Book Review: Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander

"In the book’s acknowledgements Englander thanks his editor for extracting the text of the novel from a much longer manuscript. The salvage operation feels uneven as a work of literature, but its ideas are worth engaging." -- from my review in New York Journal of Books

Book Review: An Egyptian Novel by Orly Castel-Bloom

  "A recurring theme is how and to what extent characters recover from setbacks, displacement, and disappointments. Tel-Aviv, particularly north Tel-Aviv (an established affluent neighborhood in the later chapters/stories but new construction in the early ones) where the Kastil brothers and their families live, gives the book a sense of place." -- from my review of An Egyptian Novel by Orly Castel-Bloom in New York Journal of Books