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Hope

A Tragedy
by Shalom Auslander
Hope: A Tragedy. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Jan. 2012. c.304p. ISBN 9781594488382. $26.95. F
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Solomon Kugel is obsessed with death and what his last words will be. Having moved to the country for some peace and quiet, he discovers that he has a supposedly long-dead Holocaust victim living in his farmhouse attic. What's worse, he won't ask her to leave. He fears that as a Jew he will be ostracized for making a famous concentration camp victim homeless—never mind that he's discovered that the bad smell in the house is from her using the heating vents as her toilet. In this hilarious farce, we inhabit the musings of Kugel as he deals with what initially seems like a minor inconvenience in his home life. Soon, however, events spin out of control as he is injured, loses his job, and alienates his wife.
VERDICT With underlying ghoulish humor—it's risky to engage lightheartedly with the Holocaust—Auslander provides a brisk narrative marked by a continuing parade of sharp, ironic asides as Kugel's life falls apart piece by piece. A darkly ambitious undertaking in absurdity that essentially mimics the problems of real life; recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, 9/30/11.]
Reviewed by Henry Bankhead, Los Gatos P.L., CA , Dec 01, 2011
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