When Adam Mansbach came and spoke at Scranton this past March, I got the sense that the dude was angry. Or at least kind of peeved and played on that to enhance his image as "young priveleged white male in tune with the black struggle." But it wasn't until I made it through his second novel (The Allendale Public Library doesn't stock his first one Angry Black White Boy, a satire about white privilege, hm, I wonder why?) The End of The Jews that I realized how angry he is.
Or if Mansbach isn't angry at least his book is. The End of The Jews chronicles the multi-generational Brodsky family, Jewish family from the Bronx, grappling with artistic and intellectual pursuits. It's an intersting read, for sure, and as Mansbach and I said when we talked, "The Bronx is the Bronx," so there were certainly elements that I related to on that level, being the granddaughter of Bronx Irishmen, rather than the grandson of Bronx Jews.
Mansbach's characters are flawed, loveable and all too human. The centerpiece, brilliant novelist Tristan Brodsky is the kind of tortured genius who you can't help but want to see fall off his high horse. His grandson Tris is slightly more sympathetic and their respective love interests, Tristan's wife Amalia and Tris's girlfriend Nina are a but clicheed as women stifled by their love for their brilliant men.
It's a good read, and honestly, I'm waiting for Mansbach's third effort, which he read to us from, which seems a little bit more up my alley. Either way, I stretched my horizons, I don't usually read contemporary male authors. Good for me!
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