Memoir is the New Fiction

Because he is charming and modest and quick to laughter (and the book ain't bad either) I am recommending Jonathan Garfinkel's new memoir, Ambivalence.

I got my hands on a reviewer copy a couple of months back and it made for a quick read at the cottage. I read it right after I had finished Michael Chabon's enviably awesome The Yiddish Policemen's Union which doesn't need a plug since Chabon is an American superstar.

After the double-dose of Hebrew humour and history I found myself close to abandoning my Shiksa ways and tying a red ribbon around my wrist. Alas, I remain hopelessly WASP-y. That said, Garfinkel's personal account of investigating a house in Jerusalem allegedly shared by an Arab and a Jew is engaging, poignant and interrogative. It is a major accomplishment in craft and especially impressive since this is Jonathan's first novel-length publication.