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Max's Diamonds
A stunning decades-spanning debut novel, about a man forced to confront his moral culpability, the legacy of impossible loss, and the claims of his Jewish identity.
Paul Hartman, coming of age in postwar Rockaway, grows up haunted by the specter of his cousin Max, an Auschwitz survivor, and his mysterious cache of diamonds, which fund Paul’s Harvard Law education and even sparkle in his fiancée’s engagement ring. When a stranger from his past confronts him with an impossible demand, one that could destroy his law career, his marriage and his sense of self, Paul must make choices that will change his fate forever.
“Five Stars (out of Five)! An incredibly engaging and thought-provoking story of one man haunted by the grief of his past. Max’s Diamonds, an excellent new work of fiction by Jay Greenfield, traces the life of a man hiding his past and a traumatic childhood. This is a story filled with secrets, lies, and an overwhelming sense of grief .…[The rich characters combine with beautiful descriptions of settings and, at times, an almost lyrical prose .” — Tracy Fischer, Foreword Reviews
“A terrific read, fast-paced and darkly humorous." — Eve Keller, co-author, Two Rings: A Story of Love and War
“Jay Greenfield’s engrossing novel vividly depicts a young man’s coming of age in Rockaway, a close-knit beach community in New York, during and after World War II .... We could not put this novel down.” — Lawrence Kaplan and Carol Kaplan, co-authors, Between Ocean and City: The Transformation of Rockaway, New York
Paul Hartman, coming of age in postwar Rockaway, grows up haunted by the specter of his cousin Max, an Auschwitz survivor, and his mysterious cache of diamonds, which fund Paul’s Harvard Law education and even sparkle in his fiancée’s engagement ring. When a stranger from his past confronts him with an impossible demand, one that could destroy his law career, his marriage and his sense of self, Paul must make choices that will change his fate forever.
“Five Stars (out of Five)! An incredibly engaging and thought-provoking story of one man haunted by the grief of his past. Max’s Diamonds, an excellent new work of fiction by Jay Greenfield, traces the life of a man hiding his past and a traumatic childhood. This is a story filled with secrets, lies, and an overwhelming sense of grief .…[The rich characters combine with beautiful descriptions of settings and, at times, an almost lyrical prose .” — Tracy Fischer, Foreword Reviews
“A terrific read, fast-paced and darkly humorous." — Eve Keller, co-author, Two Rings: A Story of Love and War
“Jay Greenfield’s engrossing novel vividly depicts a young man’s coming of age in Rockaway, a close-knit beach community in New York, during and after World War II .... We could not put this novel down.” — Lawrence Kaplan and Carol Kaplan, co-authors, Between Ocean and City: The Transformation of Rockaway, New York
394 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2016
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February 29, 2016I could not put this fiction down.
Max's Diamonds shares a saga, lush survivor's tales told with well-delivered quirky characters; familiar and unfamiliar places; guilt, lies, and familial drama; plot twists that cross continents; witty, finessed language.... Even more than the richly-imagined dilemmas, what grabbed and held me were the scenes-- places, dialog, conflicts.
Ten years in the making, Jay Greenfield's debut novel brings us to worlds most have heard of but not experienced. A young Paul Hartman and his parents, refugees from Hitler, begin life anew in Rockaway, Queens, right near the Atlantic Ocean's beaches. The shadow of the Holocaust haunts Paul beginning in childhood when an uncle, a survivor, seeks refuge in the family's small apartment. The taint of Uncle Max's diamonds ooze through nearly 400 pages and shape Readers' understanding of the large cast of characters. The boy, Paul Hartman, grows up free to pursue his ambitions--educational, professional, social, personal. In a changing post-war American world, meritocratic values threaten to up end old boys' networks as dirty hands threaten clean ones. Well-chosen detail-- place names and technology of the past, use of Yiddish-- enrich the feeling of historical authenticity.
The story never lags. The characters engage. The dilemmas grip. And, the ideas persist in the Reader's mind.
I hope you like this book as much as I did.
Max's Diamonds shares a saga, lush survivor's tales told with well-delivered quirky characters; familiar and unfamiliar places; guilt, lies, and familial drama; plot twists that cross continents; witty, finessed language.... Even more than the richly-imagined dilemmas, what grabbed and held me were the scenes-- places, dialog, conflicts.
