The Believers

Mar 23, 2009 Corny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Zoe Heller weaves a wonderful tale of a dysfunctional family which loses its glue when its patriarch is felled by a stroke in the first chapter. The characters are believable and, for the most part, not very admirable. They struggle against each other, their surroundings, and finally against their dark sides. Audrey, the bereaved wife, with the mouth from Hell is counterintuitively a sympathetic character. Karla battles a weight problem, and Lenny a drug addiction while Rosa contemplates returni...more

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Sep 30, 2009 marg rated it 1 of 5 stars

I did not get this book AT ALL. Having read and enjoyed Notes on a Scandal (and if you can get past THAT premise you're good to go for just about anything) I was sure I would like her new one.
Well. For one thing, while she is an eloquent writer with a nice vocabulary, she seems to have fallen into this new wave writing style of 'how many details can I toss in to seem perceptive?' Yes theoretically I could write aobut my daily commute in my novel and tell you about how my metro card didn't go thr...more I did not get this book AT ALL. Having read and enjoyed Notes on a Scandal (and if you can get past THAT premise you're good to go for just about anything) I was sure I would like her new one.
Well. For one thing, while she is an eloquent writer with a nice vocabulary, she seems to have fallen into this new wave writing style of 'how many details can I toss in to seem perceptive?' Yes theoretically I could write aobut my daily commute in my novel and tell you about how my metro card didn't go through the first time, much to the dismay of the people behind me, and how the steps were filthy and Ir an down only to just miss my train and how frustrating that is, but, um, do we care? I think that reality TV has had a strong impact on what we think we need to express in the written word.
The second issue I take with this work is its characters - none of them are likeable. The mom, Audrey, is disgusting. She has only the nastiest things to say, ostensibly unprovoked, to her best friend, husband, and kids. There is nothing charming about her harshness, it is only shocking and out of place. Her kids range from the same endearing personality to completely vapid and passive. One character to the next oozed dysfunction and edge with no redeeming feature. In addition, after you are so weirded out by the extent of Audrey's obnoxiousness (like when she yells at her husband's mistress 'you whore' and her daughter just assumes she's the one being addressed, because, you know, that's normal for them) which seems to have no explanation, Heller GIVES you an explanation. two thirds through and Heller's narrative which is all aobut tell and not show interrupts to say, sotto voce, this plucky woman uses obnoxiousness as a defense mechanism, perhaps now it has gone too far. Well that nice little decoy didn't endear me much either.
The overall premise is that Audrey who, when you first meet her, seems incredibly boring, seems to fall rather quickly and inexplicably for loud mouthed slick lawyer (a Jew, go figure - thanks Zoe) and they decide to marry after one night together, and go save the world. You then meet their kids forty years later who are either addicted to heroine, sadly overweight and unhapily married, or snippy and annoying. The dad has a stroke and now a big secret (sadly predictable) is unfolded - weirdly enough, this is supposed to be a huge catalyst and yet no one in the book seems to actually care or respond to it in any effective way.
Rosa, the oldest, finds Judaism much to her mother's rather opbvious disgust, and goes to Monsey for Shabbos to experience a weekend that I was appalled by. She is bossed around by some little snot who waits outside the bathroom door to make sure she doesn't turn off the light then has a freak out when Rosa forgets and turns it off, then makes sure to tell everyone about it, and then she gets reprimanded for it (after already being reprimanded for getting lost and missing candle lighting - yup that's exactly how we treat someone we are introducing to the faith). She is chastised for carrying a toothbrush to the bathroom (we don't do that on Shabbos - it counts as work!) and she is called a goy by one of the younger girls. She is told rather plainly that she is a man hating woman's libber by asking one of the girls if she will be having a bat mitzvah since 'the orthodox don't do that, only the watered down, we feel left out reform.' The family seems to care more about the carpet and the matching curtains than their guest. Having spent countless Shabboses (some in Monsey) with people who are new or flirting with the faith, I don't know where she got this from but it was so completely unrealistic and overblown - generally if you are that hellish you do not look to bring people into your home like this, and the guest doesn;t generally want to return. Somehow she manages to come back for Rosh Hashana though Gd only knows why (Heller certianly doesn't explain) and we are treated to interesting yet wholly unrealistic dialogue between Rosa and the rabbi about Judaism - so I guess this is where the belief stuff comes in, but that was it - there was nothing else, just BD Dayehu style of dailogue (cue diatribe here for several paragraphs that no human would actually speak) that somehow does it for Rosa such that she is wearing a 'fetchingly biblical' headscarf at the end of the novel (without actually having gotten married - glad you know about the tooth brushing, Zoe, maybe get your facts checked about hair covering).
The book doesn't appear to be about anything - there are a lot of red herrings and a lot of unrealistic character shifts which I guess are meant to depict growth yet it doesn't appear that anyone changes for the better or that the changes can be attributed to anything, or, for the life of me, how this is about believers?? It seems to be about misdirected and mistaken people fumbling through life.(less)

