The Double Life of Alfred Buber

by David Schmahmann

The Double Life of Alfred Buber . . .


Praise for The Double Life of Alfred Buber . . .
"...a truly remarkable literary creation..." -- The New York Journal of Books

" The Double Life of Alfred Buber is an original and sophisticated novel which lingers in the mind. . ."-- Dactyl Reviews

"Exquisitely written, detailed, fierily emotional and yet completely cold and callous, The Double Life of Alfred Buber is a unique read that will settle around a reader like a cloying dust and linger, even after a long, hot shower, in the pores. . ." -- Luxury Reading

Overview of The Double Life of Alfred Buber . . .
A splendid original tale, Alfred Buber is warm, smart, romantic, but his life is as barren as an ice floe, an embarrassing collage of successes and humiliations that add up to... nothing. He lives as if he has landed in a strange country, nowhere he recognizes.


Alfred Buber thinks he can. But the line between his two lives is a thin one.

More praise . . .
"From the first page it is evident that Schmahmann has produced interior monologue of the first order. . . An interesting an eccentric companion, 5 Stars." -- Jim McKeown, KWBU, NPR

"An unusual morality play whose artful style veils the depravity of its protagonist."-- Kirkus Reviews

"This book is literary fiction at its best--taut, well crafted, lovely prose, thoroughly engaging, which draws you into the character s strange new world and leaves your reading landscape forever altered." --BookConscious

The Double Life of Alfred Buber reads like a lost Nabokov novel...the prose is meticulously wrought, the plot deeply complex and psychologically layered..."-- Small Press Reviews

197 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 2011

About the author

David Schmahmann was born in Durban, South Africa. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Cornell Law School, and has studied in India and Israel and worked in Burma. His first novel, Empire Settings, received the John Gardner Book Award, and his publications include a short story in The Yale Review and articles on legal issues.

He practices law in Boston, and lives in Weston, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Lisa Guidarini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, the unreliable narrator! It drives some people to distraction but it's a literary device I love.

In some cases it's subtle, as if the person speaking isn't that different from you or me. We each perceive things differently. Telling a story from our individual perspective is not a lie, nor is it delusional. It's point of view. Only when imagination veers wildly from reality does the unreliable narrator show his or her detachment from reality. It's kind of like when my kids tell me "everyone else has _____!" Fill in the blank with something expensive, like a laptop. Or a car. Or hair extensions.

So, how can we tell when a narrator is grossly misrepresenting the facts? A good writer shows us, that's how. He (in this case) describes the reactions of those around the narrator, which, in the case of the unreliable narrator, screams out, "This dude is nuts!"

Yes, the correct literary terminology includes the word "dude." If you hold a degree in English
literature, as do I, you'll know. If not, you must go on trust.

Main character Alfred Buber is a well-to-do everyman. A middle-aged and paunchy attorney, he realizes despite all his success he's very lonely. He wonders if any woman could ever find him attractive, at this point in his life, and if he has any hope at all of finding love. For all his money all he has to show is a showcase of a home, empty save for himself and his help.

Because he is so rich and unattached, Buber can afford to travel anywhere he'd like. So he takes a trip to Thailand, where he meets a heart-achingly young prostitute named Nok. She's beautiful, frail and doesn't deserve to spend her life in a brothel. The minute he sees her he's smitten, deciding then and there his purpose in life is to use his fortune to rescue Nok from her own life.

Nok, on the other hand, sees her life as inevitable. The daughter of a destitute farm family living in rural nowhere, it is her duty to come to the city and make money using all she has - her body - sending money back to her family to help support them. She's doing what poor young girls do, not feeling herself degraded by her life so much as useful to her family.

Eventually, after more trips back and forth, he decides he must marry Nok and bring her home to live in his empty mansion in Boston. But he also knows if he does everyone will think he's resorted to a mail-order bride, a young Asian woman who barely speaks English, is tiny and beautiful as a doll, and lives with him out of gratitude he's saved her and appreciation for his money. He's not so deluded he doesn't see reality, yet he's tortured. And Nok? She's extremely confused.