Ten years in the making, Jay Greenfield's debut novel brings us to worlds most have heard of but not experienced. A young Paul Hartman and his parents, refugees from Hitler, begin life anew in Rockaway, Queens, right near the Atlantic Ocean's beaches. The shadow of the Holocaust haunts Paul beginning in childhood when an uncle, a survivor, seeks refuge in the family's small apartment. The taint of Uncle Max's diamonds ooze through nearly 400 pages and shape Readers' understanding of the large cast of characters. The boy, Paul Hartman, grows up free to pursue his ambitions--educational, professional, social, personal. In a changing post-war American world, meritocratic values threaten to up end old boys' networks as dirty hands threaten clean ones. Well-chosen detail-- place names and technology of the past, use of Yiddish-- enrich the feeling of historical authenticity.
The story never lags. The characters engage. The dilemmas grip. And, the ideas persist in the Reader's mind.
I hope you like this book as much as I did.
March 18, 2016
Exposing the Ravages of Denial
What happens to an intelligent, perceptive and socially alienated boy who can't resist the pull of his own emotions? If he grows up in a culture of resentment and paranoia, overshadowed by past tragedies, it’s likely those emotions will drive him smack into truths he can neither face nor deny.
At the outset of Max's Diamonds, by Jay Greenfield, the boy is Paul Hartman, the place is Brooklyn, New York, and the time is the emotionally-scarred period following World War II. Emotionally-scarred, that is, if your extended family includes the Holocaust survivor who's sharing your room.
Such is the author's magic, he conjures a riveting tale of self-realization from the sorry scraps of everyday life. Because it's there, in that cramped apartment, that Paul's encounter with his adult cousin catapults him—on a complex trajectory toward rash impulsivity, petty deception and enviable good luck.
It's a trajectory that spans decades, through three marriages and the persistent resurrection of unrealistic hopes. For despite his early success, Paul's family secrets continually weigh him down, depriving him of the social standing he both craves and detests.
Drawn with a broad brush of courage, however, his personality bounces back again and again until his dizzying array of passionate loves, professional triumphs and moral failings resemble nothing so much as a blaze of fireworks. Instead of passing judgment, all we can do is let the sparks fly.
In one sense, however, Paul's pyrotechnics illuminate his central struggle: the ongoing tug of a lost heritage he refuses to recognize as his own.
Greenfield's writing is rich in emotional detail and the scenes near the climax of the novel's first half offer a harrowing, unblinking look at the horror of the Final Solution. In functional terms, these scenes also uncover the rocky emotional landscape separating Paul and his mother, who holds him to standards he considers irrelevant.
As the story progresses, Paul's world expands in direct proportion to his ability to distance himself from the past. Nevertheless, in wrenching himself free, he loses as much as he gains—and enters middle age with a cynical wreck of a soul.
Yet, like a seasoned illusionist, the author pulls a sliver of redemption right out of Paul’s bitterest disappointment. “The right woman,” met not entirely by accident, leads him to a fresh perspective that, at last, has a fighting chance to stifle his self-loathing.
With a deft touch for descriptive detail and a no-holds-barred quest for emotional honesty, Jay Greenfield creates a vivid world as real as it is phantasmagorical. For ultimately, Max's Diamonds encompasses both the fondest dreams and fiercest nightmares of the post-war era.
What happens to an intelligent, perceptive and socially alienated boy who can't resist the pull of his own emotions? If he grows up in a culture of resentment and paranoia, overshadowed by past tragedies, it’s likely those emotions will drive him smack into truths he can neither face nor deny.
At the outset of Max's Diamonds, by Jay Greenfield, the boy is Paul Hartman, the place is Brooklyn, New York, and the time is the emotionally-scarred period following World War II. Emotionally-scarred, that is, if your extended family includes the Holocaust survivor who's sharing your room.
Such is the author's magic, he conjures a riveting tale of self-realization from the sorry scraps of everyday life. Because it's there, in that cramped apartment, that Paul's encounter with his adult cousin catapults him—on a complex trajectory toward rash impulsivity, petty deception and enviable good luck.
It's a trajectory that spans decades, through three marriages and the persistent resurrection of unrealistic hopes. For despite his early success, Paul's family secrets continually weigh him down, depriving him of the social standing he both craves and detests.