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Sep 30, 2009 Sanchia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Set in Heller’s adoptive US The Believers is a funny, highly original and adroit satire of New York’s liberal elite. The title, a wicked irony in itself, belies the books central characters, the Litvinoff tribe - a family of hard line antitheists who have rejected their Jewish heritage and proudly live by socialist values. The father Joel is a charismatic civil rights lawyer, his wife Audrey a raging pot smoking ultra-leftist. Their façade is shattered when Joel suffers a massive stroke and sudd...more

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Jan 08, 2009 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Book club selection for December.

I really liked Heller's writing, and her portraits of the characters were so unsparing and insightful. Unfortunately, some of the actions and dialogue don't ring true. The plot becomes a bit mundane and predictable, and only the completely outrageous and rather unbelievable actions of the protagonist(anti-hero?)keep the reader interested. I really like some of the story lines, but I feel like it would have been more effective as a collection of short stories rel...more

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Sep 30, 2009 Beverly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary, british

Not as good as Notes on a Scandal. This is a readable story of a politically progressive New York Jewish family whose celebrity lawyer father suffers a stroke. As he lays in a coma, his family scurries around trying to come to terms with their own lives. Sloppily written (edited?). Heller thinks that Americans say things like "I dare say", "have it", and "try it on". One of the daughters moves into Orthodox Judaism; Heller also doesn't know that unmarried Orthodox women do not cover their heads....more

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Aug 06, 2009 Veronica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Zoe Heller excels at misanthropy. It can be funny (Everything You Know) or cringe-making (Notes on a Scandal) but here it just seemed to go a little too far. I felt like shaking Heller and saying, "You know, there are some people in the world who are kind and generous!". Not in Heller's world there aren't. Notes on a Scandal created a wonderful uneasiness, because I had a sneaking sympathy with Barbara while still being creeped-out by her behaviour. Here, Audrey is so horrible that you cannot im...more

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May 25, 2009 Katie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'll get back to you on this one, but my initial feeling is that while the prose can be wonderfully descriptive ("Up close, the three men were a small anthology of body odors"), the characters are so AWFUL, so sure of themselves in their political stances and moral superiority that even though it's clear that the author shares my opinion of them I am not sure I will be able to make it through.

****

It took me awhile to get back to this review, because I wanted to think about why I disliked the ch...more

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Sep 30, 2009 Vicki rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-for-grown-ups, recommended-for-ladies

I read "Notes on a Scandal" and really liked it, so I was eager to read "The Believers", and enjoyed it very much. I wanted to slap most of the main characters -- they were totally selfish and clueless about the needs of others -- but they were also very real. Despite being very annoyed with these people, the writing was so wonderful that I wanted to just keep reading. This book would be great for discussion, I think. It has lots of meaty issues and characters with lots of flaws to talk about! K...more

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Aug 17, 2009 eb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Brilliant, mean, funny--but will I sound prissy if I complain that each and every American character speaks like a Brit? I don't get it. Where's the editor? Where's the kindly American friend who'll read a draft and say, "Zoe, I love this book, but Yanks don't say 'That's not been my impression,' we say, 'That wasn't my impression,' and we don't say 'Don't let's declare it a failure,' we say 'Let's not declare it a failure.'" It made me sad that this novel, which I loved so much, distracted me o...more

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Jul 25, 2009 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While this book was not as great as I'd hoped it would be, it reminds me that even disappointing novels are more engaging, vibrant and thought-provoking than bad TV. I didn't want to put it down. I felt the characters were a bit predictably static (and this wasn't part of some larger literary device), yet, they were all immediately familiar in an appealing way. I am a sucker for books that have something to do with leftist lawyers and their dysfunctional families (I loved reading Family Circle l...more

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Sep 30, 2009 Diana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow--I couldn't put it down--every character in this novel about a New York city family is so fully drawn and believable. The matriarch of the family, Audry, who is outlandish and entertaining, could have been cartoonish, but Zoe Heller deftly gives us insights into her behavior that make us accept her as a character. No one in the book is particularly loveable or noble, but that is what makes it so interesting, and fun. This book exposes people in all of their hyprocrisies and weaknesses, for b...more

