Like Never Before

I thought these stories were very nearly perfect. The language is so subtle and controlled, and the story's ultimate meanings are sometimes surprising but inevitable. I know people like these characters - people who are complicated and imperfect but actually just fine. Read Leah, the longest story in the book, it's amazing. I would have to say the Lyon story and the final one (8 rabbis on the roof?) add the least to the book, but certainly don't detract from it. PS: Yes, he is Jewish, and yes, that's his real name.

This is a remarkable collection. "Lyon" is a subtle, lowkey story that captures the horror of the Holocaust in a single incident. The characters in this book ultimately provide a moving portrait of a Jewish family in the 1960s and thereafter.

With only two collections out, Havazelet has quickly earned a place in my mind as a must read author. This series of related stories paints a painfully clear picture of a sometimes sad, sometimes humorous but always spectacular world of one 3 generations of a Jewish family. An accurate portrait of the struggles of culture and assimilation in America. The characters are so real you can feel their breath when you read.

This book is unlike any I have read in recent years. It contexts individuals who are set against a modern, fairly dark background who are connnected, often negatively, with the traditions and history of their families (typically Europen Jewish immigrants from religious backgrounds). It is beautifully written, provides bite-size stories that are easily read and takes you away to places that are unusual.Excellent!

Like all the best collections, this one's bigger than the sum of its parts. These are principally the stories of a man named Birnbaum and his son, David, a couple of emotional amputees struggling to grow new limbs. The process is fascinating, unsettling, funny and, in the end, moving. A great read, and one that lingers long after turning the last page. --A Reader in Fallbrook, California