Drawn with a broad brush of courage, however, his personality bounces back again and again until his dizzying array of passionate loves, professional triumphs and moral failings resemble nothing so much as a blaze of fireworks. Instead of passing judgment, all we can do is let the sparks fly.
In one sense, however, Paul's pyrotechnics illuminate his central struggle: the ongoing tug of a lost heritage he refuses to recognize as his own.
Greenfield's writing is rich in emotional detail and the scenes near the climax of the novel's first half offer a harrowing, unblinking look at the horror of the Final Solution. In functional terms, these scenes also uncover the rocky emotional landscape separating Paul and his mother, who holds him to standards he considers irrelevant.
As the story progresses, Paul's world expands in direct proportion to his ability to distance himself from the past. Nevertheless, in wrenching himself free, he loses as much as he gains—and enters middle age with a cynical wreck of a soul.
Yet, like a seasoned illusionist, the author pulls a sliver of redemption right out of Paul’s bitterest disappointment. “The right woman,” met not entirely by accident, leads him to a fresh perspective that, at last, has a fighting chance to stifle his self-loathing.
With a deft touch for descriptive detail and a no-holds-barred quest for emotional honesty, Jay Greenfield creates a vivid world as real as it is phantasmagorical. For ultimately, Max's Diamonds encompasses both the fondest dreams and fiercest nightmares of the post-war era.
December 7, 2016
A stunning decades-spanning debut novel, about a man forced to confront his moral culpability, the legacy of impossible loss, and the claims of his Jewish identity.
Paul Hartman, coming of age in postwar Rockaway, grows up haunted by the specter of his cousin Max, an Auschwitz survivor, and his mysterious cache of diamonds, which fund Paul’s Harvard Law education and even sparkle in his fiancée’s engagement ring. When a stranger from his past confronts him with an impossible demand, one that could destroy his law career, his marriage and his sense of self, Paul must make choices that will change his fate forever.
I really enjoyed this book; the characters were well developed, the story moved along at a steady pace and I really enjoy historical fiction, especially from the WWII era. The story tells the story of the life of the main character, Paul, throughout his life, beginning in post-WWII New York and into the time period when he becomes a husband and a father. Paul finds it difficult to distance himself from what his family suffered at the hands of the Nazi's, even though he was not directly effected by it, he seems haunted by what happened to his family. This was an interesting book, following the main character throughout his life and reading about how the things that happened not only to his family, but to him, effect him the rest of his life. However, I kind of found myself never really fully invested in the book or the characters and I can't really pinpoint why that is.
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy of this book.
Paul Hartman, coming of age in postwar Rockaway, grows up haunted by the specter of his cousin Max, an Auschwitz survivor, and his mysterious cache of diamonds, which fund Paul’s Harvard Law education and even sparkle in his fiancée’s engagement ring. When a stranger from his past confronts him with an impossible demand, one that could destroy his law career, his marriage and his sense of self, Paul must make choices that will change his fate forever.
I really enjoyed this book; the characters were well developed, the story moved along at a steady pace and I really enjoy historical fiction, especially from the WWII era. The story tells the story of the life of the main character, Paul, throughout his life, beginning in post-WWII New York and into the time period when he becomes a husband and a father. Paul finds it difficult to distance himself from what his family suffered at the hands of the Nazi's, even though he was not directly effected by it, he seems haunted by what happened to his family. This was an interesting book, following the main character throughout his life and reading about how the things that happened not only to his family, but to him, effect him the rest of his life. However, I kind of found myself never really fully invested in the book or the characters and I can't really pinpoint why that is.
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy of this book.
March 25, 2016
This is an original and compelling novel that has moments of genuine suspense. The story moves well, tracing the experiences of the protagonist, Paul Hartman, from his childhood in post-WWII Queens through his life as a student, musician, lawyer, husband and father. Paul's life is haunted by the Holocaust, even though he never directly experienced it. Mr. Greenfield gives a history lesson without lecturing the reader; rather, we learn how devastatingly personal human cruelty can be, not just to the direct victims, but to the generations that come along after the event. Reading this book reminded me of the famous Faulkner quote, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." In Max's Diamonds, no matter how hard Paul tries to distance himself from his family's suffering at the hands of the Nazis, he cannot escape it. The more he struggles against it, the forces of guilt, memory, and just being human keep bringing him back. Another famous quote: "The evil that men do lives after them." Mr. Greenfield doesn't tell us why, but in Max's Diamonds he provides an example of how.