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Sep 30, 2009 Briana rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this on the plane/in the airport yesterday in a few hours. It's a book full of characters who are either miserable or loathsome (or both), and it was fun to read in kind of a train wreck kind of way, but I can't really recommend it. I thought the satire of aging leftists in 9/11-era New York was overly broad, and was done much more effectively in The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud a few years ago. I really, really enjoyed Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller quite a bit, so this book was...more

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May 17, 2009 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One hundred pages in. I have often thought of Jane Austen as a bit too straitjacketed for my tastes, but you can always see--hell, you can feel--a ferocious rage at the hypocrisies and inanities and horrid behaviors of society, but coupled with a capacious compassion for all fools and foolishness. She really gets, but doesn't condemn, the horrible way people treat one another. I have often thought that, if alive in our era, Jane Austen would have kicked Kingsley Amis' ass.

Zoe Heller is without a...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Martin added it

Shelves: reading-group-book

Yet another book I wouldn't have read without a reading group meeting - and am glad I did.

Heller has a cast of character that are thoroughly unhappy, most of all by being caught in their own habits. On paper, this book sort of lacks everything that makes a good book: there is no real closure, no real breaking free for the characters; yes, there is some development, but for the most part, there is no happy end (at least that's how I felt). And not all characters are really fleshed out (the son, e...more

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Apr 21, 2009 seanat (elka) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

Like in Notes on a Scandal this was chocca full of unlikeable characters, but rather than put me off, I found it lots of fun.
As the characters developed and we learned more I may have even started caring for a few of them, routing for Karla, totally confused by Rosa.
Audrey, the most opinioned woman you would never want to meet went through the most upheaval and I am surprised to say I actually shed a tear for her at the end.
A very different read, funny , memorable and very difficult to put down...more

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May 21, 2013 Sam Quixote rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“The Believers”, Zoe Heller’s third novel, starts with the patriarch of the Litvinoff family, Joel, a successful American lefty solicitor, who has a stroke in court and goes into a coma. His wife Audrey is more or less the main character, an Englishwoman who moved to New York with Joel back in the 60s and has stayed ever since. Their children, Rosa, a strongly political woman recently converted to orthodox Judaism, Karla, a timid, overweight woman stuck in an unhappy marriage with a union organi...more “The Believers”, Zoe Heller’s third novel, starts with the patriarch of the Litvinoff family, Joel, a successful American lefty solicitor, who has a stroke in court and goes into a coma. His wife Audrey is more or less the main character, an Englishwoman who moved to New York with Joel back in the 60s and has stayed ever since. Their children, Rosa, a strongly political woman recently converted to orthodox Judaism, Karla, a timid, overweight woman stuck in an unhappy marriage with a union organiser who wants kids which Karla can’t provide for him, and Lenny, an adopted son and a junkie. When Joel goes into a coma, Berenice Mason, his mistress, comes out of the woodwork to announce that she and Joel have a lovechild together, much to the dismay of Joel’s family and to the unbridled fury of Audrey. That said, Berenice plays a very minor role in the novel - the book is mostly about the Litvinoff family dynamics.

There really isn’t a plot to speak of, this is a completely character driven novel. Instead we get to know the characters and their lives - Rosa’s search for her identity by exploring Judaism, Karla’s sudden true love manifesting when she least expects, and Audrey, stood above them all, tapping her foot impatiently, scowling, taking a drag on a spliff and commenting acidly on them all as the brilliantly realised matriarch of the brood.

The characters may be hard to like but their interactions are priceless and Audrey’s dialogue in particular is wonderfully withering - every time she appeared, I knew we’d get a great scene, usually between her and her worn out daughters, Karla and Rosa. While they may be a politically motivated family, we slowly see the contradictions in their behaviour and their true natures manifest themselves in small moments.

The book just sort of ends anticlimactically. Because there’s no plot, there’s no massive finale, and, with maybe one exception, none of the characters have an arc to speak of. And yet it’s totally satisfying - at least to me. Maybe it’s the way I read this book, taking my time with it, reading a few pages each day, spending weeks making my way through it instead of barrelling through in a day or two like I usually do. If I had bolted the book, I’m sure my opinion would be different. As it is, I really liked it.

The ability to stop and start and the lack of a plot is something I’m sure other readers who might not take the same slow approach I did, might pick out as qualities to dislike. It is a brave approach by Heller to present absolutely no urgency in this book. You can easily put it down at any moment because there really isn’t any hurry to keep reading to the end of the chapter - the characters aren’t really going anywhere, there’s no overbearing storyline forcing the characters into action, the pages tick by at a gentle pace. It’s not at all like Heller’s previous books, especially the brilliant “Notes on a Scandal” which became more and more tense as the novel wore on. “The Believers” is instead almost stubborn in its way of refusing to pander to the reader’s sensibilities of narrative fiction.

