Keren's review
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
This book was a bit disappointing. I read Nathan Englander's short stories several years ago and some of them were so good I can still remember pieces of them. This one is his first novel, and it didn't have the same impact as the short stories.
Nonetheless it raised some interesting ideas. What I liked was the question of truth. For the father of the missing child, the truth was that the son was dead and it was a travesty not to mourn properly and put him soundly into his grave. For the mother, there was no truth other than that her son was alive and would return any moment. She was so sure she kept the door to the apartment open constantly so he'd always be able to get in even if they weren't home. Because of these conflicting truths these two people could not live in harmony. Neither could be proven, but both were so important to the believer that there could be no compromise.
Nonetheless it raised some interesting ideas. What I liked was the question of truth. For the father of the missing child, the truth was that the son was dead and it was a travesty not to mourn properly and put him soundly into his grave. For the mother, there was no truth other than that her son was alive and would return any moment. She was so sure she kept the door to the apartment open constantly so he'd always be able to get in even if they weren't home. Because of these conflicting truths these two people could not live in harmony. Neither could be proven, but both were so important to the believer that there could be no compromise.