March 8, 2016
Every family has a few members who will never fail to make life interesting.
Paul Hartman has more than a few of these members in his family, and that is what made this book so enjoyable. As a native New Yorker, Long Island in fact, I knew the settings and related to the characters, but no matter where you are from you can enjoy Max's Diamonds. It was interesting to get some insight into the post WWII, New York Jewish immigrant community, their view of America and how to find their place in it. Paul represented the new generation ready to embrace and enjoy the opportunities but he still carried the weight of his family and the legacy of Uncle Max. The story covers many years with multiple twists and turns which move Paul between the American dream and the family that is always a part of his life.
The story keeps you engaged and always wondering what could happen next. Jay Greenfield deserves praise for his debut novel.
Paul Hartman has more than a few of these members in his family, and that is what made this book so enjoyable. As a native New Yorker, Long Island in fact, I knew the settings and related to the characters, but no matter where you are from you can enjoy Max's Diamonds. It was interesting to get some insight into the post WWII, New York Jewish immigrant community, their view of America and how to find their place in it. Paul represented the new generation ready to embrace and enjoy the opportunities but he still carried the weight of his family and the legacy of Uncle Max. The story covers many years with multiple twists and turns which move Paul between the American dream and the family that is always a part of his life.
The story keeps you engaged and always wondering what could happen next. Jay Greenfield deserves praise for his debut novel.
April 10, 2016
My review appears in New York Journal of Books. Read that review first. Additional remarks that appeared in a different and now defunct publication begin with the next paragraph.
Max’s Diamonds, Jay Greenfield’s debut novel published last week by New York publisher Chickadee Prince Books, is a guilty pleasure, a book I enjoyed and could barely put down for its suspenseful serpentine plot despite its pedestrian and occasionally heavy-handed prose. Like Greenfield, the novel’s protagonist Paul Hartman grows up in a Jewish community in Rockaway, Queens and goes on to become a successful lawyer. Greenfield is old enough that like Paul he probably encountered anti-Semitic colleagues early in his legal career. To Greenfield’s credit he makes complex legal cases understandable to the general reader.
But this is a work of fiction, not a memoir, and some of the fictional character’s biographical details differ from those of the author. The eponymous diamonds, which fund Paul’s education, are of unethical provenance, and come with obligations that threaten to impede Paul’s professional advancement. In my New York Journal of Books review of the novel I compare Paul’s predicament trying to balance the irreconcilable demands of his professional ethics and his unethical relatives to that of the young Michael Corleone in The Godfather movies.
According to a mutual friend another difference between the author and his character is that Greenfield’s parents and grandparents were Eastern European Jews whose mother tongue was Yiddish, while Paul’s parents were German speaking Jews from a majority German speaking part of northwestern Bohemia who adopted Yiddish as adults to avoid speaking the language of the Nazis. The elder Hartmans’ decision to switch from German to Yiddish strikes me as implausible and ahistorical.
Historically inaccurate details are distracting to knowledgable readers. We read historical fiction to take our imaginations to another time and place, but when the details don't fit that time and place the effect is spoiled.
Czech Jews switched from Yiddish to German in the 19th Century, Twentieth Century Bohemian and Moravian Jews were bilingual in German and Czech, Yiddish was no longer spoken, and early 20th Century Jewish writers wrote in German. How would people who did not grow up speaking Yiddish and were never immersed in a Yiddish speaking community suddenly know Yiddish?
Paul’s parents might have learned Yiddish from their Eastern European grocery store customers and fellow Orthodox synagogue congregants and/or taken Yiddish classes offered at The Workman’s Circle, YIVO, or local colleges, and his survivor relatives who arrive after the war might have learned it from other inmates in concentration camps and post-war displaced persons camps, but the narrative doesn't spell out these details other than to say, “that although German, more than Yiddish, had been his parents’ principal language in Europe, they refused to speak it in America.”
But if the language switch is historically unlikely, it may nonetheless be emotionally accurate. When I recall the strong Jewish identities and sensitivity to anti-Semitism of Holocaust survivors in my acquaintance, the emotional tone of such a plot element seems right even though that specific detail is probably factually false.