So make no mistake - this is not a book that will keep you in suspense, or keep you up late into the night because you just can’t wait to see what happens next. No, it’s a slow, measured read that rewards those who enjoy carefully and expertly written prose with fully realised characters. “The Believers” showcases a writer at the top of her game and it’s a remarkable masterclass in writing. It may be easy to put down but it’s just as easy to pick back up. (less)

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Dec 22, 2012 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Стоит полюбить автора за одно произведение, как непременно ждешь от него следующего шедевра. Самое комичное заключается в том, что этому практически никогда нет подтверждения. За редким исключением. Но таким исключением новый роман Зои Хеллер «Правдолюбцы», к сожалению, не стал. Вопреки ожиданиям – разочарование. На протяжении первых глав неотступно следует мысль: «Вот если бы это произведение было написано, скажем, лет 30-40 назад, то оно, наверное, пользовалось бы бешенной популярностью у сове...more Стоит полюбить автора за одно произведение, как непременно ждешь от него следующего шедевра. Самое комичное заключается в том, что этому практически никогда нет подтверждения. За редким исключением. Но таким исключением новый роман Зои Хеллер «Правдолюбцы», к сожалению, не стал. Вопреки ожиданиям – разочарование. На протяжении первых глав неотступно следует мысль: «Вот если бы это произведение было написано, скажем, лет 30-40 назад, то оно, наверное, пользовалось бы бешенной популярностью у советских читателей. У критиков определенного направления – так уж точно...» А сегодняшнее его прочтение, словно запоздавший обед из остывшего рагу по-американски, приготовленного в пресловутом мелтинг-пот.

Действие романа начинает увлекать, как ни странно, лишь с момента, когда один из главных героев, глава семейства, известный адвокат Джоел Литвинов, сходит со сцены. А вернее – со страниц повествования, впав в кому после инсульта. Именно с этого момента по-настоящему начинают вырисовываться и характеры, и взаимоотношения героев произведения.
Возьму на себя смелость предположить, что, не пойди Зои Хеллер на поводу желания написать полу-политический, полу-семейный роман, а сосредоточившись на столкновении характеров: Одри (жены Джоела), двух ее таких разных дочерей, Розы и Клары, приемного сына, Ленни, а также внезапно появившейся из «ниоткуда» во второй части романа подруги Одри – Джин (самое удачное, на мой взгляд столкновение: преданности и черствости), роман совершенно по-иному бы воспринимался. И действительно мог бы стать примечательным событием в англо-американской современной художественной литературе.

Да, столкновение характеров – вот, что действительно удачно получается у Зои Хеллер. Даже в пределах одной семьи, нет ни одного ее члена, который хоть сколь-нибудь был бы похож на другого, унаследовал бы гены, интересы, приверженности к туманным идеалам своих родителей. Не говоря уже о приемном сыне Литвиновых.

Джоел, ярый сторонник социалистических идей, умудряется впутать (именно впутать!) в их рамки все слои населения Америки: от бомжа до мафиози, - что лишний раз доказывает о его ложно-спекулятивной приверженности равенству и справедливости. Именно на этом базируется его желание стать известным адвокатом «угнетенных». Скандальное имя, так важное для многих американцев, становится идеей фикс. Побоку принципы нравственности: важно доказать, что он один из тех, кто состоялся как «сын свободной Америки». Будучи евреем по национальности, он и его супруга, Одри, почти что ярые антисемиты. Но одновременно они и ярые сионисты, и атеисты, и марксисты, - и вообще ЯРЫЕ «-ИСТЫ». И не важно, что за этими словами стоит. Главное идти против всего, что тебе навязывают с самого рождения: национальность, религию, страну и прочее… Но противоречие не только внешнее, но и внутреннее.

Особенно четко прослеживается оно в характере самой Одри, которая с презрением относится и к своей старшей дочере-толстушке, Кларе, и к младшей, Розе, не проявляя особой материнской любви ни к одной из них. Роза, не видя в принципе ничего целостного ни в быту, ни во взаимоотношениях родителей, начинает свои поиски Истины. Переступив сначала порог синагоги, а затем, протестуя против правил для женщин, прописанных в Торе, через ломку себя самой, через сопротивление ортодоксальным взглядам на жизнь женщины в настоящей еврейской семье, больше в отместку родителям, чем по убеждениям, она все-таки становится почти что такой же ярой приверженецей ортодоксального образа жизни еврейской семьи.