And life is about to get more convoluted for Buber. Much more.

Of course, Nok is Lolita, and Buber Humbert Humbert. She is child-like and waifish, he middle-aged and wealthy. It's a theme that's been done over and over. Still, Schmahmann manages to bring a fresh perspective to it, some quality it's hard to name, but one that appeals though I've read several Lolita-esque books of varying quality.

Buber is a laughable character, in a very dark way. I'm not one for seeing humor in situations in which a sad person humiliates himself, though many other reader/reviewers are, or at least express they are. To me that sort of thing isn't funny. I feel for Buber, wish him well and hope he find his heart's desire. Yes, he's a bit of a kook. He's unrealistic, but his heart is good. He's done what so many others have, put aside everything in life for his career. And now he's alone, realizing what he's missed.

This is a book that likely won't receive the recognition it deserves, getting lost in the shuffle with the big publishers, but I recommend it very highly. If you can get your hands on it it's one terrific read that's stuck with me for months.

[Alta]

I should start by noting that I won David Schmahmann’s The Double Life of Alfred Buber as a Library Thing early reviewer. Usually, I can tell pretty quickly whether I like a book or not, but this was one of those rare cases in which it was not easy to form an opinion. This was, at least in part, because I read the bound galleys, which were in need of some editing. And the publisher’s comparison to Nabokov, which we’ve all seen before, may have on some readers (like myself) the opposite effect: “Oh, no! Another Nabokov?” Having said this, I should also add that it was clear from the beginning the Schmahmann is a serious writer.

The comparison with Lolita is justified by the narrator’s infatuation with a girl twenty years younger than he, and by a certain tone of the confession. But Buber’s Lolita is, of course, a creature of our times: she is a young prostitute in Thailand, and Buber is himself a very introspective, complex intellectual, who constantly analyzes himself and the others. He is, in fact, a Proustian character, a romantic, though an ironic one, of course. What saves Schmahmann’s novel from being a cheap thrill or a poor pastiche of Nabokov is the fact that his narrator is truly interesting (and I am using this word in its deepest sense); he has a mind and sensibility that stay with you long after you finish the novel. I am a reader who is interested more than anything in the author’s mind and sensibility, and Buber’s creator seems to me at least as intriguing as Buber. The novel has many paragraphs that are stylistically beautiful and it is, generally, intellectually engaging.

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant literary novel that expertly captures the essense of the human divide
between the battle we all face between our best intentions and our foolish desires and what occurs when the latter overtakes the former. Alfie Buber is like an everyman - a witty and upstanding exterior that he chooses to show the world, and a far less perfect interior that he hides from society. What happens when the two clash, makes for an unforgetable "Fictional Memoir"
Rick Friedman
Founder
THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB

[Peachey B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Won this through Goodreads and getting started on it today...looks interesting :)

When I first started reading this book, it was hard to form an opinion early on. The more I read though, the more interesting Buber's character became and developed. The narrator was somewhat hard to follow at times through an almost stream of consciousness report of his life and the way he drifts between dream and reality. Overall, it was a decent read and really drives home the potential conflict between one's true self and the self that is portrayed to the outside world.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

The publisher wants so badly for you to believe that this is some kind of latter-day Lolita that I actually re-read Lolita before starting this one so that I'd have an accurate point of comparison. (We're also reading Lolita in my book club later this summer, so I had multiple motives here.) The beginning does feel very, very much like a modernized Lolita, except that the love interest instead of an underage nymphet is an Asian prostitute. There are also just enough "Prufrock" quotes slipped in to be troubling. However, just when you think this is a lesser rehash of some of the best works in the English language, the book heads off in a different direction and actually becomes really enjoyable in its own right.

