Fabulous Small Jews

From the Publisher

"Epstein, always a graceful writer, also happens to possess a stand-up comic's gift for punch lines..."—Diane Cole The New York Times Book Review

"Epstein has compiled a collection of short stories as thoughtful and arresting as its title . . . Gratifying and genuine . . ." Publishers Weekly

The Los Angeles Times

Joseph Epstein has a light touch, which allows the readers to make their own meaning from his stories. — Susan Salter Reynolds

The New York Times

In his 15th book and second collection of stories, Epstein shows a light touch and ironic tone, but the chief emotions his characters display are regret, resignation, resentment and bitterness. — Diane Cole

Publishers Weekly

Switching gears after his nonfiction hit, Snobbery, Epstein has compiled a collection of short stories as thoughtful and arresting as its title (from a poem by Karl Shapiro). Whether they are in a nursing home, recovering from the loss of a spouse of 50 years, or looking back at marriages, shortcomings or missed opportunities, Epstein's characters are quirky, witty, resentful, fearful and cautiously hopeful as they face their future, or whatever they have left of it, in a world in which all the rules have changed. What distinguishes them as Jews in this universal situation is a certain wry outlook, a vernacular turn of phrase that carries the tang of its Yiddish origin, and a tendency to philosophize about the deeper questions of existence. "Coming In with Their Hands Up" is a touching tale of a bloodthirsty divorce lawyer who encounters heartbreak in his own marriage. In "Postcards," Seymour Hefferman, an acidulous and malicious failed poet, anonymously castigates cultural eminences when they offend his sensibilities, signing a Jewish name instead of his own; he finally gets his comeuppance. The eponymous Felix Emeritus, a cautious Buchenwald survivor who has never asked much of life, meets in an old-age home a bitter man who can't surmount his dark view of human nature. Mostly settled in Chicago, these 17 characters are no heroes, only reflective personalities-little people with big opinions-who have made their share of sacrifices. Like his emotionally candid, low-key protagonists, Epstein is intrinsically honest. Gratifying and genuine, this collection examines all sorts of responses to the encroachment of old age on human dignity. (July 7) Forecast: The wide audience who enjoyed Epstein's insights into human nature in Snobbery will find him equally acute here. The book should enjoy brisk sales. Author tour. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

How does a writer address issues of disease, divorce, and death without being totally depressing? In these 17 stories, Epstein (Snobbery: The American Version) not only tackles this challenge but succeeds admirably by writing with charm and sensitivity. Epstein's gentle humor often belies his subject matter-moving into a nursing home, for instance, which is explored in "Loss of Words" and "Felix Emeritus." Other stories deal with death and dying ("Love and the Guiness Book of World Records" and "Don Juan Zimmerman"), the dangers of artist worship ("The Third Mrs. Kessler," "Executor," and "Master Ring"), and the sorry consequences of affairs and divorce. Thus, in "Saturday Afternoon at the Zoo with Dad," a father must explain years of absence to his two children, and in "Uncle Jack," a man recounts the effect on his life of his mother's lover. Through these vignettes, a range of universal themes is brought down to earth in a touching and thoughtful way. Highly recommended.-Josh Cohen, Mid-Hudson Lib. Syst., Poughkeepsie, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Literary influence suffuses, and intermittently cramps, the 17 nonetheless very readable stories from the former American Scholar editor and cultural critic (Snobbery, 2002, etc.). Their turf is Chicago, and their characters are middle-aged to elderly urban Jews bedeviled by waning or vanished physical and mental powers and the further debilitating spectacle of encroaching mortality. Visions of Bellow's loquacious hustlers and Singer's morose, sardonic retirees dance through the reader's head in such generously detailed stories as "Felix Emeritus," about a Holocaust survivor and literary scholar whose considerable experience of life is unexpectedly broadened when he enters an old-age home, and "Family Values," which incisively contrasts an aging underachiever with his charismatic, compulsively dishonest older brother. Epstein's clarity and directness are also reminiscent of Louis Auchincloss, particularly in two subtly convoluted stories focused on both the legacy and the image of Henry James: a revelation of the moral choices made by an eminent critic's disciple ("The Executor") who must deal with his late mentor's accomplished but defamatory poems; and a reconstruction of the sensibility of a revered author who might have been a closeted anti-Semite ("The Master's Ring"). A few pieces are thinly developed, or trail away inconclusively (e.g., "Coming In with Their Hands Up," "Freddy Duchamp in Action," "Saturday Afternoon at the Zoo with Dad"). And several are gems, notably a fine tale about a self-effacing bachelor's wary approach to late-life love and marriage ("Don Juan Zimmerman"); an explicit homage to Bellow's Herzog in the figure of a failed poet whose habit of sending unsignedcrank messages to strangers condemns him to solipsism and loneliness ("Postcards"); and the lovely "A Loss for Words," about an aged widow in the early stages of Alzheimer's who forms an emotionally sustaining "doubles-team" with a crippled former tennis player. A mixed second collection (after The Goldin Boys, 1991), but, on the whole, Epstein's most successful foray into fiction yet.