Жизнь семьи Литвиновых стремительно начинает катиться под гору с болезнью Джоела. Окончательно рушатся внутрисемейные связи, которые и без того зиждились лишь на стервозно-пофигистском характере Одри, держащей на поводу своих дочерей. Приемный сын давно и не без помощи самой матери, подсевший на наркоту, отбивается от общей стаи при первом удобном случае только, чтобы вернуться в круг, когда наступает конец связующей нити между Джоелом и Одри.

С ужасом понимаешь, что это далеко еще не конец, а только начало настоящей драмы, превратившейся на последних страницах романа в гротескную свистопляску. Но нам, увы, не дано о ней узнать больше, чем мы уже знаем…
© Elaine Karpos
(2010)(less)

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Nov 25, 2012 Jules rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, fiction, jewish-connections, modern-day-fiction, new-york

Personally, I loved this book and it had a great resonance with me.
I’ve previously read ‘Notes on a Scandal’ and liked it but this book is a far better and more satirical Heller read.

The protagonist Litvinoffs are an ethnically Jewish yet mainly atheist family who reside in and near to Manhattan, NYC. All of the family members are dysfunctional in their own way from Joel (the father) - a perfect Larry David type -(who is more ‘characterised’ than described via action due to sudden illness and e...more Personally, I loved this book and it had a great resonance with me.
I’ve previously read ‘Notes on a Scandal’ and liked it but this book is a far better and more satirical Heller read.

The protagonist Litvinoffs are an ethnically Jewish yet mainly atheist family who reside in and near to Manhattan, NYC. All of the family members are dysfunctional in their own way from Joel (the father) - a perfect Larry David type -(who is more ‘characterised’ than described via action due to sudden illness and eventual death) to Rosa one of the daughters who experiments with Orthodox Judaism much to the cynicism of other family members. In many ways, although the family strive to be socially liberal and deliberate ‘away from the mainstream’ outsiders, at the start of the book none of them can be described as happy and they suffer from disappointments and dissatisfactions that pervade their lives entirely.

Audrey the mother of the brood makes her first cameo appearance during the prologue. Before long it transpires that, as mother, with a sometimes raucous yet self-deprecating Joan Rivers-esque anti-Semitic dark humour, Audrey plays a pivotal role in leading her pack through the pitfalls of life. At times, her self-deprecation and caustic wit force a brand of humour that is near the knuckle, but a beautifully-crafted characterisation by Heller just manages to stay on the right side of what is acceptable and still cause intelligent and wry laughter as this lady waxes lyrical about life, fate and on just how shit things can get sometimes.

In terms of the reading experience, this book is easy to read and I got through it in about 8-10 hours of reading time over a three day period. It was a page turner and I loved exploring characters that largely leave the pathways of their life open to fate and chance when it allows. New York City and its pocket environments provide a subtle backdrop to the novel and the city is painted in a realistic light where good and bad are mixed and intertwined between the streets.

Ever hinted at is the chance for change and a subtle highlight of living life for oneself rather than adhering to the expectations of others. By the end of the novel, each character has experienced a major change in their lives due to making appropriate yet difficult choices and most of them seem more satisfied and settled after a bit of self-reflection.

This book is hugely recommended to those who love good, contemporary fiction and family dramas. I was bowled over by Audrey’s character and the warm and intelligent humour that this book provided in spades. A super read that is full of home truths.

(less)

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Nov 09, 2012 Kristin rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 04, 2012 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked Come, Thou Tortoise and Zoe Heller’s The Believers based on the Globe and Mail’s recommendations for 2010. Come to think of it I also read The Believer’s based on that list. Frankly, I’m coming to distrust their so-called “best” list. All three books have proved to be immediately engaging and with a definite “hook” that must make them marketable, but all of them fall flat, and none more than Heller’s The Believers.

Family dramas can be terrific, particularly if you’re into character (and...more I picked Come, Thou Tortoise and Zoe Heller’s The Believers based on the Globe and Mail’s recommendations for 2010. Come to think of it I also read The Believer’s based on that list. Frankly, I’m coming to distrust their so-called “best” list. All three books have proved to be immediately engaging and with a definite “hook” that must make them marketable, but all of them fall flat, and none more than Heller’s The Believers.

