Ladies & Gentleman, the Original Music: Of the Hebrew Alphabet and Weekend in Mustarra

I agree completely with the other reviews. The only negative is that I would like the stories developed much further (a novel).

Curt Leviant, author of critically acclaimed novels that include "Partita in Venice" and "The Yemenite Girl," has written two engaging novellas. The main character, Dr. Isaac Gantz, a musicologist, suspensefully narrates the discovery of the music of the Hebrew alphabet in the first novella, "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Original Music of the Hebrew Alphabet." While traveling in Communist Budapest, the fledgling Doctor feeling the pressure of the college's publish or perish paradigm needs something worthy for publication. He meets Ferdinand Friedman, perhaps a madman, who holds the fabled Holy Grail of Jewish music history. Leviant holds your attention without any apparent effort or unbelievable scenes to move the plot forward. There is no hyperbole present here despite the novella's fantastic theme of sacred music that dates from the first man, Adam. And the ending, although not tying loose ends, is satisfying. Leviant's writing throughout is often poetic and bountiful with numerous crisp images and humor for such a slender book. The second novella, "Weekend in Mustara," begins "I found the craggy zigzag peaks, visible everywhere in the city, both awesome and disconcerting, a kind of pressure on the soul." The author is the protagonist as he searches the fictional island Mustara for the writings of 11th century Jewish poet Yehuda Halevi. A fast-paced tempo quickly entraps the reader in Leviant's obsessive thoughts to procure any material on the poet. He says, "My life's work. For years I've been studying his songs and poetry." Of course the island and its cast of offbeat characters becomes an obstacle for Leviant's search. Several plot twists keep the reader's attention, but the ending leaves one frustrated after the 80-page buildup. Bohdan Kot

I am in awe of the incredible richness of this slender book -- of its artistry; its grand design; the breadth of its imaginings; the sometimes limpid,sometimes electric language; the hidden insights shing through twists of plot; the tricks, the jokes, the games.Leviant is worthy of the inner circle -- the first ring of authors who need no first names. He's been compared,in his inventiveness, in his playfulness, in his freedom from the ordinary bonds of fiction, to Joyce, Kundera, Nabokov, Borges, Bellow.But comparisons to the contrary, Leviant is an original. He's hard to categorize. He is a wildly mystical writer -- and more. He is a wildly comic writer -- and more. He is a deeply learned writer -- and more. He is an experimental post-modernist -- and more. This multiplicity of gifts makes his books rich and dense and rewarding.