I close my NYJB review emphasizing the positive, noting “Max's Diamonds readers are rewarded with a fun and absorbing read whose fortuitous May publication date makes it a felicitous beach or airplane book.”
Max’s Diamonds, Jay Greenfield’s debut novel published last week by New York publisher Chickadee Prince Books, is a guilty pleasure, a book I enjoyed and could barely put down for its suspenseful serpentine plot despite its pedestrian and occasionally heavy-handed prose. Like Greenfield, the novel’s protagonist Paul Hartman grows up in a Jewish community in Rockaway, Queens and goes on to become a successful lawyer. Greenfield is old enough that like Paul he probably encountered anti-Semitic colleagues early in his legal career. To Greenfield’s credit he makes complex legal cases understandable to the general reader.
But this is a work of fiction, not a memoir, and some of the fictional character’s biographical details differ from those of the author. The eponymous diamonds, which fund Paul’s education, are of unethical provenance, and come with obligations that threaten to impede Paul’s professional advancement. In my New York Journal of Books review of the novel I compare Paul’s predicament trying to balance the irreconcilable demands of his professional ethics and his unethical relatives to that of the young Michael Corleone in The Godfather movies.
According to a mutual friend another difference between the author and his character is that Greenfield’s parents and grandparents were Eastern European Jews whose mother tongue was Yiddish, while Paul’s parents were German speaking Jews from a majority German speaking part of northwestern Bohemia who adopted Yiddish as adults to avoid speaking the language of the Nazis. The elder Hartmans’ decision to switch from German to Yiddish strikes me as implausible and ahistorical.
Historically inaccurate details are distracting to knowledgable readers. We read historical fiction to take our imaginations to another time and place, but when the details don't fit that time and place the effect is spoiled.
Czech Jews switched from Yiddish to German in the 19th Century, Twentieth Century Bohemian and Moravian Jews were bilingual in German and Czech, Yiddish was no longer spoken, and early 20th Century Jewish writers wrote in German. How would people who did not grow up speaking Yiddish and were never immersed in a Yiddish speaking community suddenly know Yiddish?
Paul’s parents might have learned Yiddish from their Eastern European grocery store customers and fellow Orthodox synagogue congregants and/or taken Yiddish classes offered at The Workman’s Circle, YIVO, or local colleges, and his survivor relatives who arrive after the war might have learned it from other inmates in concentration camps and post-war displaced persons camps, but the narrative doesn't spell out these details other than to say, “that although German, more than Yiddish, had been his parents’ principal language in Europe, they refused to speak it in America.”
But if the language switch is historically unlikely, it may nonetheless be emotionally accurate. When I recall the strong Jewish identities and sensitivity to anti-Semitism of Holocaust survivors in my acquaintance, the emotional tone of such a plot element seems right even though that specific detail is probably factually false.
I close my NYJB review emphasizing the positive, noting “Max's Diamonds readers are rewarded with a fun and absorbing read whose fortuitous May publication date makes it a felicitous beach or airplane book.”
May 4, 2016
A review from Miryam Wasserman:
Should Jews perform or listen to Wagner's music is a question hovering over MAX'S DIAMONDS a debut novel by Jay Greenfield. Set immediately after WWII in Rockaway, the book--part bildungsroman part mystery-- follows the life of Paul Hartman who grows up haunted by the holocaust personified by cousin Max -an Auswitch survivor who shares his room during Paul's early adolescent years. Paul cannot avoid staring at Max's numbers tattooed on his arm. There are diamonds which Max acquired in some hinted at horrific ways and which he smuggled out of the camp and deposited in locations all over the world. Some of them --given to paul's widowed mother- will pay for paul's fancy education, but when max gives him a key for a safety deposit box shortly before his death, paul throws the key into the ocean. The secret of the key and guilt surrounding its destruction the somewhat improbable brushes with underworld characters make this an enjoyable page turner.
The musical element is introduced by the entrance of Sibyl a flutist and paul's love interest. Both young people are obsessed by professional ambitions at the expense of their relationship. A lost and found child, the discovery of paul and sibyl's jewish identities add layers to the stort. Mr greenfield a trial lawyer for several decades brings authenticity to discussions about law. The familiar location sground the book. Except for a late far-fetched romance with a fantasy woman near the book's end one need not suspend too much belief to enjoy this lively book which has much to recommend it.
