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Book Review: Gershon’s Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year, retold by Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Jon J. Muth

Gershon’s Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year,  retold by Eric A. Kimmel and illustrated by Jon J. Muth.

Scholastic, 2000

ISBN-13: 978-0439108393

Available: Hardcover, paperback

Gershon’s Monster is based on a story from the Hasidic tradition of Judaism, retold by Eric Kimmel, also the author of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins. Gershon is a man who never regrets or apologizes for his mistakes. Every week he sweeps them into his basement where he won’t have to see them, and once a year, on Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year, he gathers them into a sack, carries them down to the ocean, and empties them in.

Gershon and his wife desperately want a child, and Gershon visits a great rabbi for advice. The rabbi’s prayers are successful, but he warns Gershon that his selfishness will eventually cost the lives of his children, as the sea will claim them as payment for washing away his errors.  Gershon ignores the rabbi’s warning, but one day as his children are playing near the water, a monster rises from the sea, created from years and years of Gershon’s misdeeds. To save his children, Gershon must act selflessly, and acknowledge and repent his errors.

What could have been a simple, well-done retelling of a Hasidic folktale on the wisdom of making amends (the author’s note says he is a stand-in for the mystic Ba’al Shem Tov, a great rabbi who lived in the 1700s). takes on extraordinary power with the illustrations of Jon J. Muth. While the art for most of the story is light and delicate, darker browns and golds illuminate Gershon’s visit with the prophetic rabbi,  with grays and blacks dominating the scenes where Gershon’s selfishness is most obvious. The page where Gershon leaves the rabbi is framed in gray, with the sad expression of the rabbi in the foreground, but a bright green visible from the doorway, as Gershon  once again blithely leaves without dealing with the selfish behavior in his wake. The darkest illustrations are the most dramatic, though. Gershon’s individual mistakes are small, dark shapes that look almost gleeful as they ride alongside him or on top of his sack, set apart from the muted and blurred images by their sharp edges.  The monster created by Gershon’s years of errors that he has deposited into the sea is indistinct, blending in with the dark clouds and threatening waves while simultaneously emerging as a gigantic black horror, and turning to that page, even though I knew something terrible would happen, left me momentarily breathless. It really was a “wow” moment.  While illustrations such as this could be considered too dark and disturbing for some younger children, most children, Jewish or not, will enjoy the story, and it’s a great jumping off point for a discussion of the importance of making amends, and on the ability to change for the better. With Rosh Hashonah just around the corner, I recommend following it up with a snack of apples and honey.

Gershon’s Monster is a winner of the Sydney Taylor Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. Highly recommended, especially for libraries in communities with a strong Jewish population.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 


Posted on October 1, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

Crown, 2015

ISBN-13: 978-0804188975

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, and audio.

 

If anyone can write an unlikable woman character and make her seem sympathetic for even a moment, that person is Gillian Flynn. The Grownup is narrated by a con artist who gives hand jobs for a living, and is retiring due to carpal tunnel syndrome.  As a sex worker, she has a client who loves to read and, in a little metafictional foreshadowing to the events that follow, lends her Gothic supernatural tales to discuss during their time together. In her new career as a psychic, she hopes to expand her business into the homes of upper-class women who want their homes “cleansed”.

Enter Susan Burke. While at first Susan is skeptical, she is soon convinced that there is something wrong with her house, and, possibly, with her stepson. Susan is convinced that she has found blood on the walls, that her stepson is disturbed, and that it all comes down to bad vibrations in the house, a former Victorian manor that has been gutted, renovated, and modernized.  The narrator convinces Susan that she can get rid of those bad vibrations… for a price.

Soon, it appears that the narrator may have conned herself into believing the house is haunted. Or has she? Research turns up a gore-filled history on the house, and the stepson, an angry fifteen-year-old, is saying and doing bizarre and threatening things. For the first time concerned for someone else, she goes to Susan and urges her to leave the house immediately. When Susan runs from the room, and her stepson enters, reality really starts bending. The ending of this story is surprising and disturbing, both in what it says about the Burke family and the narrator. Even the last sentence doesn’t seem like an ending as much as the beginning of another twisted tale.

Fast-paced and compelling, The Grownup is a trainwreck from which the reader can’t turn away.  Those looking for a sharp, fast (it’s just 69 pages), unsettling, Gothic tale will find that Gillian Flynn has hit the mark. Recommended.

Note: The Grownup originally appeared as “What Do You Do?” in the anthology Rogues, edited by George R. R. Martin.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski


Posted on September 30, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavelle

Tor Books, 2016

ISBN-13: 978-0765387868

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, Audio

 

This could be one of the most important books of the year, maybe in quite some time. The cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft, especially his stories of the “Old Ones”, the Cthulhu Mythos, has been a driving force for decades: however, most of the recent books standing in the shadow that he has cast, have been disappointing.

Lovecraft’s virulent racism has been the topic of considerable controversy over the last several years. The question of how to reconcile his problematic views with his genius has been a difficult one for readers and lovers of horror to wrestle with. In The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor Lavelle responds to Lovecraft’s racism by re-visioning of one of his most racist stories, “The Horror at Red Hook”, bringing it up to date by presenting it from a fresh point of view. Excellent on its own, The Ballad of Black Tom is easily one of the finest horror stories bridging the racism of our dreadful past to our present-day troubles.

The story features an African-American musician and hustler, Charles Thomas Tester, living in downtrodden Harlem in 1920s New York. He travels to Flushing Meadows, delivering dangerous occult items, always hunted by gangs and bigoted cops, knowing each trip might be his end. One evening, he meets up with the mysterious Robert Suydam, who promises Charles a fine payday to play at his party. Charles is unaware that the man seeks to awaken the “Sleeping King.” After suffering daily, with the threats of street life in jazz-age New York, the otherworldly doesn’t frighten him much… but it should.

Lavelle is a strong, talented writer with a voice I would like to hear more often. His style is as smooth as the notes of the forbidden song Charles plays, which transforms 1920’s New York into the living, breathing organism it needs to be for this novella. The Ballad of Black Tom is a twisting tale of the Lovecraft mythos that is both refreshing and suspenseful. I could easily have read more of Charles’ journey, which ends with a surprising, but utterly satisfying conclusion. If this book is not claiming awards next season, there’s something wrong with the system. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on September 30, 2016 by , 1 comment
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