The narrator, Alfred Buber, grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and was sent to America as a teenager to avoid military service after the country declared its independence from England. Starting from zero, he becomes a successful lawyer, but he can't stop fixating on his unattractive appearance and believes no woman could desire him. Though he has the occasional romance, he lives a solitary life and eventually cooks up the idea that he could find gratification by visiting the women of some notorious locale in an unspecified southeast Asian country. On his first visit there, he falls in love with a quiet, bookish girl in the Star of Love Bar and begins fixating on what it would be like, how wholly it would ruin his reputation, were he do to what he desires and bring her home with him.

At the beginning I felt like this book was trying too hard to be a modern Lolita and found that off-putting, but it very quickly becomes something different, to the point where I wish the author/editor/publisher hadn't tried so hard to cultivate the Nabokov comparison - it's not accurate and actually takes away from the enjoyment of the book. This would have been a four-star book for me had the final chapters not called into question much of the story the narrator lays out - a few incidents arise that make it clear that not all of his story has been accurate, and after growing somewhat for him, I found it hard to reconcile my feelings at the end. This isn't smooth-talking Humbert Humbert, who gives you ample opportunity to recognize that he's lying to you; this is neurotic Alfred Buber, who seems to be laying out feelings he hasn't been able to tell any of the people in his life, but then tricks you at the end by presenting contradictions that throw his whole story into question. There's a really good story in here that, unfortunately, gets sold short by the ending.

[Allison Ketchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

What to say about Alfred Buber, charming miscreant, buttoned-up attorney, purveyor of ethically questionable sexual services, a man reminiscent of both Henry Higgins and Humbert Humbert? The unreliable narrator is a tricky thing to pull off, but Schmahmann does it brilliantly, right from the opening words: "These are the chronicles of the starship Buber, noted bibliophile, late night television addict, keeper of sordid little secrets so appalling he dares not breathe a word of them to a soul." Buber gives the reader fair warning that he's a complex character, likable despite his proclivities, much like the charming Humbert. He either has or has not brought a young prostitute home from the east and he alludes to the his inevitable downfall early in the story, though the reader does not yet know its exact nature. After becoming strangely attached to young Nok, whom he "met" in the Star of Love Bar, after visiting her village, and sending her monthly wire transfers, does he send for her? Bring her to his ostentatious yet barren home as his wife? Teach her the joys of channel-surfing, shopping, air conditioning? Or does he not?

Alfred Buber is an odd duck. Brought up in Rhodesia by communist parents who send him to England to live with a relative, it is perhaps not surprising that he holds convoluted opinions on social class. He first approaches Nok as a "client," but relates to her as a tutor as well. He becomes a lawyer and spends all of his money buying a plot of land on which to build his dream house, a cold, imposing mansion that signals that Buber has arrived. Image is very important to him, which makes it unsurprising that he would fabricate trips to Europe for the benefit of his law partners, who must never know that his vacations are sex tourism jaunts to Asia, not rambles through Paris museums. There are so many ways to tell this complex story, and Buber attempts several openings before hitting his stride. After all, how he presents himself will dictate how the reader views his actions. This dipping into first one part of the story, then another, sets up perfectly the multifaceted character of Buber, a portrait that makes unfolding events seem plausible, even rational. But then, we see events and characters only through Buber's eyes. We have no idea what Nok thinks about all this. Is Buber a likable, flawed man through her eyes? Or is that only the cast Buber's own point of view has overlaid on the plot?

Schmahmann has created an unforgettable lens through which to examine questions of love, obsession, exploitation and obligation. Buber, like Henry Higgins, like Humbert Humbert, is a character for the ages.

Source disclosure: I received a galley courtesy of The Permanent Press.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alfred Buber grew up in Rhodesia and moved to the States as a young man, displaced by the troubles and seeking a university education. He sees himself as no-one special, somewhat short, somewhat clumsy, somewhat bald. But he’s intelligent and, despite his unpromising start, he’s doing rather well. In fact, he may even be rich, though still a little lonely.

Alfred Buber never quite fit in, not as a Jewish child in Rhodesia, not as school-friend of the half-Asian misfit Rosalind, not as law student helping an Asian girl who can’t quite keep up, and not as the staid, conservative Mr. Buber, pillar of company and community. Alfred’s father sent him to a foreign land; his mother moved back to England; his “guardian” never really seemed to guard him very much; and Alfred’s not even sure what his dreams are, except that they remain unfulfilled.

In an effort to appease the self that dreams his dreams, Alfred Buber goes to Bangkok where a sweet young bargirl offers her "services," and he falls in love. Except Alfred Buber, pillar of the community, really can’t dream of bringing such a person home. Except Alfred Buber, dreamer of great dreams, most certainly must.

Two worlds collide, as surely as they did back in Rhodesia when it changed to Zimbabwe, as surely as they did when young Alfred first arrived in America. What’s real, what’s imagined, what’s public, what’s secret, all jostle for first place in Alfred’s thoughts. And a man who’s hidden his identity in an effort to fit in just might end up revealing all in this very tightly written “memoir” of his life.

There’s sweet comedy, tragedy, fine observation of small-town life, absorbing descriptions of exotic locations, poverty, love, hope and guilt in this book. But above all, there’s life, in the words and the characters and story, and in the feelings left behind in the reader as the final page turns.



Disclosure: I was lucky enough to receive a bound galley of this book from The Permanent Press in exchange for an honest review.

[Buffone · Rating 3 out of 5]

You don’t know what you’re in for when you start reading the book. In the beginning you expect sort of a memoir of a male who, being dissatisfied with his material life and stuck in a rut at work, decides to take a trip to Thailand, where he is overwhelmed by the range of sex trade offers and soon gets involved with a sex worker.
But soon it becomes evident that the author has produced an interior monologue of the first order.
Alfred Buber’s story grants view to a sentiment some of us may have: that for others life is richer, more sensual, more rewarding than it ever will be for us. Buber is frozen by that feeling, by the sense that he is a spectator at his own life, shut out of any chance at love, at being wanted, at feeling full and satisfied.
Maybe he mistakes this feeling for desire, conflates emptiness with sexual appetite, as if connection with a woman, finding one, sexually bonding with her, will somehow fill the the void. As Buber puts it, in men loneliness acquires a sexual tinge.
During the tale of his own considerable angst, torn between the ennui of life as a respected attorney for a law firm and his longing for a girl in a Bangkok bar, the protagonist reveals some painful truths about his life, and ours – about isolation, hypocrisy, power, male lonliness, failure and especially about the modern torment of always doubting whether one has chosen the right path.
The author never descends into tawdry or titillating prose. In a novel of sexual shame and male fantasies, the writing is unexpectedly luminous.
The Double Life of Alfred Buber is an original, psychologically multi-layered novel which lingers in the mind.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Double Life of Alfred Buber, by David Schmahmann, has been compared with the style of Vladimir Nabokov. I must confess that I have never read Lolita; but it has been on my to-read list for quite some time.

Told in first person, Alfred Buber's story is a slow meandering tale, taking the reader through the maze of his life and how he has perceived his life. There is a bit of discrepancy between reality and his perception of it. Buber seems a respectable lawyer, a parter in an old firm. But that is only part of his deception. Surely, a respectable man wouldn't fly halfway around the world to seek something to remedy his loneliness, something that he someday believes to be love.

At some point, his two separate lives combine and he is unable continue his charade at a respectable, normal life. Although it seems that he has lost so much (mainly just image), he discovers that he has something else in his life that might make life worth living. Unfortunately, Buber ends his narrative before the reader knows what will come next. It almost seems as if he is making his final preparations and that he is coming to terms with all that his life has, and hasn't, been.

I found Buber as well as the other characters in the book very interesting. I never knew if he was telling his story true, leaving out events, or adding embellishments. I guess he was telling it true from his perspective. I did enjoy the book very much, and even after finishing it, I find my thoughts captivated by this very unlikely, but unforgettable, character.

[Theophilus (Theo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent story. I always like to find a book set in someplace I'm somewhat familiar with. It makes me feel like I'm there; I can feel the heat, visualize the surroundings, and smell the smells during Buber's trips to Thailand. That's one on the reasons I love Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn series. Schmahmann takes the reader to the seamier side of Bangkok (apparently the seamiest) with Buber. It's not an area most tourists would go into. Schmahmann vividly describes all of the settings in the book, from Buber's staid and stuffy law office, to his self-designed dream mansion that he inhabits alone. The characters are alive. One can picture them on a busy street and recognize them.

My only hangup with this book is its abundance of commas. Commas cause us to pause and ponder, link clauses and items in a series, but sometimes in this book I felt as if I was stuck in traffic, moving a few feet, then stopping again, craning my neck to see what is ahead, just hoping for a side street to turn into to get out of the congestion. For me they were a distraction at times. But once at the end of the sentence, relief. Everything became clear.

Buber waits too long to make his move and remains in the rut of his middle-aged life in a quiet Boston suburb. He desparately wants to leave his responsible life behind, but the commas in his life make him pause once too often and he loses the new love in his life (a Bangkok bar girl) too a younger man.

[Candy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this copy of The Double Life of Alfred Buber from Goodreads. In the beginning I had a little trouble getting interested in this book. The more I read the more interested I became in this story. This is a story of Alfred Buber who grew up in Rhodesia with a communist Jewish father. He sent Alfred to America to get a college education. He never quite fit in but his determination to live in a nice house kept him working toward that goal. Alfred became a very successful and well respected lawyer. But he told his co-workers he was visiting Paris and instead went to Bangkok in serch of teenage girls. He immediately became infatuated with one of the young Asian girls in a bar he went into. After he went home he was obsessed with Nok, the teenage girl. It took him a year to return and search for her. He can only keep his two lives seperate for so long. This is a tragic tale. I think Alfred's biggest problem is that he only saw his accomplishments in money and objects that he was able to obtain. He does not even like himself and so he thinks other people see him the same way which does not seem to be true. When he sees people later in life it is obvious they thought a lot of him. It keeps you thinking about the book long after the last page has been read. Always a sign of a good book.

[Ila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am thankful to have won this book as a Goodreads First Read Giveaway.

3.5/5

To be honest, I don't think I entirely understood this book. It is written in a style that I haven't experienced before. It is very unique and somewhat abstract in narration. Regardless of my own lack of understanding, I did enjoy the book. The story was unpredictable and uniquely sweet. At some points the book seemed to be reality, and at other points it was twisted, distorted and untrue.

The book follows Alfred Buber's dual realities: Respectable lawyer, and and lover of teenaged prostitutes. He does well maintaining the two separate lives, until they end up colliding.

This book is a sweet yet confusing and unrealistic romance. I was confused by the ending, because the book just seemed to abruptly stop.

It was pretty hard for me to develop an opinion about this book, since it is so unlike anything else I have ever read. If you are looking for something unique, and romantic but willing to accept that it may leave you slightly confused, then I would recommend picking this one up :) Other reviewers really enjoyed this book so I do believe that my confusion is just due to my own lack of experience with this style.

