A novel set in turn-of-the-century Texas recounts the coming-of-age of a gay fourteen-year-old as viewed through his eyes and those of each member of his privileged, eccentric family. Reprint. K. PW.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Elegant, lyrical and elegiac, this powerful first novel affectingly introduces members of a genteel, wealthy German-Jewish family living in early 20th-century Galveston, Tex. Felix Mehmel, scholarly and loyal, works his way through the Aeneid and through adolescent stirrings of desire, which he acts upon with Wick Frawley, once a bully and now a friend. Felix's mother, estranged from her New Orleans Christian community for marrying a Jew, finds herself vulnerable once more after her husband dies during the 1900 hurricane. Her brother-in-law Leo becomes the enthusiastic sponsor of Roache and Munger, amateur "aeronauts" who model themselves after the Wright brothers. The mysterious and benign interventions of Yankel Schmulowicz, a mute immigrant from Russia, who stages puppet shows so realistic that the audience is spellbound, indelibly alter the lives of these people and others in their orbit. Taylor's spare, supple prose easily accommodates effective forays into magic realism as well as nuanced evocations of the desire, religious doubt and affection that animate his memorable characters. Because he handles so many different characters in a short narrative span, some of them inevitably are less than full-bodied actors in his human comedy. It is a measure of his skill that even those met briefly in this bewitching novel continue to resonate in the reader's imagination. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Soon after immigrating to Galveston Island, the Gerson Mehmel family attains wealth (as brewers of Sweet Brook beer) and social prominence. A few decades later, bankruptcy, disease, and madness wipe out all their gains. The able elder son, Aharon, marries outside his Jewish faith, contracts syphilis, and dies in a hurricane. The effete younger son, Leo, watches birds and loafs. As the sole member of the next generation, Felix is a precocious adolescent who quotes Virgil, attempts to fly, and experiments with homosexuality. Meanwhile, his mother suffers the inner turmoil of having been raised a Catholic, converting to Judaism, and becoming an apostate to both religions. Taylor's first novel combines grand lyric musings with realistic social commentary. Containing a character with arcane powers, it is at times a disquieting mixture of the magical and the mundane.
Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jewish American Gothic,
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This review is from: Tales Out of School (Paperback)
In the language of Hollywood:Isaac Singer meets Tennessee Williams, but this beautiful, sultry, intelligent novel is anything but glib. The heart-breaking story of this family of prosperous German Jews in Texas in the 1900s is told through the eyes of Felix, who is fourteen, bookish, lonely, and left more or less to fend for himself as his family, having rotted from the inside out, disintigrates. During the course of the summer, Felix discovers his sexual identity as well as his capacity for compassion. These characters come fully alive on the page. His mother is especially memorable, and the story has enough twists and turns to be full of surprise. This is a book in which I got completely immersed, and one I won't forget. Highly recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magical and Mesmerizing,
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This review is from: Tales Out of School (Paperback)
Ben Taylor uses lyrical, mellifluous prose to describe the arc of a genteel and eccentric Jewish family in Galvaston Island at the turn of the century. This lovely novel is populated by a memorable cast of characters: precocious fourteen year-old Felix who is adrift and alternately besotted with Virgil's Aeneid and a thuggish classmate named Wick; his beautiful mother Lucy, who, rudderless and lonely after her husband dies in a hurricane and torn between her adopted religion and her Roman Catholic roots, turns to laudanum and madness; Leo, Lucy's bachelor brother-in-law, amateur ornithologist, and the spendthrift backer of a flying machine built by two local bicycle repairmen of questionable talent; Velma Truly and her companion, Etta Murph who provide an often comical moral center; Nathan Gernsbacher, an elderly rabbi who is having more than a little trouble keeping the faith; and, finally, Schmulowicz, the mysterious mute stranger from Russia who alters the lives of everyone. By turns erotic, humorous, and deeply sad, this novel resonates long after the reader has closed the book.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent work of fiction. Rich and engaging,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tales Out of School (Hardcover)
"Tales out of School" is beautiful and engaging. The characters are well wrought,but never two dimensional. This book is a thrill to read!
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