The End of the Jews: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Adam Mansbach (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The lives of a young Jewish man in the 1930s and a young Czech woman in the 1980s echo across generations in Mansbach's (Angry Black White Boy) continuing investigations into ethnic identity. Tristan Brodsky, the son of New York Jewish immigrant parents, is introduced to pre-WWII jazz and African-American culture by a City College professor who mentors him into a mostly successful, though often controversial, career as a novelist. Tristan's grandson and namesake, known as Tris, is a suburban teen in thrall to hip-hop culture who becomes a novelist himself. (Tris's writerly angst provides some of the funniest scenes in the book.) Then there's Nina Hricek, a talented young Czech photographer who is all but adopted by a touring American jazz group passing through Prague: the black band members affectionately dub her Pigfoot and insist that she must be part Creole. Nina becomes a sort of apprentice to the group's tour photographer. One night, when covering a gig at New York's Blue Note, she locks eyes with a man working at the club—Tris. Mansbach moves effortlessly between U.S. jazz clubs of different eras and Communist Prague, and his dialogue rings true. Believably eccentric characters and an inventive cross-generational plot make this novel of immigration's vicissitudes a delight. (Mar.)
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Review
Praise for The End of the Jews
“Painfully honest, compassionately cognizant of human frailty and complexity, alive to the magic of creativity yet aware of its consequences—very exciting fiction indeed.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A delight.” —Publishers Weekly

“Adam Mansbach is a true talent and his new book is a masterwork of the Jewish arts of humor and sadness.” —Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng

“Lyrical, brave, and moving . . . further proof of Adam Mansbach’s formidable talent. At every turn, The End of the Jews is startling in its honesty. This novel is not to be missed.” —Daniel Alarcón, author of Lost City Radio

“As Czeslaw Milosz famously said, ‘When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished,’ but Adam Mansbach takes this notion to new extremes in this smart, moving novel. This is fascinating, scorching drama.” —Sam Lipsyte, author of Home Land

“Mansbach has made something new of the multigenerational Jewish epic; this is far more tough-minded reading than we are used to on the subject. I don’t love Jews any less for it, and neither does Mansbach, but I do know us better for what we are. This is a heartfelt, truthful book.” —Keith Gessen, author of All the Sad Young Literary Men

“Few writers tackle a story with as much sheer vigor as Adam Mansbach. Replete with sorrow, humor, and furious energy, The End of the Jews is an unflinching novel of hard truth.” —Peter Orner, author of Esther Stories --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau (March 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385520441
• ISBN-13: 978-0385520447
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #282,430 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to be Jewish ...., March 30, 2008

By	Richard P. Carpenter (Danvers, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am not Jewish, yet I enjoyed Adam Mansbach's moving multi-genererational novel immensely, and so, I suspect, will you. Certainly the novel is laced with references to Jewish customs, traditions, and even dishes (noodle kugel, anyone?), and it deals partly with the complex relationships between Jews and blacks. But ultimately the book is less about being Jewish than about being human. It is about closeness and aloofness. It is about what marriage does and doesn't accomplish. It is about friends and family and how difficult it sometimes is to extricate yourself from situations caused by those nearest to you. There is sadness and tension (and a modicum of sex), but there is also humor, and a chapter in which grandfather and grandson go on a graffiti expedition is simply a howl. In the end, you will find that it doesn't matter whether the characters are Jewish or Swedish or Brazilian or Martian: They and their hopes, dreams, and disappointments will linger long in your memory.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, beautiful, unforgettable, April 9, 2008

By	Olivia Stanfield (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This novel is a rare treasure. It's beautifully written, daring, and wide-ranging in its concerns. More than anything, though, each and every character in the book is rendered with astounding empathy and insight. This is even more impressive given the range of the voices -- they are old and young, male and female, black and white. The End of the Jews weaves several stories together expertly and seamlessly. The best scenes here rival anything I've ever read, and the probing, subtle way the author explores identity and relationships -- between men and women, blacks and Jews, children and parents -- makes you remember why it is that we turn to fiction to begin with.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Look at Human Frailty, April 19, 2008

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Mansbach, Adam. "The End of the Jews", Spiegel and Grau, 2008.

A Look at Human Frailty

Amos Lassen

Adam Mansbach has written a brave new novel of people searching for truth and the truth that they seek is that destruction is the necessary consequence of creation. Styled as a family epic, the irreverence of "The End of the Jews" seems to bring about an entire new genre of writing as the book is full of wit and exceedingly beautiful prose.
The story is about the family Brodsky and how each member of the clan faces a seemingly impossible choice. They must choose between the people they love and "the art that sustains them". As the book moves between time and space, the lives of the three heroes--Tristan Brodsky, Nina Hricek, and Tris Freedman--who are separated by generations and geography--come together and we see that their lives are being lived on parallel scales.
Tristan, having been raised in the Bronx during the great Depression, becomes a mover and shaker of American culture but in doing so he "suffocates" his wife, a poetess, who has her own secret world.
Nina manages to escape the "horrors" of Czechoslovakian communism by running off with a group of Black musicians only to find herself still trapped but this time by a dead-end love affair instead of political ideology.
Tris is Tristan's grandson and Nina's lover is a graffiti artist and a revolutionary unbridled by specifics who uses his family history to create his art. As the stories come together, each character realizes that his survival requires the sacrifice of someone else.
The title perhaps suggests that it is necessary to be familiar with Judaism to read this novel and while it does have a great many Jewish references, the book really deals with the relationships between Jews and Blacks but it ultimately is more about being human than being Jewish. There are several other themes going on as well--warmth vs. iciness, the meaning of marriage, family and friends and our relationships with others.
There is a great deal of humor in the book as well and as much compassion. Each character is portrayed with deep insight and we are able to empathize and here is a book that does what literature is supposed to do--give the reader something to think about. Beautifully honest, lyrical in tone, moving in subject matter and eloquence, "The End of the Jews" is a tough look at the way we live.