I am going to pass it on to a friend of mine who I think will really enjoy it. I will update the review with what she had to say.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE DOUBLE LIFE OF ALFRED BUBER by David Schmahmann an fictional "memoir".It is an intense,complex,emotional poignant story of an illicit affair between a middle-aged man and a teenage Asian girl. Alfred is self described as old fashioned,formal,a little prissy,has a dry sense of wit,has a fetish for Asian girls,and enjoys sex with very young prostitutes. For the young prostitutes he travels to Asia,Europe,Boston, and Bangkok.This fetish leads him to a double life. He eventually falls in in love with one of his young teenage prostitutes,Nok,who is beautiful,young,and may or may not care for him. As he travels to Boston,Europe, and Bangkok for his fetish,he soon learns that while he is trying to sort out his life,his life is coming unraveled and he must face the consequence of his fetish.This is an emotional story of teenage prostitutes,a middle aged man,fetishes,leading a double life,as he does not want people to know about his other life. If you enjoy very complex stories with a different theme.Alfred a pillar of the community having an illegitimate romance with a teenager and a man who is flawed in so many ways than you will enjoy this one.This book was received for the purpose of review from RMS Public Relations and details can be found at The Permanent Press and My Book Addiction and More.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although certainly a novel out of my comfort range, I was drawn into the story by a desire to see what goes on in the mind of a guy who was so open to a double life of such extremes. Gradually, one comes to understand that Buber's inner castigation and struggle involves so much more than the obvious surface events reveal. David Schmahmann's charming, witty self-deprecating manner leads the reader through Buber's innermost thoughts and feelings as he leads a life that outwardly exudes power and prestige, but serves up no real happiness. Forced to determine his limits of respectability, Buber incessantly plays out scenarios and contemplates his motives for every action, while a moment later, releasing all responsibility and guilt, he finds himself in a strange country with traditions and customs completely foreign to him. The internal jostling is touching, harsh, and, at times, humorous. Will have to check out Schmahmann's first novel, Empire Settings.

[Glenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Double Life of Alfred Buber is about the complex sad double life of a man that captures the essence of the human divide. He is depraved, but is basically moral. Alfred Buber is in his own little lonely, mirrored world, looking for love. This is book you will either love or hate, there appears to be no middle ground.

Although this is not my type of book the author is able to present this book in manor that you will more or less be drawn to Alfred Buber character that has been best described as an inwardly pathetic man, and an outwardly successful lawyer. You tend to start to somehow understand this characters strange, lonely life in search of affection.

I find the author brilliant in pulling this together and making it work. It’s a unique and difficult account, one few authors could achieve.

[Amandaj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alfred Buber is a man with particular tastes, a bit awkward, but professional and generous in his own way.
His story takes him back to a memory of childhood featuring a sweet young girl who had one parent of Asian decent. This girl is the start of his obsession with Asian women. He starts traveling to Asia and discovers a girl called Nok. And from there his obsession continues to grow. As he tells the story of his relation with Nok he deals with complications at his place of work, and tells how he came to be in America and how he became a lawyer. His past relationships are explored as he recounts his steps to the conclusion of his tale.
I won this from a firstreads giveaway. At first I found Alfred somewhat annoying-- his character isn't the most like-able. But I ended up getting past his odd and at times dull demeanor and really liked the book.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw a review of this book in Kirkus and read it on Kindle. The story starts with Buber introducing himself and he's this odd, stiff, Star Trek addicted lawyer who's both impossibly erudite - he loves T.S Eliot, Prufrock in particular - and completely self- deprecating (his description of himself is a caricature, and then it turns out that this may not be quite accurate, as we slowly learn is the case with a lot of this story). And then he starts to share some secrets, and to talk about his loneliness and his inability to relate to women, and suddenly you're rooting for him even as he reveals his most shameful thoughts and deeds. This is a wonderfully well thought out novel - every detail is symmetrical and touched with tension -and the ending had me close to tears.
I can think of no better writing anywhere today than what I've just read.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is reflective first-person narrative from an unrepentantly unreliable narrator, the titular Alfred Buber. In it, he tells his reader the story of his real and secret lives, both of which are isolated and insular. Buber is a Jewish man who grew up in Rhodesia and immigrated to the U.S. as a young man. He is a lawyer who has managed to almost accidentally become the senior partner in his firm. He made sacrifices to build the perfect home, but shares it with no one. And he makes trips to an unnamed Asian country where he has met a sex worker named Nok that he becomes as obsessed about as all the other details of his lonely life. The narrative is deliberately uncomfortable, but laced with a humor and occasional distance that provide a little relief.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a novel about someone who pretends to be what he isn't and loses sight of who he is. Buber's obsessions and secrets are thrilling to watch unfold, but for me the thing I can't stop thinking about is the sadness of his elaborate pretense and how it forces him to look away from possibilities for happiness. A very passionately written story and first rate in every way.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you goodreads for chosing me to read this book. I can't wait to read it, sounds like it should be great.