli prime minister, is shot in
iar,
that's
because
the
author is indeed
about where to scrounge a cigarette.
placement, loyalty and forgiveness,
the ear by a would-be assassin.
the
father
of
ex-X-Files
star David
Louisa has midrash at its core. The
Jewish identity and how a land and a
The question: At whom was the
Duchovny
(Ducovny
dropped
the "H"
unfolding story of Nora and Louisa
people can be holy.
assassin aiming? The prime minister?
from
his
name
to
ease
pronunciation).
resembles the biblical story of Ruth.
Unlike many writers who follow the
His dovish, archaeologist son? The
Coney follows its alienated 15-year-
"For wherever you go, I will go ...
credo of writing about what they
speechwriter himself?
old
protagonist Harry Catzker as he
your people will be my people, and
know, Zelitch, a graduate of the MFA
From the opening shot, the story is
rebels from home and finds a new fam-
your God, my God" (Ruth 1:16), the
program at the University of
filled with vivid images. In the back-
ily in the freaks and lowlifes inhabiting
Moabite Ruth tells her Israelite moth-
Michigan, says she prefers to write
ground is the Book of Leviticus, and
Coney
Island's shadowlands.
er-in-law Naomi.
about "what interests me, questions I
the reference to the "strange fire" lit by
In
a
sense,
for those delving into
In the novel, Louisa, the daughter of a
don't have answers for."
Aaron's sons — a fire that turned God
Coney, there is a very thin line between
Third Reich diplomat, clings to and cares
A Hopwood Award winner for her
into an instant executioner.
the reader and Ducovny's youth.
for Nora. Repeatedly challenged about
first novel, The Confession of Jack
Yet the plot, although engaging, is
Remarkably,
the author insists that the
bringing a despised German to Israel,
Straw, she currently teaches writing at
almost secondary. The reader experiences profligate sideshow-surreal underworld
Nora replies that Louisa saved her life.
Community College of Philadelphia.
the story through Nathan's darkness,
in Coney skews close to reality.
Indeed,*after her son's death in 1944,
— Sandee Brawarsky reading his thoughts as he smells, listens
The son of a British journalist who
Nora hid in the cellar of Louisa's house.
and feels his way through the landscape.
relocated
to Brooklyn, Ducovny, him-
But Nora has conflicted feelings about
Upon his arrival in Zion from the
self
a
former
journalist, recalled that,
STRANGE
FIRE
the presence of her daughter-in-law, who
Soviet Union, the dream ended for
at
the
age
of
6,
he became "drunk on
By
MelvinJules
Bukiet
has given up her family, her religion, her
Nathan. The Israel he saw with his
words"
after
hearing
the description of
(W.W.
Norton
&
Company;
country and all that was familiar.
eyes — corrupt politicians, hypocriti-
the
world's
creation
that
opens the
352
pp.;
$24.95)
"I cut my teeth on midrash," says
cal religious leaders, his own homosex- Book of Genesis.
Zelitch, 38, who is particularly drawn
hose who have visited
uality contrasted with the macho male
Living within walking distance of
to midrash that looks at secondary or
Jerusalem know that to see
culture — did not match what he saw
Coney
Island's boardwalk, the young
marginal characters. Reflecting on the
the city merely with their
in his imagination in Russia.
Ducovny
became very familiar with its
story of Ruth and Naomi, she notes
eyes is not to completely
The war in Lebanon sealed it for him milieu of misfits, and was impressed to
how little is known about Naomi and
experience it. But when sight is corn-
— blinded him from whatever Zionist
discover that many of these fringe
whether she really wanted Ruth with
bined with aroma, with touch, with
dream he had left. He was kidnapped,
freak-show entertainers were European
her, whether she was able to accept
sound, the sensory experience is noth-
tortured and physically blinded by
immigrants.
Ruth's love and devotion.
ing less than biblical.
Lebanese militiamen. The IDF rescued
Although Ducovny released his very
"That was a kind of springboard for
Nathan Kazakov, the hero of Melvin
him from captivity, but his Zionist
first
novel at the age of 73, this is not
thinking about Nora," she says.
Jules Bukiet's Mideast thriller, is blind
dream was gone.
his
first
book. He has penned 10 non-
Zelitch doesn't crowd her characters,
— therefore his other senses are
We go through Nathan's plunge into
fiction
books,
including David Ben
and they emerge as strong, complex and enhanced to compensate.
further darkness through the narrator's
Gurion:
In
Own
Words ("a labor of
interesting. The novel moves forward
Because he is not burdened by sight,
thoughts. Upon discovering the dead
love,"
said
its
author)
and a Broadway
and back in time, as Nora tells of life in
Nathan can "see" the many Jerusalems.
body of a friend, coin collector Jacob
play,
Trial
of
Lee
Harvey
Oswald.
the present: the Israeli absorption center As he peers out the window of a coin
Twersky, he thinks, "From Adam's son,
Despite comparisons by book critics
she and the resilient Louisa move to,
collector's shop in the Old City, he
Abel, to Yitzhak Rabin to Jacob Twers ky,
likening Ducovny's style to Philip Roth
and her efforts to find Bela, a male
thinks of Roman centurions clanging by
the first story of the first tribe is murder."
and Isaac Bashevis Singer, Ducovny, in
cousin she has loved since childhood.
in armor. He senses the march of the
The ending of Strange Fire descends
fact,
ranks among his influences anoth-
In flashbacks, she recalls her life in
Crusaders, the Ottomans, the British,
into a campy farce on the scale of Wag er pair of Jewish literary greats —
Hungary and Bela's life on a kibbutz, as
and the ancient blood that's washed over
the Dog. But the character of Nathan
Henry Roth and Saul Bellow.
he had described it to her in more than
the rough stones through the millennia.
more than makes up for the story's
Ultimately, Ducovny sees Coney as the
a decade of letters, which she saved in
Strange Fire, in many ways, is an old-
cartoonish ending.
culmination of a dream, to capture in nar-
shoeboxes. From Budapest, she would
fashioned, suspenseful whodunit, min-
Bukiet, author of the novels After
rative the colors and flavors of his youth.
write tender missives, but save rather
gled with Israeli geopolitical, religious
and Signs and Wonders and editor of
"I always wanted to write fiction,"
p
T
6/22
2001
67