Light Fell

This is a book I simply couldn't give enough stars to! Evan Fallenberg is a superb writer and a man with great insight into his characters. When they speak, they come alive. The book tells the story of an Israeli family man, Joseph Licht, who falls in love with his (male) rabbi. At first it looks as though it'll be a book about the struggles the two men face as homosexuals in the religious Orthodox community. But there's an early twist that sets up a wonderful family drama between Joseph and his five sons, with a wonderfully nuanced role for his ex-wife. Plotting, character and style all score maximum points. It's truly an inspiring work.

It's amazing to me that the author is a straight man, though I note he has acknowledged authorities on Jewish gay issues. The prose is mellifluous, picking you up and carrying you along so that the writing alone is a joy; the plot only adds to it. If you are gay and Jewish, particularly if you grow up in a household with any degree of religious observance, this book will mesmerize you on many levels. From his beginning as a "conventional" intellectual, balancing his studies with a family of five highly diverse boys and his wife, to his metamorphosis to his independence as a gay man trying to reconnect with his children, the story amazes and spellbinds.

It takes place in Israel, and breaches daring new ground. The struggle between the lure and pull of Jewish sources and love of another soul are tangible and delicately depicted. Yes, one can have a love affair with study and meaning. The struggle of someone at the critical age of 50, and the meeting with his adults sons, who are people struggling to define themselves in light of their father's choices. The meeting between the father and his adults sons rings true with painful accuracy, the anger, the expections and the disappointments and surprises. Some amazing story telling takes place, because the characters each tell a story of the human condition, which is heart wrenching and real, and thus they get to know each other, and we do too. So the author is setting the scene, and we are invited to a table heaving with home made delicacies which we have been a participant in their creation,but the characters themselves do the story telling. We, as readers, learn about the power of storytelling as a tool for breaking down the isolation between human beings, generations, sexual preferences, and those with different beliefs and abilities. I loved the exposee of a woman with special needs being more developed in love than those who are "typical." Highly recommended. Bravo!

Fallenberg, Evan. "Light Fell", Soho Press, 2008. Fathers and Sons, Sex and Sexuality Amos Lassen Evan Fallenberg begins his literary career with a beautiful first novel, "Light Fell". The title is borrowed from the Babylonian Talmud where the expression "light fell" appears three times and used to show that beauty and desire give us reason to reflect on the true nature of life. Joseph Licht, a professor of literature, yearned to reconnect with the five sons that he deserted when he realized that he was in love with another man, Rabbi Yoel Rosenzweig. Written in flashback, we meet Licht when he invites his sons to come to celebrate his 50th birthday in Tel Aviv in 1996. We are then taken back twenty years when Licht, a married father of five, realizes that he is gay and falls in love with an intellectual and charismatic married rabbi. Licht left his marriage and his sons as well as his Orthodox Jewish religion to go after the man he loved. The results are heart-breaking as well as extreme--his wife is left with the ultimate feeling of loss, his sons are forced to deal with the issues of loss of self-esteem and worth and begin to embark on the roads of fanaticism to national causes and religion. While this is going on, Fallenberg gives us a look at modern Israeli life which includes peeks at academia and the gay culture of the country. When Joseph Licht left his wife Rebecca, he also left his father and his farming community where he grew up. When he looks back at the affair twenty years later, he finds that the result of his leaving are not only still with him but with everyone that he was close to. When he plans to reunite with his sons at his apartment in Tel Aviv (which he shares with another man who is out of town), he brings up memories that affect everything that he does. In preparing for this reunion, both he and his sons are forced to confront what is, what was, and what might have been. Yoel Rosenzweig, the object of Licht's love did not know he was gay; he was, in fact, like Licht, married. Soon after the affair began, Rosenzweig, filled with guilt, took his own life. Licht took this loss very, very hard and ended his relationship with his wife and sons. After having lived 30 years as an Orthodox Jew, he stopped observing. Twenty years after his affair with the rabbi, Joseph Licht is sophisticated and enjoys a good life with his Brazilian lover, Pepe. He has become a complicated person but still wavers between boy and man in many of the things that he does. One of the amazing aspects of this novel is the way Fallenberg presents the characters that represent a cross-section of Israeli society. Licht's sons are the new Israel as can be seen by the paths they have taken in life. One is a plumber, another, an army officer, yet another, a settler and builder, and the two others, a male model and a yeshiva student. They each have problems and, in facing their father, two decades later, they are not sure how all of this will work. Asi

The protagonist, Joseph Licht, who lives on a religious moshav in Israel with his wife and five sons, is drawn into a close emotional and physical relationship with his idol, a serious and highly-regarded religious scholar, himself married and a father. The repercussions on both their families form the focus of this sensitive story. It is very moving to see how Josesph battles to maintain a good relationship with his sons as they are growing up, with very limited success until their renewed gathering at Joseph's 50th birthday celebration dinner in their honor. Evan Fallenberg's flowing prose navigates us admirably through the complexities of these relationships, against the background of Israeli moshav life in the 1970s, and later, Tel Aviv in the 1990s. A powerful and thought-provoking book, lifting us well above the usual banalities of gay relationships.