Arts & Entertainment
Next Generation
Expert mystery making by a worthy heir
to a famous family name.
Jonathan Kirsch
that is cast in the mold of a bildungsro-
Jewish Journal of Greater L.A.
man, or so it seems when we first open his
remarkable new book.
our years ago, Jesse Kellerman
The setup is understated but irresistible.
famously entered the family busi- A graduate student named Joseph Geist,
ness when he published his first
who loses his teaching job and his grant,
novel, Sunstroke. His father is Jonathan
answers an intriguing advertisement:
Kellerman, and his mother is Faye
"Conversationalist wanted." What better
Kellerman, both of whom are name-brand job for an out-of-work intellectual?
mystery novelists in their own rights.
Even before we encounter his mysteri-
His influences range from
ous employer, however, we
Stephen King to Richard
learn about the searing life
Dawkins, an odd choice
experiences that turned
for someone who also
Geist into the tortured
reports that the Bible and
young man whom we meet
the Talmud "have affected
in the pages of Kellerman's
my life immeasurably." He
book. "My brother used to
playfully denies that he is
refer to me as 'the Alien?
related to Sally Kellerman
and that pretty much
and refers anyone inter-
summed up how everyone
ested in his parents to their
felt, including me:' muses
UTOR
respective websites.
Geist, whose voice we hear
The most telling name
in the first-person narra-
on his list of favorites, I
tive. Inspired by Nietzsche,
think, is Graham Greene,
he aspires to not only
The novel's last 100 pages
an accomplished liter-
"reshape a 3,000-year-old
are full of new shocks and
ary artist who also wrote
debate" but also to "clear
surprises, inversions and
"entertainments" in the
a path for philosophy
reversals.
mystery genre. Kellerman's
going into the 21st century.
new book, The Executor
Applause, please?' But,
(Putnam, $25.95), offers something far
after eight fruitless years of work on his
richer and more reflective than we cus-
dissertation, Geist is ultimately expelled
tomarily find in the mystery-thriller genre. from Harvard University and reduced to
In a sense, Kellerman has written a thriller answering want ads in the Crimson.
F
JESS E
KELL Er
EXEC
Jesse Kellerman: His influences
range from Stephen King to
Richard Dawkins, an odd choice
The woman
who places
the fateful
ad is Alma
Spielmann, who
declares herself
to be untroubled
by his worries and woes. "I don't mind that
you are unhappy," she says. "It shall make
you more interesting to talk to."
Slowly and exquisitely, Kellerman
allows us to see the intrigue that swirls
around the remarkable old lady who
insinuates herself into his life, his destiny
and even his erotic dreams. "Where was
I?" muses Geist. "Who was this person? I
looked at her, but she just smiled, Sphinx-
like?'
Geist moves into a back bedroom of
Alma's house, and their conversations
allow him to see the remarkable woman
she is — Alma was on a first-name basis
with Heidegger and Wittgenstein, she
once rode from New York to San Francisco
on a motorcycle — and, she packs a
pistol. Not long after the conversations
begin, Geist comes to revere his benefac-
tor."These days, friendship is fungible; go
on the Internet and you can collect 2,000
`friends?" he muses. "That kind of friend-
ship is meaningless, and I considered it
blasphemous to apply the term to Alma."
The idyll comes to an abrupt end when
a young man named Eric shows up. He is
introduced as Alma's nephew, and he is
clearly a source of grief and even danger
for the old woman. "You would murder
for someone who also reports that
the Bible and the Talmud "have
affected my life immeasurably."
him for me, then?" Alma asks Geist, only
half in jest. But he also notices "how Alma
came alive in his presence, becoming, for a
short while at least, positively coquettish?'
And Geist discerns what he thinks is Eric's
real motive — "a masterpiece of dramatic
subtext" — in a crucial conversation that
charges the novel with a new kind of
suspense. Suddenly, we pass from a par-
lor-room mystery into a noirish world of
conspiracy that operates at the innermost
reaches of the human heart and mind.
"I turned and fled into the bosom of
the crowds, hounded by guilt, haunted
by the awareness of my own power, the
knowledge that I had the capacity to do
evil, even if I chose not to exercise it,"
Geist tells us. "And I felt guilty for feeling
guilty, because I had no right to dismem-
ber myself for something I hadn't done:'
The last 100 pages of The Executor are
so full of new shocks and surprises, inver-
sions and reversals, that I dare not even
hint at them lest I subvert Kellerman's
expert mystery making. Suffice it to say
that nothing in the early pages of the
book quite prepares the reader for how
it ends. That's exactly what the author
intended, of course, and that's why he is
such a worthy heir to the famous family
name. ❑
Jews
Nate Bloom
"VII
Special to the Jewish News
Supernatural
lac Director M. Night Shyamalan (The
Sixth Sense) has made six films since
1999, all of which feature a strong
supernatural element.
His new flick, The Last Airbender,
opening Friday, July 2, doesn't depart
from his oeuvre.
Airbender, like the Nickelodeon TV
series it is based on, features elements
of Chinese magic and Hindu/Buddhist
mysticism. The film is set in a world
where there are four nations – Air,
Water, Earth and Fire. The Fire Nation
launches a war against the others.
The hero is Aang (Noah Ringer),
an "avatar" who possesses mystical
34
July 1 • 2010
powers and teams with Katara (new-
comer actress Nicola Peltz,15), who
also has some pow-
ers, to try and end
the war.
Shaun Toub, 48,
an Iranian-American
Jewish actor, has a
supporting role as
Iroh, the uncle of
Shaun Toub
Aang's main Fire
Nation enemy. Toub
had large supporting
roles in Crash (as a
Muslim shopkeeper)
and in The Kite
Runner.
Nicola Peitz
The Internet rumor
is that Nicola Peitz
is the daughter of
Jewish billion-
aire business-
man Nelson
Peitz, 67,
chairman and
CEO of Triarc
Companies Inc.,
and his non-
Claudia and Nelson
Jewish second
Peitz
wife, Claudia,
a former Ford model whom Nicola
greatly resembles. The few bio details
Nicola has released are consistent
with her being Nelson's daughter.
Nelson Peitz has 10 children in all.
Dark Comedy
Also opening July 2 is Cyrus, a dark
comedy that, frankly, edges closer to
the "creepy line" than other recent
film comedies that have featured
some of actors who co-star in Cyrus.
John C. Reilly plays John, a guy
who is still friends with his ex-wife
Jamie (Catherine Keener). At Jamie's
urging, John goes with her to a party,
and there he meets Molly (Marisa
Tomei). They hit it off.
The problem is
Cyrus, played by
26-year-old Jonah
Hill (Get Him to the
Greek). He is Molly's
son – a 21-year-old
musician who still
lives at home and is
Jonah Hill
not willing to "share"
his mother with
anyone. The film has garnered good
reviews.