The Believers

I loved this book and everything about it. The prose glides with grace, and Zoe Heller's characters are so true to life. This is charismatic reading at its best. The strange [or not so strange] thing is that I never truly entered the Litvinoff's home, but I carefully observed every one of the main character's activities. I revisited the West Side of Manhattan and was reminded of what life may be like there. Fortify yourselves before meeting Audrey and Joel Litvinoff. They are left-wing liberals and seem to believe in their causes. Naturally, speak to your physician first, and then take some B Complex, Vitamin C and all the immunity-fighting vitamins you are able to tolerate. Believe me, I know these people. I really do! The `Audreys' on the West Side have the ability to skewer you. They guess your weight, measure your dress size, judge your tastes, and usually have biting wits. If one wants to be entertained, one generally will dine with these people. When the reader becomes familiar with Audrey, Rosa. Karla, and Lenny, Joel has been felled by a series of Cardio-Vascular Accidents. We come to know Joel, for the most part, through the women in his life. There is Audrey - there is always Audrey. Then, there are the two daughters Rosa and Karla. Rosa is seeking her roots while Karla is, also, on a journey of her own. Lenny, well, Lenny appears to try to stay 'clean.' There was an almost tender moment between Audrey and Karla that is embedded in my memory. Audrey makes one statement to Karla and with this one statement, Audrey redeems herself. I could have reached into this book and hugged her! Sometimes, Mothers do know what they are talking about. I am purposely not stating too much. Future readers should really read this with knowing as little as possible. Suffice it to state that the reader will be in the hands of a master storyteller. I highly recommend this intelligent book. It is filled with pathos, as well as how people may become bonded to their intellectual pursuits.

I really like Zoe Heller's story telling, and this was a good book. She has the uncanny ability to write about characters that she doesn't really like. It's strange but makes for interesting reading. I have to say, that the characters in this book, esp. the mother, were unlikeable but I don't mean that in a bad way. The story is still there and it's very intriguing, it's just that you have little sympthay for the characters. Having said that, let me say, that if you like really good writers, you can't go wrong with this one. She's just fantastic.

I've been obsessed with Notes on a Scandal for years but The Believers blows me away...such biting, intelligent satire of contemporary society, complete with the kinds of characters everyone loves to hate. This book is honest and brutal and smart. I only wish I hadn't had to wait five years! I love Heller's singular voice, and think she's a shoe-in for the Booker Prize and every other literary accolade. You MUST read this book, I cannot get it out of my head!

Hyperactivist parents, the father, Joel, a defender of terrorists and leftists, and his wife Audrey, a strident, politically inflexible true believer, are at the center of this story of a floating family seeking ballast. Karla, a plump married social worker, is the least loved of Joel and Audrey's three children, constantly picked on by her mother, and yet she clings to the family and staunchly defends her mother's cruelty. Karla is in a loveless marriage and filled with self disgust at her body, believing she is unlovable, until she is approached by an Egyptian newstand owner who shows her otherwise. Rosa turns from a disappointing commitment to the Cuban revolution to a growing interest in Orthodox Judaism. Though some of the practices and beliefs are difficult for her to incorporate into her existing life and belief system, she takes successive steps to immerse herself in a life her parents reject unequivocably, since they themselves have, as the author puts it, "some ancestral tie" to the religion. If only she had taken up Buddhism or Hinduism, laments her shocked mother. But Judaism? Finally, there is the adoptive ne'er do well son Lenny, a drug addict and scrounger. He has failed 100 rehab programs. He is the only child Audrey loves; for her daughters she never was able to summon much maternal sympathy, and she shamelessly enables his addiction. Audrey as you may see is a most obnoxious character. Rosa, despite her search for a meaningful life, is not very pleasant, either, rejecting people out of hand. Rosa devotes her working life to a club for inner city girls, where the girls are told over and over they are "special". Rosa knows the girls are "resolutely unspecial" and that they are being sold a bill of goods. In fact, this novel is about people who are being fooled and people who are fooling them, and people who are deceiving themselves. Zoe Heller is a superb writer, she has bite and edge and a keen eye for character flaws. She could have had an expert go over the Orthodox Jewish scenes more carefully -there are a number of jarring errors. The religious women awaiting the men's return from synagogue Friday night would not be drinking lemonade - one does not eat or drink from sundown to kiddush on Friday night. But there are some subtle touches, for example in the first chapter when Joel meets Audrey's parents. Joel assumes the Polish parents and Audrey are speaking Polish together. This shows Joel's utter alienation from all European Jewish roots, that he doesn't even recognize the language of Eastern European Jews, which is Yiddish. Polish Jews would never speak Polish together, and I'm sure Zoe Heller knows that. The author has produced a highly interesting, literate, skillfully woven multipart tale. I was most intrigued by the story of Rosa, who comes to the realization that the underprivileged children she has been trying to save are unsalvageable, and she turns closer to Orthodox Judaism to find a more meaningful way of livin

When ultra-liberal defense attorney Joel Litvinoff succumbs to a stroke, falling into a coma, his family is burdened with all the sorrows and anxieties that usually accompany such misfortunes. But the Litvinoff "tribe" is anything but typical. There's wife Audrey, the waspish, strident English ex-pat who viewed motherhood as a distraction, and first child Rosa, who is struggling rather blindly to live up to her parents' socialist principles. Karla is the second-born, beaten down to self-loathing by her upbringing, her husband, and her chronic weight problem. Finally, Lenny, adopted (read "rescued") at age 4, the only one who stimulates Audrey's maternal feelings, and the poster child for learned helplessness. The three Litvinoff siblings are in their 30's now. The Believers is a character-driven satire of a novel, written with psychological insight and, at times, biting humor. Author Heller displays a fine mastery of dialog, wit, and irony. There is not a single extraneous word between these covers. The Litvinoffs, among themselves, have enough emotional problems to support an army of mental health workers. No one, no matter how loved, is spared the vitriol of Audrey's zingers, and gradually, the wellspring of her bitterness reveals itself. While it is often uncomfortable to read about their inner turmoil, injections of sanity are provided by supporting characters, most notably Audrey's friend Jean and mother-in-law Hannah, and Karla's friend Khaled. Heller makes the uneasiness well worthwhile with a brilliant, authentic ending. Perhaps she'll write more about these people; I certainly hope that's the case.