Family dramas can be terrific, particularly if you’re into character (and we all know I’m into character). The Corrections, Songs in Ordinary Times, A Prayer for Owen Meany, I mean really, there are some great family dramas. But The Believers wants so. much. to be one of the “great” family dramas that it ends up over-selling all of the quirkiness of its characters, all of their dramas and their triumphs. The mother, Audrey, is a total pill to everyone around her and to the reader. The fat, no-self-esteem daughter, Karla, is a wet dishrag of no spine. The feminist, activist, now-religious daughter, Rosa, is without direction and intention. The drug-using, mother-using, lowlife, Lenny, is a drug-using, mother-using, lowlife. And in the final twenty pages Audrey repents and (surprise) turns out to be a bang-up lady, just misunderstood and victim to her husband’s career and desires; Karla stands up for herself, leaves her husband and runs away with man who loves her because she is fat; Rosa follows her religious path with conviction; and Lenny is still a lowlife.

My difficulty is that while the novel gives a sense that these changes are taking place (though with a much limited sense of motivation - one sense is not enough to justify life changes), each character changes in isolation from one another. For a family drama there is a remarkable lack of change in the family dynamics, in the family member’s relationships with one another.

So. Close - slick writing, engaging plot. But not quite good - characters act in isolation and with limited motivation.(less)

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Apr 30, 2012 Elliot Ratzman rated it 4 of 5 stars

“We all do some hurtful shit in our lives from time to time…It’s part of what makes us human.” A limousine leftist family headed by a radical lawyer (based on Kunstler?) is thrown into turmoil by his untimely stroke and coma. He had said “self-contradiction is one of the occupational hazards of being an American progressive.” His wife, Audrey, is perhaps the nastiest knot of negativity I have ever encountered. Heller, the author of Notes on a Scandal, has ingeniously balanced the unbalanced turm...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 5 of 5 stars

Zoe Heller can write. She is a master of acerbic wit, denigration, parody. sarcasm, and layered complexity. She writes with a sensibility that I can only compare to varying musical keys. Her story vacillates from the minor keys to the major, from melodic to dissonant, sometimes in the same paragraph.

This novel is about the Litvinoff family. There is Audrey, the mother and matriarch. She has an attitude like spoiled meat. She "was always congratulating herself on her audacious honesty, her willin...more Zoe Heller can write. She is a master of acerbic wit, denigration, parody. sarcasm, and layered complexity. She writes with a sensibility that I can only compare to varying musical keys. Her story vacillates from the minor keys to the major, from melodic to dissonant, sometimes in the same paragraph.

This novel is about the Litvinoff family. There is Audrey, the mother and matriarch. She has an attitude like spoiled meat. She "was always congratulating herself on her audacious honesty, her willingness to express what everyone else was thinking. But no one...actually shared Audrey's ugly view of the world. It was not the truth of her observations that made people laugh, but their unfairness, their surreal cruelty" (p.53). No one is spared from her cruelty except her husband and her son, Lenny. Audrey wonders how she has become a harridan. "Once upon a time, her brash manner had been a mere posture - - a convenient and amusing way for an insecure teenage bride, newly arrived in America, to disguise her crippling shyness." (p189) "But somewhere along the way, when she hadn't been paying attention, her temper had ceased to be a beguiling party act that could be switched on an off at will. It had begun to express authentic resentments: boredom with motherhood, fury at her husband's philandering, despair at the pettiness of her domestic fate". (p. 189) "Her anger had become part of her. It was a knotted thicket in her gut, too dense to be cut down and too deeply entrenched in the loamy soil of her disappointments to be uprooted". (p. 190) Audrey's public persona is that she is the power behind the throne, Joel's muse. At heart, however, she knows she is not that. Had she not married Joel, she would have been relegated to a clerical job in England and probably never have left the provincial town where she was raised.

Joel has been a star in the ideological socialist battle, a protester at heart. He is an attorney who has championed the underdog whether guilty or innocent. He does this until the day he has a stroke while in the midst of a trial for an alleged Al Quaida sympathizer.

Rosa had been her father's star child, the one who appeared to take the family's ideological messages most to heart. She had lived in Cuba for four years, marched while a student at Bard college and wanted her father's approval. Lately, however, she has been toying with the idea of orthodox Judaism much to her parents' chagrin. Now, her Rabbi has asked her to make a commitment to Judaism.

Karla is a passive and quiet social worker, locked into a stale marriage to a union organizer who doesn't appreciate her. While growing up she was the lost child, the one who desperately sought, but rarely received attention. She is self-denigrating and worries constantly about her weight and her body image. Audrey doesn't help things by telling Karla how fat she is. Now Karla is finding herself falling in love with the owner of a newspaper kiosk near her work site and she is torn about what to do. Her husband wants to adopt a child and this is not something Karla is interested in doing.

