Good for the Jews (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards) [Hardcover]

Debra Spark (Author)

Book Description

Series: Michigan Literary Fiction Awards | Publication Date: September 3, 2009

". . . a smart, sprightly, sex-drenched, and neatly plotted novel . . ."
---Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio and the Chicago Tribune

"Spark is at her sly, funny, and cutting best in her third novel, a clever and affecting variation on the biblical story of Esther."
---Booklist

"Spark's prose is tight, funny, insightful and occasionally heartbreaking as it probes the current education system, the arts and society's ills."
---Publishers Weekly

Good for the Jews is a smart, funny, sexy novel set in Madison, Wisconsin, during the Bush administration. Part mystery and part stranger-comes-to town story, Good for the Jews is loosely based on the biblical book of Esther. Like Esther, Debra Spark's characters deal with anti-Semitism and the way that powerful men---and the women who love them---negotiate bureaucracies.

At the core of the story of right and wrong are young, attractive Ellen Hirschorn and her older cousin Mose, a high school teacher who thinks he knows, in fact, what is "good for the Jews"---and for Ellen, too. Their stories intertwine with those of the school superintendent, his ex-wife and son, and a new principal. Workplace treachery, the bonds of family, coming of age, and romantic relationships all take center stage as the characters negotiate the fallout from a puzzling fire.

Spark's evocative writing style and sharp, understanding treatment of her diverse characters draw the reader into this surprising page-turner, a finalist for the 2009 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award.

Debra Spark is the author of two previous novels, The Ghost of Bridgetown and Coconuts for the Saint, as well as Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing. She's been a fellow at Radcliffe College's Bunting Institute and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award. Her short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in publications including Food and Wine, Esquire, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Yankee. She is a professor at Colby College and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She lives with her husband and son in North Yarmouth, Maine.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her third novel, Spark (Coconuts for the Saint) holds a modern mirror to the book of Esther with a cast of characters from mid-2000 Wisconsin. Barring the biblical suggestion of the title, the novel is a study of human qualities and the interrelationships of those who identify with Jewish culture rather than religion. A virgin three years out of college, Ellen Hirscheron is an unobservant Jew to whom Alex (18 years her senior) is attracted. He has ended his marriage to modern woman Valerie, director of the Center for Artistic Exchange. Alex is also the superintendent of the school where Ellen's much older cousin Mose, an old-school history teacher, works. The story gets interesting with the arrival of school principal Hyman, who tries to fire Mose, and Hyman's strange wife, Martha. Hyman is a racist in general and an anti-Semite in particular. Over the course of the story, a dress ends a marriage, swastikas are revealed on the soles of a pair of boots and couples, well, couple. Spark's prose is tight, funny, insightful and occasionally heartbreaking as it probes the current education system, the arts and society's ills. (Oct.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472117114
• ISBN-13: 978-0472117116
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too predictable, December 14, 2009

By 

S. Powell (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Good for the Jews (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards) (Hardcover)

I found the plot to be much too predictable. I understand it was based on the Book of Esther, but knowing almost exactly what would happen - even when I hadn't read Esther - prevented me from being engaged with either the story or the characters. Ellen being every middle-aged man's fantasy also turned me off: drop-dead gorgeous, non-intellectual, naive, blonde, and a virgin at 25. The only things lacking were a 29-inch waist and 40D cups. I wasn't convinced by the love relationship between Alex and Ellen, based as it probably was on sex, his age, and her beauty, and the author didn't give me any reasons to believe otherwise. Alex's relationship with his ex-wife Valerie was much more interesting due to her ironic sense of humor and prickliness.

Mose was the only fully-drawn, interesting character; I could visualize him perfectly, and the novel seemed to pick up whenever he was in it. But his conflict with Clark was completely predictable - of course Clark would be overly officious and eventually be exposed as an anti-semite. Yawn. The denouement was rushed and felt like it had come from an entirely different novel. The quick-thinking assertive Martha in particular was completely different from the depressed, agoraphobic, mentally-unstable Martha of the rest of the novel. And why the tacked-on epilogue about the boring life of Ellen, the least-interesting of the characters? I suppose I need to get out my Bible and read the Book of Esther.

