The Here and Now
Robert Cohen, Julie Metz (Artist), Erich HobbingBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
The Here and Now is the story of a chance encounter and the tumult that ensues when opposites (or apparent ones) turn into strange attractors. Samuel Karnish, a no-longer-quite-so-young editor at a Manhattan newsmagazine, has watched his career run aground, his marriage disintegrate, and his worldview shrink almost to the vanishing point. On the flight to his best friend Warren Pinsky's third wedding, he finds himself thrust into an awkward friendship with a young Hasidic couple from Brooklyn, a friendship that leads him on a strange and provocative odyssey and sends him reeling in the direction of what may be his truest self. As we are drawn in to the lives of this unlikely threesome, we see the moral confusions and crossed purposes that threaten believers and nonbelievers alike with estrangement from others and themselves.Synopsis
The Here and Now is the story of a chance encounter and the tumult that ensues when opposites (or apparent ones) turn into strange attractors. Samuel Karnish, a no-longer-quite-so-young editor at a Manhattan newsmagazine, has watched his career run aground, his marriage disintegrate, and his worldview shrink almost to the vanishing point. On the flight to his best friend Warren Pinsky's third wedding, he finds himself thrust into an awkward friendship with a young Hasidic couple from Brooklyn, a friendship that leads him on a strange and provocative odyssey and sends him reeling in the direction of what may be his truest self. As we are drawn in to the lives of this unlikely threesome, we see the moral confusions and crossed purposes that threaten believers and nonbelievers alike with estrangement from others and themselves.
Publishers Weekly
A disaffected New Yorker finds his life changed by a chance encounter with an Orthodox Jewish couple. (Jan.)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
A disaffected New Yorker finds his life changed by a chance encounter with an Orthodox Jewish couple. (Jan.)Library Journal
Samuel Karnish, a science editor for a New York newsmagazine, needs a focus. His marriage has failed, his current relationship has soured, and his job is suffering the onset of devolution. On a plane to Houston to attend a friend's third wedding, Karnish meets Aaron and Magda Brenner, who are Hasidic Jews. The Brenners befriend Karnish, who is half-Jewish, and an awkward friendship ensues. Angst-filled Karnish is seeking a niche of his own. The Brenners have ritual and a traditional religious outlook, and are part of their Hasidic enclave in Brooklyn. Childless in a community where fecundity is greatly valued, the Brenners are going to Houston to seek fertility help for Aaron. Magda eventually becomes involved with Karnish in an unlikely set of circumstances. Although Cohen's (The Organ Builder, LJ 6/15/88) story is sadly lacking in verisimilitude, he does examine believers and nonbelievers and their respective lifestyles and what happens when they intermingle in an exuberant, often comic way. For larger public libraries.-Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.Anne Roiphe
[Cohen] makes the heart beat faster, he makes you roar with laughter, he makes you feel the hot breath of the real thing, good writing, on your neck.—The Jerusalem Report