Customer Reviews

Breakfast with the Ones You Love

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I ran across this book accidentally. I had never heard of the book nor the author. However, the premise immediately caught my attention: A loner who can kill with her mind who finds herself falling in love with someone who professes to be one of the Chosen, and who is building something strange and wonderful in an abandoned section of the local Sears and Roebuck.

Often, books with these types of premises can be horrible; it takes a deft touch to keep things internally consistent and to keep from wandering off into slapstick. Fortunately Mr. Fintushel has that deft touch. Despite the extraordinary premise the characters ring true.

The book is also filled with vivid imagery. Opening to a random page I found this:
"Everything down there was made of dust. The light was made of dust. The dust walls were no-color, like black-and-white movie walls, and where light came in the air shined, because the air was dust."

Compare this to something I might have written:
"It was very dusty."

I trust you see the difference.

After I finished this I immediately tracked down and read as many of Mr. Fintushel's short stories as I could (this is his first novel), and two questions came to mind:
1. Why had I not heard of this gentleman before?
2. Where could I find more?

This is an amazing book, and I don't even like science fiction! I was hooked from the first paragraph, and by the time I was half way through, I realized it wasn't just the crazy but very seductive plot; it was Lea, who was slowly transforming from someone dangerously bazarre into a complex and very sympathetic human being. And by the end it was apparent that this book, along with being really fun to read, is also a sensitive and touching portrayal of the human caapcity to emerge from a life-deadening fear into a yes-saying affirmation of lfe, like how we feel when we have breakfast with the ones we love. One other comment: I think Eliot Funtushel's perceptive psychological insights, together with his wild imagination and very talented gift with words and language, make for a read chocked full of delightful surprises.

Lea Tillim is either a) a runaway with a bad attitude who has gotten messed up with a young drug dealer, and who may have killed at least one man; or b) a pretty young girl with a special ability who is helping a young Jewish man rescue the Chosen. She is definitely the heroine of Eliot Fintushel's first novel, Breakfast With the Ones You Love. Fintushel has written a number of striking stories over the past decade or so, often funny (even to the point of wackiness), often on Jewish themes, often about lonely people looking for some sort of family. And all that describes this novel fairly well -- though it's never really "wacky" in its humor.

Lea has run away from home after a family tragedy the nature of which is slowly revealed. She is determined to show no feelings to anyone -- partly because of her past, and perhaps also because her looks get her unwanted attention from men. (And even women like her fellow waitress.) She is working at a restaurant whose owner may have mob connections. And she finds herself attracted to a young man she calls "the Yid," who she saves from a beating one day by using her special mental power to kill his attacker.

The Yid -- real name Jack Konar -- believes that he is the Chosen of the Chosen, and that it is his duty to build a spaceship to bring the Chosen people to another planet upon the coming of the Meschiach. Lea, who he calls "shiksie," is helping his project, even though, as a "shiksie" she is not eligible to join him. This is taking place in an abandoned section of a Sears and Roebuck. Lea also talks to her cat, who isn't too happy with her misuse of her powers. And she keeps avoiding the good attentions of her landlady, whose daughter died years before, and who clearly is looking for a sort of replacement.

All this is goofy enough. And for sure there is an "out" available -- Lea and Jack are both pretty damaged people, and maybe she is just a messed up runaway and he's a deluded drug dealer. At this level the story still attracts -- Lea's personal story is affecting. We worry about her: Jack is not always a good influence (the killings seem at first to be taken rather too lightly, for one thing); she has a distressing past; she needs to decide to reconnect with the world. And, eventually, with her long lost brother. But we can't, in the end, ignore the fantastic parts, which spiral from a plot to use her power to fix a boxing match, to a realization that her landlady may be a tool of Satan, to an eventual duel with that being himself, as the End of the World approaches.

I enjoyed this novel, but I don't think it ranks with Fintushel at his best. (My personal favorites are the sadly neglected "Milo and Sylvie" and "Auschwitz and the Rectification of History.") The main problem is that the fantastical conceit -- Jack's part of the story, about the Chosen and the Meschiach and the spaceship -- simply doesn't convince, and despite some clever and bravura description, it didn't interest me. By contrast, Lea's story is quite affecting, and her personal growth, by the end, seems real and earned. This will be one of the best first novels of the year in the field -- and don't forget to try not just this novel but Fintushel's shorter works.

I picked this up at the library on a whim, and read it cover-to-cover in one afternoon, stopping only to go get kleenex. There are surprises in every chapter, and the main character, Lea, grows more human on every page. She is so easy to identify with, as she develops the kind of all-encompassing teenage love most of us have felt...but not necessarily for the man who will bring the Messiah!

You wonder at first if Jack, the Yid, is schizophrenic; it would be an easy road for the plot to take. Much harder is the idea that he is sane. His relationship with Lea makes them both blossom, and in the end it is Lea whose flash of insight gives Jack the chance to bring his plans to fruition.

You can't forget the other characters either, all strongly if briefly drawn (this is a shortish novel, after all): Belle shatters all assumptions about old ladies, and James manages to be both himself and a heroic, protective big brother (and sometimes a vessel of the Devil, but that's giving too much away...). The minyan deserves a novel of their own.

