A Disorder Peculiar to the Country

Ken Kalfus is a great writer. I don't understand where all the bad and so-so reviews are coming from. I found myself laughing out loud throughout almost the entire book. Who cares if the characters were annoying, crazy, or cynical? Don't tell me you couldn't relate to them, or at least know someone like them. This book is so funny because it is so real. The dialogue is spot on. If you enjoy the writings of Nick Hornby or Jonathan Safran Foer, then I bet you would like this book too.

In A Disorder Peculiar to the Country Ken Kalfus brilliantly explores faith-based hatred unleashed on the battlefield of marriage, and the way public life invades the private. The writing is often very funny about characters whose lives contain little joy but who are nevertheless portrayed with real compassion. This book is a rare achievement.

This is a wonderful and gripping comic novel in which events of recent times (the novel opens on Sept. 11, 2001) are entwined with a bitter divorce battle. The divorcing couple becomes a metaphor for the warring civilizations (they can't even rememebr anymore why they're at war) and just when you worry there's no way to wrap it up coherently, Kalfus comes up with a truly brilliant ending. One of the best new novels I have read in years. BTW, this has one of the tackiest cover designs I have ever seen. Please DON'T judge this book by its cover.

Everything about this book was unexpected and revealing. Kalfus shatters our ideas about heroism in the wake of tragedy and shows in hilarious detail how we can't help but be who we are: a nation of self-obsessed individuals who only contend with the world around when our own inner turmoil doesn't get in the way. You have to read this book.

...but if it isn't a requirement that one actually read a book before "reviewing" it, then I'll say this: I heard an interview with the author on NPR. He pointed out that the "national mourning" aspect of 9/11 is only one way to relate to what happened--that putting that somber blanket over it all (as he said Oliver Stone's movie does) takes away from the truth of people's varied reactions, which (no surprise) can as easily be personal and selfish as noble and compassionate. In Israel, a country long used to terrorist attacks, the people are encouraged to continue to live... to not live in fear. But here, we have been urged to live in fear, even though no one can tell us exactly what to be afraid of. I'm looking forward to reading the book. Then maybe I'll write a real review.