I gave this book 3 stars rather than 2 because I agree with others that Spark writes well. I just wish I had found this novel to be more interesting and either emotionally or intellectually engaging.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Plot Against Madison, November 29, 2009

By 

M. Feldman (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Good for the Jews (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards) (Hardcover)

Part of the fun of reading a novel patterned on an older story is knowing that story, and in the case of "Good for the Jews" it is the Biblical tale of Esther, married to the king of Persia, who saves the Jewish people from annihilation. All of the characters in Debra Spark's novel have names that recall the story: Alex (the Persian king, Ahasuerus); Ellen (Esther, the beautiful Jewish woman who married the king); Valerie (Vashti, the king's wife who falls out of favor); Mose (Mordecai, the relative who raised the orphaned Esther); and Hyman (Haman, the villain of the story). A quick catch-up on the Book of Esther will make "Good for the Jews" a more pleasurable read. The premise of the novel is an interesting one; it examines modern-day insidious anti-Semitism in a progressive university town (Madison, Wisconsin), and it does so not by looking at the university itself but in such peripheral places as a public school and an art gallery. In particular, it looks at the contrast in responses to anti-Semitic prejudice between generations, between Ellen, young and non-observant, and Mose, old enough to remember how the state of Israel came to be.

"Good for the Jews" is fun to read, at first. The tension that develops between Mose, a high school history teacher whose innovative methods have made him a popular teacher with disaffected students at risk of dropping out, and Hyman, a new principal, is believable and engaging. Any teacher who has ever been in thrall to an Administrator with a Big Idea or has sought redress through the grindingly slow wheels of a school bureaucracy will enjoy this. For most of the novel, Mose is the most compelling character, with his sense of what it means to be a righteous (in the good sense) man and his love for students and his adopted daughters. The other subplots are less engaging, particularly the ones that center on Alex, a rather feckless superintendent of schools, and his dissolving marriage. As regards the depiction of Alex's sex life---only Phillip Roth could make this any good. And Ellen's twenty-something innocence is frequently not quite believable and often just this side of vacuous.

A story has to end somewhere. The Book of Esther culminates in a hanging, and so does "Good for the Jews." It is here, in the denouement, that the gears of the plot lie exposed. The villain is brought to an end with a bit of exposition so rushed and superficial and unlikely, even in this age of falsified resumes, that you may find yourself raising an eyebrow. A scene between Ellen and an inebriated Hyman, in particular, owes its existence to the Bible story but seems forced. Mose, engaged simultaneously in grief counseling and sleuthing the villain's fictitious past, is uncovered as a teacher who--in 2006--has never even heard of Google. As a teacher in Mose's age demographic, I'd have to say---unlikely, even if he has bypassed all the technology workshops ordered up by forward-looking administrators. In the end, "Good for the Jews" is an interesting foray into terrain where writers like Roth, Bellow, and--to bring in a younger writer-- Allegra Goodman write more compellingly.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A small gem..., October 11, 2009

By 

Jill Meyer (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Good for the Jews (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards) (Hardcover)

Debra Spark's new novel, "Good for the Jews" is a retelling - in a modern setting - of the biblical story of Queen Esther saving of her Jewish brethren in Persia. Spark adds characters - and incidents - in her story, set in Madison, Wisconsin, in a two year period, beginning in 2005. The main characters - "Ellen" for "Esther", "Mose" for "Mordachai", "Alex" for "Aucharaus", "Hyman" for "Haman", and "Valerie" for "Vashti" - all correspond, in an updated way, to their biblical antecedents.

Spark's writing is tight, with not a wasted sentence or plot line. It's a story of people - good and bad - who face difficulties in daily life - broken marriages, broken hearts, discrimination in the workplace among other things - and how they face these crises. The ending, is in a way surprising, but not difficult to believe, given the societal problems existing in the US since 2001.

A beautifully written book. I'm looking forward to reading Spark's backlist.