book fair
family members, their triumphs and tragedies, allegiances and intrigues, strange oddities and reckless disregard for consequence. For all their fortune, there are some things the Soleymans cannot buy in this multi-generational saga that opens with the death and disappearance of a man only known as Raphael’s son. Strange ailments, broken hearts and mysterious characters are masterfully developed in language you’ll want to read aloud to yourself. Nahai has crafted a story that will move you with it’s exploration of the bonds that tie a family together or tear it asunder. You can get a freshly minted copy of “The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.” at the Book Fair and enjoy lunch and a talk with author Gina Nahai on Sunday, Nov. 16 at noon at the JCC, sponsored by The Spice Way and Diamond Boutique. – Tinamarie Bernard
having an affair with Leon, the husband from across the way, a 50-ish psychologist who can’t remember why he married his wife. The book has no heroes, no one to root for. The reader does not really empathize with Nina and Leon; they are simply bored. Nina, a young, harried mother of a toddler and a baby, is described in such a way that the reader can’t help but imagine her hair in constant disarray and her clothes never without a food stain. She laments that she quit her job to stay at home, but at the same time, she openly admits she hated being a lawyer. Leon, in the cliché of the dysfunctional psychologist, gives others advice for an exorbitant hourly rate while he cheats on his faithful wife and cannot connect to his only daughter. Their spouses are not terribly likeable either. Jeremy skips work and lies to his boss, while Claudia, Leon’s wife, is a condescending, self-absorbed former professor, who constantly yells to get her way. The supporting characters in the book are equally unlikeable. Arthur, a micro-managing curmudgeon who constantly complains about his neighbors, but who is really hiding a broken heart, never really seems genuine. Wendy, Nina’s perfectionist mom-friend, predictably turns out to have just as many insecurities about motherhood as her friends. Emma, Leon and Claudia’s 28-year-old daughter is probably the most likeable character – leaving a doomed relationship to start again in a job she loves. With all of that negativite energy, the book is a sometimes-interesting study in discontentedness, on the futility of humanity’s struggle to be happy. With confused and unlikable characters coming and going, Mirvis’ story rambles to its end and struggles to find its purpose, leaving the reader feeling unsatisfied and a bit discouraged. Tova Mirvis will tell her side of the story on Monday, Nov. 10 at noon at Temple Solel. – Brie Stimson
READ LOCAL
WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET... And the grass isn’t always greener Tova Mirvis’ nuanced “Visible City” is a voyeuristic view inside the banal lives that make up a neighborhood on New York City’s upper West Side. The book follows two couples, one older and one younger, neighbors whose apartments overlook each other. In a nod to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” the story opens with Nina, the book’s main character, casually looking into the apartment across the way. She is mesmerized and possibly a bit jealous of the older couple into whose living room she can see. The two hold hands and dance together and sit contentedly next to each other reading, seeming utterly happy in their relationship. As the book progresses, Nina meets the couple, and their lives inevitably entangle. Everyone’s lives intersect in the book. No person or moment in the story is wasted. Everyone and every sentence has a purpose. Once Nina meets her neighbors, she soon realizes her fantasy of their relationship was simply that, and through a series of circumstances Nina soon finds herself
This year, the JCC Book Fair will welcome local authors to a series of five book signings throughout the Fair. Here’s who you’ll find and where: Sunday, Nov. 9 at 11 a.m. @ Temple Solel Allison Bially, Irvin Cooper and Ruth Ellison Monday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. @ Temple Solel Y. Dylan Yates and Susan Levin Thursday, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. @ JCC Natasha Josefowitz, Harold Taxel, Tamar Caspi, and Thomas and Levy William Propp Friday, Nov. 14 at 11 a.m. @ JCC Jennifer Coburn, Carold Polakoff and Susan Chan, Orly Lobel, and Thomas Levy Saturday, Nov. 16 at 11 a.m. @ JCC Lou Dunst, Teresa Fischlowitz, and Ben Kamin Their books will be available for sale in both bookstores for the entire Book Fair.
Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 33