Should Jews perform or listen to Wagner's music is a question hovering over MAX'S DIAMONDS a debut novel by Jay Greenfield. Set immediately after WWII in Rockaway, the book--part bildungsroman part mystery-- follows the life of Paul Hartman who grows up haunted by the holocaust personified by cousin Max -an Auswitch survivor who shares his room during Paul's early adolescent years. Paul cannot avoid staring at Max's numbers tattooed on his arm. There are diamonds which Max acquired in some hinted at horrific ways and which he smuggled out of the camp and deposited in locations all over the world. Some of them --given to paul's widowed mother- will pay for paul's fancy education, but when max gives him a key for a safety deposit box shortly before his death, paul throws the key into the ocean. The secret of the key and guilt surrounding its destruction the somewhat improbable brushes with underworld characters make this an enjoyable page turner.
The musical element is introduced by the entrance of Sibyl a flutist and paul's love interest. Both young people are obsessed by professional ambitions at the expense of their relationship. A lost and found child, the discovery of paul and sibyl's jewish identities add layers to the stort. Mr greenfield a trial lawyer for several decades brings authenticity to discussions about law. The familiar location sground the book. Except for a late far-fetched romance with a fantasy woman near the book's end one need not suspend too much belief to enjoy this lively book which has much to recommend it.
July 19, 2016
I was wary of another book about the Holocaust, even though three of my favorite books from the last ten years have been Holocaust-related (Hope: A Tragedy; City of Women; The Book Thief--some day I'll review them, or at least add them to my shelf).
Max's Diamonds is post-Holocaust and deals with its effects on the next generation. I imagine that there have been other novels about survivor guilt, but I haven't read them. I read this one, and I'm glad I did.
Again, of greatest interest to me was the close look at how the children and relatives of victims and survivors have to reconcile their own, privileged lives (simply being alive is a privilege) against the backdrop of one of history's most unfathomable horrors.
There's no pedantry here, though. The plot is as intricately woven as a rag rug. No spoilers: I'll only say that the protagonist is Paul (ne Peretz) and the diamonds of the title are the concrete legacy of the Holocaust that he metaphorically carries with him through this beautifully-written novel.
Max's Diamonds is post-Holocaust and deals with its effects on the next generation. I imagine that there have been other novels about survivor guilt, but I haven't read them. I read this one, and I'm glad I did.
Again, of greatest interest to me was the close look at how the children and relatives of victims and survivors have to reconcile their own, privileged lives (simply being alive is a privilege) against the backdrop of one of history's most unfathomable horrors.
There's no pedantry here, though. The plot is as intricately woven as a rag rug. No spoilers: I'll only say that the protagonist is Paul (ne Peretz) and the diamonds of the title are the concrete legacy of the Holocaust that he metaphorically carries with him through this beautifully-written novel.
April 15, 2016
This is a story of inner conflict. Using the Holocaust and the feelings in American toward Jewish immigrants and exploring the feelings of the immigrants themselves to how they fit into American society through the 1950's and 60's....Author Jay Greenfield creates a suspenseful and captivating plot that shows a realistic view of his characters lives. Paul Hartman is a young child when a cousin comes to stay with his family following the end of the war. Armed with his feelings of inadequacy about not fitting in, his guilt over his father and cousin's deaths and the mystery of some hidden diamonds which will fund his education, Paul is under a great deal of pressure and his decisions are not always easy to make. He learns that one lie can lead to another, that relationships are difficult and the feeling of wanting to belong is stressful. He is a hardworking driven man, who learns the hard way that his family and his Judaism are important, that he should be proud of who he is.
February 27, 2020
Definitely Worth It!
Right up front, this is not an easy read. There is a lot of pain and horrific suffering here and I had a a gut reaction to it, yet this tells a story that must be told. Although the characters may be fictional, the history is not. It existed in the real world and it has had an impact on every generation since. I found the journey a hard and difficult one but extremely worthwhile. The characters are so real and well defined that when you reach the end, you find yourself thinking of them as people you might have known. Definitely worth it!