Tule, the cat, was the only disappointment; she plays such a large role in the early parts of the novel, that I was disappointed to see her fade out over time and become merely a cat. But that's the kind of realism that Fintushel seems to insist upon in this book. His novel may have a room that becomes a metaphysical spaceship, a girl who kills with her mind, and a young man who brings the Messiah, but by G-d, a teenage girl has to be believable as a teenage girl, and a cat, in the end, is just a cat.

There is a lot of Jewish/Yiddish/kabbalah vocabulary in this book, but it shouldn't be tough for someone with no background in Judaism--words are mostly defined in context, if not immediately, then later in the chapter. If you like reading novels with Jewish themes and settings, you'll find this book right up your alley.

Disclaimer: the author used to be married to my sister. He happens to be a wonderful human being, a talented actor, master of the theremin, teaches drama to incarcerated youth, and an all-round mensch, besides being the author of this dazzling, touching and hysterically funny novel Breakfast With the Ones You Love. I brought "Breakfast" on my summer vacation in Arkansas, and I just devoured it. It puts me in mind of Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein and John Kennedy Toole. The main character, Lea Tillim, is so compelling with her tough guy exterior, throwaway sexuality and her metamorphosis as the story unwinds. The story just gets more and more complex with an ever more bizarre cast of characters -- a drug dealing messiah, the unlikely gang of yarmulke wearing disciples, gangsters, a satan-worshipping knitting circle and more. The plot is woven quite deftly into a climax I found hilarious and emotionally satisfying. Kind of like... kind of like... well, you'll just have to read it for yourself.

Eliot Fintushel is well-known in select circles of cognoscenti as a multifaceted genius: as a mime, as an actor, as an author, he seldom fails to dazzle with his razor-sharp wit and penetrating intellect. And more: His human warmth, boundless creativity and irresistible personal charm have left their mark on many hearts for many years. The problem with what Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. called the "bitch goddess Success" is that one can get too self-confident; this quality, which the ancient Greeks called "hubris", is the basis of tragedy. The greater the stature of the tragic hero, the greater the pathos of the tragedy. Christopher Marlowe puts it thusly (in Doctor Faustus): "...Till swollen with cunning, of a self-conceit, his waxen wings did mount above his reach, and melting heavens conspired his overthrow." After reading B.w.t.O.Y.L., I asked myself: "If I were transported to 2111 and appointed professor of American Literature at a liberal arts college with the task at hand being to select four novels for a course, 'The 21st Century American Novel', would I even consider B.w.t.O.Y.L. as a candidate?" I felt compelled to answer in the negative. I asked myself: "What does this novel have to offer, that no work of literature previously written has to offer? Why read this book when the clock is ticking, when the gravedigger is sharpening his spade, and when I have yet to read 'A la recherche du temps perdu', 'Kristin Lavransdatter', or 'Bleak House'? Why?" I could give no answer.

I am not a science fiction reader AT ALL but I picked up BREAKFAST and couldn't put it down. The characters are addictive and the imagery is amazing. I loved the ideas, the stories and side plots and mostly Lea and her world. I was so impressed with the clever writing that never condescended and never distracted. This is a talented author full of light and endless ideas. I laughed out loud and I also cried a bit.
It held me from the start. READ THIS BOOK ..you'll be surprised and engaged.

Anyone who knows emaciated Lea Tillim knows to stay away from her; those with no sense of self preservation will take one look at this crew cut Cadaver Dimples but better quickly look away praying she did not notice their glance. Lea can use her thoughts to send a healthy person to hospitals or morgues; that is why she is a whispered legend as the Star of Morgues and Emergency Rooms. She has no human friends nor wants any such companions from those who fear she will blink them into a stroke or heart attack that is if they catch her in a good mood. Her only bud is Tule the cat as human relationships mean horrific endings.

Jack Konar is secretly building something strange in an abandoned part of a Sears and Roebuck building when Lea meets him. He explains to Lea that he is trying to rescue the Chosen stuck on godforsaken planet earth, but their enemies the Evil Ones want to prevent him from achieving his objective; he further says that the adversaries shrewdly camouflage themselves as sly everyday people or housecats. He pleads with her that to complete his mission he needs her help. Lea thinks she might be dealing with a lunatic yet Cadaver rule number one never get entangled with humans is falling apart as she is falling in love with this insane save the world wannabe.

Eliot Fintushel provides an insane science fiction tale of saving the world before breakfast but finding time to fall in love over breakfast. The story line is filled with action, but in a weird ironic way it is a character study of two outsiders finding love, the most dangerous concept in the universe. The zany thriller grips readers from the opening moment the macabre Lea explains why she killed her face at twelve years old and never liberates the fascinated audience until the final wacky confrontation.

Harriet Klausner

Sorry, but sometinmes Amazon suggests other items you might enjoy based on your buying history. I tried this, and after several tries, gave it up after 50 pages. Time is worth more than the effort to me.

What's wrong? Stereotypical characters (some offensively so); sorry attempts to use a "post-modern" dialect (corny and off-putting).

Only reason it didn't get an awful is that there is a semblence of creativity here; but that only goes to show that one can be quite creative and still produce a rather poor product.