Lenny is the adopted child. He is a n'eer do well with a history of drug addiction and several stints in rehab. He is Audrey's favorite, the one who she loves the most. She is enmeshed with him and is a great enabler, not helping him with his attempts to get clean and sober. In fact, she gives him money when she knows he'll be using it to buy drugs. She even smokes dope in from of him when he is desperately trying to remain clean and sober.

Joel is languishing in a coma and Audrey is resistant to turning off life support. All of a sudden, a secret is exposed that threatens the integrity of the family's beliefs about themselves. As readers, we are privy to the hypocrisies that abound before this secret. They, however, are not. How they deal with this secret, this new information, makes for an interesting situation.

This book is filled with complexities along with sympathetic yet unlikable characters. We are torn between laughing at them or laughing with them. I found myself thinking that many situations reminded me of when I was a child and a friend fell off a bike. I inadvertently found myself laughing even though I didn't want to and even though I wanted to help my friend. It was an automatic response, almost like a hiccup. This book creates the same sought of deep and primitive responses that arise before the facade of civilization has the time to sieve and sort. This is a grand book by a brilliant author.
(less)

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Feb 28, 2012 Candida Pugh rated it 2 of 5 stars

Heller is a competent, occasionally brilliant, writer in terms of clarity, metaphor, flow of her prose, although often tiresomely predictable. Her badly hidden message made this book annoying to me, as did a central character who takes up too much space for someone who makes you want to strangle her. The underlying assumptions/prejudices made me gnash my teeth by the end. She does a good job on didactic lefties and their hypocrisy, although Audrey might be a villain out of Dickens, so absolutely...more

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Feb 07, 2012 James Perkins rated it 5 of 5 stars

Despite the fact that this is a dismal, pessimistic novel, without much plot to speak of, and a cast of appallingly bleak and unhappy characters, I enjoyed it immensely. Primarily set in New York, it tells the tale of Audrey Litvinoff, a washed-up, aging political activist and her dysfunctional, adult family after her well-known, left-wing lawyer husband has a stroke. She is a bitter woman, and feels she it is her mission to insult everybody in it, the feverish anger of her youth, once a habit,...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Rafi Bloch rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was excellent. It switches points of view so that you get various points of insight into the Litvinoff clan. There is Audrey, the cantankerous wife of civil rights attorney, Joel Litvinoff. She lives in his shadow and had developed an acrid, partly sarcastic personality to deal with living in her husband's shadow. Joel suffers a stroke, and the family must come together in ways that were never asked of them before. Plus, there is a family secret that comes tumbling out of the closet, a...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Wendy Kobylarz rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: good-riddance

It's well-written.

It flows well.

The characters are all people I'd like to throw under a bus. I've heard it said that it's not the job of an author to create characters you want to be best friends with. Okay, so maybe there are authors who like to explore themes and big ideas, and in doing so create a story with a purpose beyond storytelling. And maybe not all characters should be likable because it won't create any conflict and the story will be kind of flat and boring. However, there are enough...more It's well-written.

It flows well.

The characters are all people I'd like to throw under a bus. I've heard it said that it's not the job of an author to create characters you want to be best friends with. Okay, so maybe there are authors who like to explore themes and big ideas, and in doing so create a story with a purpose beyond storytelling. And maybe not all characters should be likable because it won't create any conflict and the story will be kind of flat and boring. However, there are enough unlikable people in the world that I have to spend time with; why would I want to sit down and read a book where almost every main character is so loathsome? I swear, by the end of it I was laughing when something happened to piss Audrey off. I honestly don't understand it. Maybe there are families like that out there. But I don't want to know them.

Still, Heller writes well and these people are well-drawn. I also felt some emotions while reading this book (mainly disgust and annoyance, but also some compassion and empathy).

Also annoying is that the author uses British colloquialisms and slang from her American characters. The story takes place in NYC and the mother in the family is English, so I might be able to believe that the Litvinoffs - the family in question - got those phrases from her. But there are plenty of characters who have never set foot outside NYC who use the same expressions, particularly "meant to" in a way that Americans usually use "had to," "have to" and "gotta" (this isn't a direct quote, because I don't feel like taking the time to look one up, but it would read something like this "She was meant to go to the store for bananas" or "he was meant to clean up his mess"). I don't know if this is the editor's problem or the author's, but it became distracting after a while.

All in all if you have the book and don't mind wasting time with horrible characters/people, go for it. There is something compellingly readable about it. Sort of like watching a movie on Lifetime TV. (less)

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Aug 07, 2011 Yvonne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Clever, clever writing. The story didn't sound too enticing, but I loved it. Best thing I've read in a long time.

The Litvinoff's are leftist New Yorkers, mom Audrey and civil rights lawyer dad Joel spent their lives working for the good causes of the disenfranchised and became small c celebraties through their 'good works. Early in the story Joel has a stroke and remains in a coma. Audrey uses her considerable verbal skills as a weapon, often very humourously, to cut down anyone in her path. St...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Maya rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked it and thought she did a pretty good job for a Brit of describing America. FYI of note to some may be that she mentions Writers House obliquely (old communist party headquarters on 26th St.) I also thought prefacey first chapter showing us the meeting of Joel and Audrey was a good idea. Having that image of her as a young woman with life ahead of her then jumping ahead to old(er) woman with life behind her put an interesting spin on things.
Zoe Heller's writing reminded me a bit of Zadie...more

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Mar 31, 2011 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book and although the characters are not particularly likeable, they are vulnerable. Heller in her storytelling leaves it to the reader to draw their own conclusions.

The early meeting between Joel and Audrey, as told in the prologue, is strange in its own way. They both notice each other in a chance encounter and he pursues her to the point of insisting he travels with her to visit her family. You do not really understand what they want from one another as they are both awkwa...more I really liked this book and although the characters are not particularly likeable, they are vulnerable. Heller in her storytelling leaves it to the reader to draw their own conclusions.

The early meeting between Joel and Audrey, as told in the prologue, is strange in its own way. They both notice each other in a chance encounter and he pursues her to the point of insisting he travels with her to visit her family. You do not really understand what they want from one another as they are both awkward and stilted, until Audrey invites Joel to sleep with her. Joel than says that he should take her back to the States and marry her, and to his surprise she agrees. One is not sure whether they love each other at this stage. As noted later on in the book, Audrey admits she goes with him to escape her dull, ordinary life in London.

As the story commences we are taken forty years on and they are apparently 'happily' married with two children of their own and an adopted son. Audrey appears to be a very angry and aggressive person. We are told that this was a form of cover for her own shyness when she first arrived in New York, but this trait stayed for the rest of her years along with her colourful language and penchant for dope. The reader may wonder why her character is such, but she has had to put up with years of Joel's infidelities and the reports and comments about it in the papers. Audrey obviously has problems of her own, as she admits to her lack of maternal instincts in raising her own daughters. Towards the end of the book Rosa touches her mother's cheek to turn her face towards her to make her listen, a practise that Rosa has had to adopt with her mother from early childhood. Karla, the younger daughter has been discouraged by both parents from having high aspirations, leaving her with low self esteem and dietary issues. Why Audrey is maternally drawn to her loser, adopted son Lenny is a bit of a mystery. Is he filling a gap that Joel with all his infidelities cannot provide? Joel is obviously not drawn to Lenny and resents the energy Audrey expends on him in time and money. Lenny uses Audrey and slowly bleeds her for food, a bed and money, as she is soft with him.

The main story is that Joel is taken ill and his secret comes to light. For Audrey the fact that Joel's staff knew of this secret does not help Audrey's situation. Jean, Audrey's incredibly supportive friend is the most likeable and solid person in the story. She is such a stalwart to put up with Audrey's insults and general bad behaviour. Around all this we have Lenny's issues with drugs. Rosa has suddenly found her Jewish faith much to the derision of her parents and grandmother, and yet by Joel's dying bed Hannah (his Mother) is singing a Yiddish verse. Karla, is downtrodden by her overbearing husband Mike. A domineering, manipulative man who outwardly despises the Litvinoff's but demands to be at Joel's dying bedside and funeral service, to be seen (to his advantage) hanging on with this high profile socialist, humanitarian family. Karla meets Khaled who likes her for who she is and through him she comes to terms with her weight and other issues, realising that she has been trapped in an unhappy marriage.

Joel's family go on a journey of exploration and eventually come out the other side. There are surprises but the characters are all the stronger for their journey.(less)

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Jan 02, 2011 Neil rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this just in front of, before, Franzen's Freedom, and the two are an interesting pairing.

This one is the story of a new york jewish family, although the parents are now ultra-liberal atheists, adn the three kids are finding their way too. Dad, a civil rights lawyer, suffers a stroke, and thus begins a challenging period for his very unlikeable wife and three troubled / searching kids, one of whom is a social worker having an affair with an egyptian new stand owner, another becoming an ort...more

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