Right up front, this is not an easy read. There is a lot of pain and horrific suffering here and I had a a gut reaction to it, yet this tells a story that must be told. Although the characters may be fictional, the history is not. It existed in the real world and it has had an impact on every generation since. I found the journey a hard and difficult one but extremely worthwhile. The characters are so real and well defined that when you reach the end, you find yourself thinking of them as people you might have known. Definitely worth it!
December 29, 2016
Paul Hartman, his parents and many in their family are refugees from the hell created by Adolf Hitler. In short, they are Holocaust survivors! Think you’ve heard it all before! Stop in your tracks – you haven’t! Jay Greenfield’s first novel is reality. The appearance of Paul’s Uncle Max is a life-changing event for Paul. Two aspects of Uncle Max’s life remain with Paul forever, the numbers etched into Uncle Max’s arm and the diamonds Uncle Max owns and spreads throughout the family. These items are evidence of the worst kind of evil one can imagine! They permeate the family with guilt as survivors and victims who deserve more of life’s wealth because of what they have endured. In between these searing scenes are moments of intense beauty which Paul and his girlfriend, and later wife, find in playing music. Should one play Wagner, the enemy of the Jews, to show all that Jews survived and are now their own masters? Yes, Wagner, the music that was played when selections were daily made of who was to go to the gas chambers. The novel is replete with decisions of a like-minded nature!
For Paul, it seems for every few steps he moves ahead in his career and family life he must take multiple steps backwards laced with shared guilt and moral obligations. As the story progresses, we learn how Max acquired those diamonds in the concentration camp and what he did with them. Harrowing story, indeed!
Paul becomes a lawyer whose State Supreme Court clerkship becomes compromised because of his family background. On and on the same stop-and-go scenes follow, eventually causing the failure of two marriages, barriers with relatives because of a deed Paul committed after meeting Max and before Max’s death. All his relationships become tainted and the reader can empathize with his frustration and desire to get it all healed and behind, if that is possible at all!
Max’s Diamonds… is a startling, riveting work of historical fiction that each reader may never forget. It’s a thriller spawned by an evil reality of one man but passing on to all the victims tied into that evil man’s existence!
Amazing read that this reviewer highly recommends!
For Paul, it seems for every few steps he moves ahead in his career and family life he must take multiple steps backwards laced with shared guilt and moral obligations. As the story progresses, we learn how Max acquired those diamonds in the concentration camp and what he did with them. Harrowing story, indeed!
Paul becomes a lawyer whose State Supreme Court clerkship becomes compromised because of his family background. On and on the same stop-and-go scenes follow, eventually causing the failure of two marriages, barriers with relatives because of a deed Paul committed after meeting Max and before Max’s death. All his relationships become tainted and the reader can empathize with his frustration and desire to get it all healed and behind, if that is possible at all!
Max’s Diamonds… is a startling, riveting work of historical fiction that each reader may never forget. It’s a thriller spawned by an evil reality of one man but passing on to all the victims tied into that evil man’s existence!
Amazing read that this reviewer highly recommends!
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July 5, 2016This book is a mess. The premise is good, but it was executed poorly. Paul is born in Europe during the rise of Hitler. His father gets him out as a baby, along with his mother and her parents. He grows up in the Rockaways, in New York. His father dies when he is 10. After that he meets and gets involved with relatives coming to the States post concentration camp interment, and is haunted by their experience the rest of his life. Paul struggles constantly with the nature of identity as a Jew, as a human being, and as an attorney. Conflicting loyalties and crazed relationships with women and convoluted plot combine to make this a mess instead of the great read it should be.
April 28, 2016
Extraordinary. A postwar coming-of-age story, in the shadow of the Holocaust, but one that marks Jewish assimilation and outward success not as a triumph but as a tragedy. This book is rich with startling imagery and turns of phrase, but it also pulls the reader underwater -- into moral dilemmas for which there is no easy resolution or solution. It's at once fully engrossing and long-time haunting.
May 2, 2016
"Max's Diamonds" is an enganging story with many twists and turns about Paul, a second-generation Holocaust survivor growing up in America. Haunted by the past, he is trying to come to terms with the Jewish experience of the twentieth century.
April 30, 2016
Max's diamond is a full-bodied story with drama, romance and friendship.
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July 28, 2016Loved this first book by Jay Greenfield: a lot of history and a flawed protagonist who finally gets it right.
August 11, 2016
3.5 Stars
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews