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The Book of Jonah
A major literary debut, an epic tale of love, failure, and unexpected faith set in New York, Amsterdam, and Las Vegas
The modern-day Jonah at the center of Joshua Max Feldman's brilliantly conceived retelling of the book of Jonah is a young Manhattan lawyer named Jonah Jacobstein. He's a lucky man: healthy and handsome, with two beautiful women ready to spend the rest of their lives with him and an enormously successful career that gets more promising by the minute. He's celebrating a deal that will surely make him partner when a bizarre, unexpected biblical vision at a party changes everything. Hard as he tries to forget what he saw, this disturbing sign is only the first of many Jonah will witness, and before long his life is unrecognizable. Though this perhaps divine intervention will be responsible for more than one irreversible loss in Jonah's life, it will also cross his path with that of Judith Bulbrook, an intense, breathtakingly intelligent woman who's no stranger to loss herself. As this funny and bold novel moves to Amsterdam and then Las Vegas, Feldman examines the way we live now while asking an age-old question: How do you know if you're chosen?
The modern-day Jonah at the center of Joshua Max Feldman's brilliantly conceived retelling of the book of Jonah is a young Manhattan lawyer named Jonah Jacobstein. He's a lucky man: healthy and handsome, with two beautiful women ready to spend the rest of their lives with him and an enormously successful career that gets more promising by the minute. He's celebrating a deal that will surely make him partner when a bizarre, unexpected biblical vision at a party changes everything. Hard as he tries to forget what he saw, this disturbing sign is only the first of many Jonah will witness, and before long his life is unrecognizable. Though this perhaps divine intervention will be responsible for more than one irreversible loss in Jonah's life, it will also cross his path with that of Judith Bulbrook, an intense, breathtakingly intelligent woman who's no stranger to loss herself. As this funny and bold novel moves to Amsterdam and then Las Vegas, Feldman examines the way we live now while asking an age-old question: How do you know if you're chosen?
337 pages, Hardcover
First published January 21, 2014
26 people are currently reading
1473 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Max Feldman
9 books38 followersJoshua Max Feldman is a writer of fiction and plays. His first novel, THE BOOK OF JONAH, has been translated into nine languages. His newest book, START WITHOUT ME, will be published in October, 2017 by William Morrow. He currently resides in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 183 reviews
April 30, 2014
In this novel, Jonah is a Jewish corporate lawyer in New York City, who is just about to be promoted to partner. All he has to do is defend a giant pharmaceutical company from patent infringement. He guesses that the company stole the formula from a small startup company, but will probably win the case by "out-lawyering" it. Meanwhile, Jonah juggles his life between two girlfriends, a serious one and a not-so-serious one.
Jonah sees a couple of visions, and struggles with their meaning. One day he suddenly becomes "honest", and ruins his life--his career, his relationships, and cannot come to terms with what is happening.
Another line of the plot focuses on a young, brilliant woman named Judith. She devotes her life to studying, and enters Yale. Her life is devastated, though, on September 11, 2001, when both her parents die on an airplane. The last third of the book is about Jonah's search for Judith, and their reconciliation.
Now, this book is supposed to be a parallel between the biblical story of Jonah, and this modern-day Jonah. Each section of the book is actually labeled with the portion of the biblical story, in order to push the parallel into the reader's face. However, even with the push, I don't really see the parallels. In fact, I thought that the author got the episode with the whale wrong--I thought that an earlier incident in the modern Jonah's life was much more in parallel with a whale, than the one that was labeled as such.
The book has a mild sense of humor--for example, the sudden, dramatic downturn in Jonah's life when everything went wrong at once, and the episode where Judith is interviewed by her new employer in Las Vegas. But this mild humor is not enough to get caught up in the story. I didn't see the parallels with the biblical story, and the philosophy and religion aspects are not deep or appealing. The book is a bit of fun, nothing more.
Jonah sees a couple of visions, and struggles with their meaning. One day he suddenly becomes "honest", and ruins his life--his career, his relationships, and cannot come to terms with what is happening.
Another line of the plot focuses on a young, brilliant woman named Judith. She devotes her life to studying, and enters Yale. Her life is devastated, though, on September 11, 2001, when both her parents die on an airplane. The last third of the book is about Jonah's search for Judith, and their reconciliation.
Now, this book is supposed to be a parallel between the biblical story of Jonah, and this modern-day Jonah. Each section of the book is actually labeled with the portion of the biblical story, in order to push the parallel into the reader's face. However, even with the push, I don't really see the parallels. In fact, I thought that the author got the episode with the whale wrong--I thought that an earlier incident in the modern Jonah's life was much more in parallel with a whale, than the one that was labeled as such.
The book has a mild sense of humor--for example, the sudden, dramatic downturn in Jonah's life when everything went wrong at once, and the episode where Judith is interviewed by her new employer in Las Vegas. But this mild humor is not enough to get caught up in the story. I didn't see the parallels with the biblical story, and the philosophy and religion aspects are not deep or appealing. The book is a bit of fun, nothing more.
January 20, 2014
A modern retelling of the Old Testament's book of Jonah, as well as a second text, that of the widow Judith who decapitated the Assyrian General Holofernes, are the thrust of Max Feldman's story of a young Jewish corporate lawyer climbing to the top of the ladder with an empty soul and a divided heart. Jonah Jacobstein has two beautiful girlfriends devoted to him, and a law firm ready to hand him a meteoric rise to success by doing their dirty work. Jacob is ready to choose one woman and leap into eminent success, when a Hasidic Jew on a subway asks him deep religious and provocative questions about his chosen life. The best Jonah can answer is "I feel guilty on Yom Kippur."
Jonah dismisses the man from his consciousness, until he begins to have frightening and disturbing biblical vision at a party. Psychically, it is a vision he can't escape. The story follows Jacob as he responds to this "divine intervention" in his own stumbling ways, until the epic climax that mirrors the force of his faith.
I was fastened to the first part of the novel, as Jonah is torn between the two girlfriends and driven by success. The characterization seemed organic and I related to his conflicts. However, as the book moved ever toward its pantheon of biblical twists, and the allegories intensified, it became touched with melodrama and heavy-handed narrative. Jonah became a bit lost to me, and I sensed self-consciousness as the author morphed his very human character into a contemporary Old Testament archetype. Jonah's connection with Judith, which was supposed to compel us, felt inorganic and flat. The middle of the book was filled with long-winded philosophizing, although, admittedly, I enjoyed some of the gems of thought out of context, but not so much as part of the whole.
I suspect that Feldman was appealing to both the faithful and the faithless, attempting to blur the lines of secular and religious; however, perhaps I am too much a secular student of life to appreciate the message of the book. The author writes well, but not consistently. This is his debut effort, and I was interested enough to look forward to his next book, if it isn't another biblical allegory.
Jonah dismisses the man from his consciousness, until he begins to have frightening and disturbing biblical vision at a party. Psychically, it is a vision he can't escape. The story follows Jacob as he responds to this "divine intervention" in his own stumbling ways, until the epic climax that mirrors the force of his faith.
I was fastened to the first part of the novel, as Jonah is torn between the two girlfriends and driven by success. The characterization seemed organic and I related to his conflicts. However, as the book moved ever toward its pantheon of biblical twists, and the allegories intensified, it became touched with melodrama and heavy-handed narrative. Jonah became a bit lost to me, and I sensed self-consciousness as the author morphed his very human character into a contemporary Old Testament archetype. Jonah's connection with Judith, which was supposed to compel us, felt inorganic and flat. The middle of the book was filled with long-winded philosophizing, although, admittedly, I enjoyed some of the gems of thought out of context, but not so much as part of the whole.
I suspect that Feldman was appealing to both the faithful and the faithless, attempting to blur the lines of secular and religious; however, perhaps I am too much a secular student of life to appreciate the message of the book. The author writes well, but not consistently. This is his debut effort, and I was interested enough to look forward to his next book, if it isn't another biblical allegory.
August 13, 2014
At first I was on board for this book, a modern retelling of a biblical tale that explores life and faith and meaning. Then 9/11 happened. No, in the story. At that point everything came into stark relief and I became increasingly more frustrated with the whole endeavor. The entire book feels like a rough draft: just a lot of ideas being thrown around with little regard to character or coherent story. Not to mention, a couple of philosophical moments involving a stoner and a priest that I guess are supposed to be deep, but wouldn't impress an actual stoner. There is a ton of exposition, much of it needless, and a complete lack of tension. At one point the narrator states that, despite being fired, Jonah can live comfortably abroad with a steady paycheck (not bad) in Amsterdam. So the stakes aren't just low at times, they're non-existent.
Overall, the biggest problem I had was a complete lack of believability. There wasn't a moment where I bought the idea that Jonah was a high-profile corporate lawyer on the verge of becoming partner of a Manhattan law firm or that Judith was a troubled genius. Sure, the narrative constantly reminds us they are by stating it outright, but a lot of telling isn't convincing if you're characters constantly act like moody twenty-somethings who are constantly befuddled by the world around them. Judith's storyline is particularly annoying as much of it is her entire life told in summary (as opposed to Jonah's, which just starts with his recent case and fallout). From this we're supposed to understand her parents' deaths were traumatizing, leading her into a life of academic success and nymphomania (which she already was before they died, but nevermind). There is a lot of ambition on display here to tell a sweeping narrative involving loss, self-discovery, and fate. Too bad the author wasn't nearly up to the task to pull it off.
Overall, the biggest problem I had was a complete lack of believability. There wasn't a moment where I bought the idea that Jonah was a high-profile corporate lawyer on the verge of becoming partner of a Manhattan law firm or that Judith was a troubled genius. Sure, the narrative constantly reminds us they are by stating it outright, but a lot of telling isn't convincing if you're characters constantly act like moody twenty-somethings who are constantly befuddled by the world around them. Judith's storyline is particularly annoying as much of it is her entire life told in summary (as opposed to Jonah's, which just starts with his recent case and fallout). From this we're supposed to understand her parents' deaths were traumatizing, leading her into a life of academic success and nymphomania (which she already was before they died, but nevermind). There is a lot of ambition on display here to tell a sweeping narrative involving loss, self-discovery, and fate. Too bad the author wasn't nearly up to the task to pull it off.
January 7, 2014
A first novel has a lot in common with meeting someone at a party: introductory information (context, clothes, blurbs) tend towards the shallow, first impressions carry a lot of weight, but it takes a while to settle if this is someone you’d ever want to speak to again (or, in the case of a novel, something you’d like to keep reading). Joshua Max Feldman’s “The Book of Jonah” comes with a lovely cover and blurbs sure to catch attention and an ambitious concept. In terms of first impressions, he quickly proves himself to be an able – indeed, exuberant! – writer. Feldman revels in language and characterization. His concept is bold, almost recklessly so, and he barrels forward without even a hint of doubt. Such energy carries the reader forward on a magic carpet of excitement. Yet the power of language can only propel that carpet so far; Feldman’s high concept goal of offering a loose modern retelling of the Jonah story sags as the book enters its middle section. At times interesting and engaging, each reader will judge how this novel’s strengths balance against its occasional reliance on the stockiest of stock characters, a tendency to lurch into melodrama, and the author’s apparent decision late in the game to simply abandon his concept as he rushes into the novel’s end.
By and standard, Feldman’s novel is high concept with a capital HIGH, his goal being to craft a modern retelling of one of the Bible’s most enigmatic stories (and if you think Jonah’s tale is straight forward or explicable, then you are thinking of the Sunday School version). Thus we have brilliant corporate lawyer Jonah Jacobstein in the title role, a Jew so not religious as to border on irreligious (though he doesn’t ever even give it that much thought). If the original text offers us precious little about the ancient Jonah, Feldman opts for the entire opposite approach: he gives us his Jonah in every aspect (including several discussions of his naked form) analyzing his every motivation and doubt. Jonah is a rising star in his law firm. He is dating Sylvia (a sort of two dimensional WASPy ideal) and sleeping with Zoey (Jewish and artsy who starts out quite interesting yet grows flatter as the novel progresses). Everything seems on track to for Jonah to receive all he could desire: he drafted to work on his firm’s most important client, a sure golden ticket to partnership, moving in with Sylvia and seeing Zoey on the side for sex and decent conversation. Yet it begins to fall apart – as of course it must – when he begins to literally hear from God even as he finds out that working for the client will strain his ethics to the breaking point.
Over laid on this Jonah story is a whole other plot involving Judith. As the novel moves back and forth between these seemingly unrelated strands, the reader of course knows that they will eventually come together, a thing at first anticipated and eventually simply longed for. While buoyed by Feldman’s skill as a writer, Judith who begins with much potential, quickly descends into the tragic land of characters dragged about not because of anything beyond naked authorial intent. She’s brilliant. She suffers tragedy (and without spoiling, it is a tragedy rapidly growing into a new literary cliché), and tragedy begets tragedy. Her story is there, you’ll pardon the double meaning, to service Jonah’s, and we come to just want Feldman to get it over with and let us in on the eventual meeting.
As for Feldman’s prose, his sentences often read as a combination of the best of Philip Roth and Martin Amis: orgiastic in the page, and especially in the beginning, ebullient in effect. That he deploys these gifts to build fine characterizations only wets the reader’s appetite. Consider for example this fine first description when we meet Zoey: “Indeed, nothing that bothered her so much about herself bothered him at all; he even found the persistence of all the (to him baseless) anxieties charming. And as watched her frowning at whatever she was hearing on the phone, still chewing her thumbnail (a habit she had been trying to break for as long as he’d known her)…there really was so much about her he found charming: the inchoate worries; her candor, her wit; her idiosyncratic habit of only cursing in languages other than English; the drama of her facial expressions – she being a woman whose brow furrowed, whose laughter was loud and open mouthed, whose nervousness brought tautness from her forehead to her chin, whose almond shaped brown eyes narrowed and darted, and whose head tilted just so when she was flirting.”
Now, this is a great description. We as readers are fully engaged in Jonah’s view through the lens of his heart. Yet the author seems to pay little heed the effort such sentences place on his reader. Unlike other writers who share his penchant to wallow in language, (Chabon comes to mind) Feldman piles such descriptions one on the other. Feldman’s keen eye which gives us one character’s “smooth hairless hands” and describes a punishing summer with “heat that seemed to trap each New Yorker in his or her own personal lobster pot,” entices his reader. Yet in offering seemingly everything this fine treatment, he makes it hard for his reader to figure out where to focus. Metaphors that delight at the beginning, pile up like a tragic highway accident and eventually simply exhaust. Yes, they are excellent (such as when Jonah sees a vision of everyone in his office naked, one woman “…with an arc of moles and freckles across her chest and small dark areolae capping her breasts like tiny yarmulkes”), but one almost wonders whether Feldman want to impress us with his overdrive prose or expects us to cry uncle.
With the reader’s exhaustion, comes a certain cantankerousness. Loose plot points and cookie cutter characters (the immaculate, inscrutable, Asian genius with a weakness for hookers and fortune cookie dialogue for example or the rapacious, loutish, libertine casino magnate who is randy as he is Randian) ware more than they otherwise might. The whole Judith plot line at times arrives with all the subtlety of a dropped ACME safe. Moreover, one wonders whether Feldman made the conscious choice to go overboard in dissecting each and everyone of his character’s motivations, leaving little if anything to the imagination.
For all these short comings, “The Book of Jonah” is often a fine read. Feldman’s sharp sense of humor can create cutting bits of social satire. As is often the case with first novels that show such strengths, one cannot but wonder whether there wasn’t something extraordinary that might have emerged with sufficient editorial guidance, a tragedy in and of itself. Given his obvious talent, I will certainly pick up his next book. Still, instead of satisfaction, this novel’s end arrives mostly with a sense of tired relief.
By and standard, Feldman’s novel is high concept with a capital HIGH, his goal being to craft a modern retelling of one of the Bible’s most enigmatic stories (and if you think Jonah’s tale is straight forward or explicable, then you are thinking of the Sunday School version). Thus we have brilliant corporate lawyer Jonah Jacobstein in the title role, a Jew so not religious as to border on irreligious (though he doesn’t ever even give it that much thought). If the original text offers us precious little about the ancient Jonah, Feldman opts for the entire opposite approach: he gives us his Jonah in every aspect (including several discussions of his naked form) analyzing his every motivation and doubt. Jonah is a rising star in his law firm. He is dating Sylvia (a sort of two dimensional WASPy ideal) and sleeping with Zoey (Jewish and artsy who starts out quite interesting yet grows flatter as the novel progresses). Everything seems on track to for Jonah to receive all he could desire: he drafted to work on his firm’s most important client, a sure golden ticket to partnership, moving in with Sylvia and seeing Zoey on the side for sex and decent conversation. Yet it begins to fall apart – as of course it must – when he begins to literally hear from God even as he finds out that working for the client will strain his ethics to the breaking point.
Over laid on this Jonah story is a whole other plot involving Judith. As the novel moves back and forth between these seemingly unrelated strands, the reader of course knows that they will eventually come together, a thing at first anticipated and eventually simply longed for. While buoyed by Feldman’s skill as a writer, Judith who begins with much potential, quickly descends into the tragic land of characters dragged about not because of anything beyond naked authorial intent. She’s brilliant. She suffers tragedy (and without spoiling, it is a tragedy rapidly growing into a new literary cliché), and tragedy begets tragedy. Her story is there, you’ll pardon the double meaning, to service Jonah’s, and we come to just want Feldman to get it over with and let us in on the eventual meeting.
As for Feldman’s prose, his sentences often read as a combination of the best of Philip Roth and Martin Amis: orgiastic in the page, and especially in the beginning, ebullient in effect. That he deploys these gifts to build fine characterizations only wets the reader’s appetite. Consider for example this fine first description when we meet Zoey: “Indeed, nothing that bothered her so much about herself bothered him at all; he even found the persistence of all the (to him baseless) anxieties charming. And as watched her frowning at whatever she was hearing on the phone, still chewing her thumbnail (a habit she had been trying to break for as long as he’d known her)…there really was so much about her he found charming: the inchoate worries; her candor, her wit; her idiosyncratic habit of only cursing in languages other than English; the drama of her facial expressions – she being a woman whose brow furrowed, whose laughter was loud and open mouthed, whose nervousness brought tautness from her forehead to her chin, whose almond shaped brown eyes narrowed and darted, and whose head tilted just so when she was flirting.”
Now, this is a great description. We as readers are fully engaged in Jonah’s view through the lens of his heart. Yet the author seems to pay little heed the effort such sentences place on his reader. Unlike other writers who share his penchant to wallow in language, (Chabon comes to mind) Feldman piles such descriptions one on the other. Feldman’s keen eye which gives us one character’s “smooth hairless hands” and describes a punishing summer with “heat that seemed to trap each New Yorker in his or her own personal lobster pot,” entices his reader. Yet in offering seemingly everything this fine treatment, he makes it hard for his reader to figure out where to focus. Metaphors that delight at the beginning, pile up like a tragic highway accident and eventually simply exhaust. Yes, they are excellent (such as when Jonah sees a vision of everyone in his office naked, one woman “…with an arc of moles and freckles across her chest and small dark areolae capping her breasts like tiny yarmulkes”), but one almost wonders whether Feldman want to impress us with his overdrive prose or expects us to cry uncle.
With the reader’s exhaustion, comes a certain cantankerousness. Loose plot points and cookie cutter characters (the immaculate, inscrutable, Asian genius with a weakness for hookers and fortune cookie dialogue for example or the rapacious, loutish, libertine casino magnate who is randy as he is Randian) ware more than they otherwise might. The whole Judith plot line at times arrives with all the subtlety of a dropped ACME safe. Moreover, one wonders whether Feldman made the conscious choice to go overboard in dissecting each and everyone of his character’s motivations, leaving little if anything to the imagination.
For all these short comings, “The Book of Jonah” is often a fine read. Feldman’s sharp sense of humor can create cutting bits of social satire. As is often the case with first novels that show such strengths, one cannot but wonder whether there wasn’t something extraordinary that might have emerged with sufficient editorial guidance, a tragedy in and of itself. Given his obvious talent, I will certainly pick up his next book. Still, instead of satisfaction, this novel’s end arrives mostly with a sense of tired relief.
July 21, 2016
This one was stunningly difficult to review. It began so auspiciously, so impressively, so lovely and then devolved with a second half so steadily...how does one account for such disparity? This was suppose to be a good, probably even great, book, a modern take on the famous story, a morality fable condemning or at least satirizing with intent to condemn the brutally soulless finance driven ways of the modern world. Feldman's writing definitely had the strength to carry it too, superbly emotionally intelligent, clever, assured narrative that testifies to a significant new talent, this is the sort of book that reminds us of just how different reading really is from other forms of media and why we read and how it's the best and easiest way to get insight into the minds and hearts of others. And yet it is these others(the cast of characters) that are the book's ultimate failure. They are not someone you'd want to get know or glimpse inside. Mind you, Jonah is suppose to be a morally challenged sort of guy and knowing the original story will help with wrapping your mind around him here. But Judith (Jonah's female counterpart, whose story is told parallel to his) has got to be one of the worst female characters in recent history. She's very well, meticulously even, rendered and Feldman spared no literary expense on creating her, but what a creation...hideously weak, endlessly pathetic, self pitied into obscene passiveness, well educated, moneyed, theoretically intelligent yet utterly helpless in all matters of life, she is a punching bag, some sort of an ultra liberal intellectual caricature, hopeless, just going through motions waiting for someone to tell her what to do. And when that person comes along, it's another caricature. This time of an extreme conservative avaricious self made immoral and conscience free Trump like gaming and real estate magnate, who shapes Judith the sad sack into Judy the corporate buyer. Judith's story line (since about college years) manages brings the quality of the entire story down. And so, of course, Jonah and Judith are meant to end up together, the book's structure makes it obvious, but even after they meet, their entire relationship is so odd and messy and convoluted right down to the ambiguously left ending (although in all fairness the original story doesn't have a definitive ending either) that it isn't particular compelling and difficult to care about. The idea sounds great...two misguided souls find each other, try to right the wrongs of the world, but you're just not sure those two will actually make it, too self absorbed, too uncertain, too clueless. And so that's the book. I listened to it an audio and it was very well read. It was also as I mentioned very well written. In fact the ratio of quality of narrative to quality of characters is insane almost to the point of cognitive dissonance. It's almost like the characters should become more likable, because they are so well created and yet, they just don't, in fact they are pissing you off. The writing was worth a look, but ultimately too frustrating to love.
May 5, 2015
Sobrevivir en un mundo dominado por la avidez, la ambición sin escrúpulos y la flagrante ausencia de ética laboral es un proceso que podría explicarse sin recurrir a ninguna analogía bíblica. Sin embargo, el joven escritor norteamericano Joshua Max Feldman demuestra entre las páginas de El libro de Jonah, su debut como novelista, que dicho recurso resulta en última instancia tan interesante como apropiado. Feldman no solo reinventa en su libro las bases de una historia que, por ser de sobra conocida, tendría altas posibilidades de perder su efecto ejemplarizante, sino que lo hace además de un modo audaz, certero, sin ambages ni medias tintas, sacando el lado más gamberro e inconformista de un relato que ofrece innumerables lecturas. Eso sí, su ritmo irregular, el irritante gusto que demuestra el autor por recrearse en aspectos nimios de la trama y la resolución un tanto apresurada (e insatisfactoria) de la historia principal son algunos factores que me han impedido disfrutar plenamente de su lectura. A pesar de ello, haberme adentrado en las fauces de este prometedor debut no es algo de lo que me arrepienta. En absoluto. Y es que, aun con sus fallos, si algo revela El libro de Jonah es que Joshua Max Feldman posee un indiscutible talento literario y una sugerente proyección futura que me harán estar pendiente de sus próximos trabajos.
February 13, 2014
In 2001, Nick Hornby published a discomforting novel called “How to Be Good.” It’s about a man who upends his life by deciding that he will always do what’s right. “Who could live with that?” Hornby asks. Call it the curse of extravagant virtue. Our orderly lives depend upon a certain degree of moral nearsightedness, our ability to moderate the demands of conscience, to ignore the fathomless needs of others much of the time. Lose that and you become a kind of ethical freak, clad in self-righteousness, reminding Frappuccino drinkers that there are kids dying in Africa.
In his beguiling first novel, “The Book of Jonah,” Joshua Max Feldman gives this theme a post-Sept. 11 update. It introduces itself as a good-natured satire of New York corporate life and the romantic machinations of the overeducated, highly compensated class. But in the twinkling of an eye, Feldman begins asking explicitly moral and religious questions that literary fiction usually only squints at through a glass, darkly.
From the title, you’ve probably already caught the reference to the Bible’s most popular story: that strange, brief tale toward the end of the Old Testament about a prophet who does his best to defy God’s command.
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...
In his beguiling first novel, “The Book of Jonah,” Joshua Max Feldman gives this theme a post-Sept. 11 update. It introduces itself as a good-natured satire of New York corporate life and the romantic machinations of the overeducated, highly compensated class. But in the twinkling of an eye, Feldman begins asking explicitly moral and religious questions that literary fiction usually only squints at through a glass, darkly.
From the title, you’ve probably already caught the reference to the Bible’s most popular story: that strange, brief tale toward the end of the Old Testament about a prophet who does his best to defy God’s command.
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...
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April 9, 2014"The Book of Jonah" seems like Christian bookstore fiction with cool, edgy sex and swearing.Which is a bummer because the concept of a modern day retelling of Jonah fascinated me. However, after setting aside the clumsy, uneven way the book tried to echo the biblical story, I attempted to read the novel on its own terms: young high flyer stopped short in his tracks by apparent brush with the supernatural. Nope.The goal then became to satisfy my curiosity about how a parallel storyline would be woven into the book's resolution. Oh dear. The last hours were predictable and disappointing. One final heavy handed biblical allusion - The Babylon Gallery - extinguished and then ground into the dirt the tiny flicker of hope I still held for this novel's redemption.
Author Joshua Max Feldman had some good ideas here: Las Vegas as a modern day Nineveh, how society sees those who claim to have a message from God, even the morality of practicing modern corporate law. Unfortunately, his MFA group or editor didn't give him the tough love needed to bring these good ideas into fascinating fruition.
Author Joshua Max Feldman had some good ideas here: Las Vegas as a modern day Nineveh, how society sees those who claim to have a message from God, even the morality of practicing modern corporate law. Unfortunately, his MFA group or editor didn't give him the tough love needed to bring these good ideas into fascinating fruition.
February 17, 2014
The plot is based on the story of Jonah from the Bible where God asks Jonah to go preach the gospel in Nineveh. Jonah found this order unbearable because not only was Nineveh known for its wickedness, but it was also the capital of the Assyrian empire, one of Israel's fiercest enemies. Instead, Jonah went down to the seaport of Joppa and booked passage on a ship to Tarshish, heading directly away from Nineveh and running away from God. God sends a great storm that swaps the boat he in on and he is swallowed by a whale.
In the story, Joshua is the modern day Jonah. He is a successful lawyer in Manhattan with health and wealth. He is involved with two women and on the fast track to becoming a partner in his law firm when he has a vision at a party that changes his life. He had met an Hisidic Jew during a torrential rainstorm when they are waiting in a subway station and, being Jewish, starts a conversation that soon turns ugly as the Hasid warns against turning against his religion.
As hard as Joshua tries to ignore the vision, it is only the first of many he will see and soon his life in unrecognizable. He is assigned an important law case in a large pharmaceutical suit, and believing he is doing the right thing, sends an email to a journal and is caught by the law firm monitoring his phone. He is fired, breaks up with his girlfriend, causes a rift between his cousin and her fiancée, and start drinking and smoking. Hitting rock bottom, he travels to Amsterdam where he meets Judith who also tells her hard luck story. Jonah realizes too late that they have a commonality.
Judith, whose parents had died in the plane crash into the Twin Towers on September 9, carries her grief as a shield against happiness and human closeness. She works in an art gallery where she meets movie mogul who befriends her and offers her an opportunity to help build a complex in Las Vegas. He tells her, "You can go on nursing your secret sadness until you end up as an old woman buying a week's worth of cat food at the grocery store because you don't leaving the house. Or you can help build a city." She accepts.
Jonah has also gone to Las Vegas trying to find Judith who had told him she would be working on a real estate deal that involved a church. Joshua visits a church asking for help in locating Judith, and, ironically, she also visits the same pastor on the real estate deal who tells her that God has a plan. He then tells her about Joshua's visit to him.
Joshua has a friend named Simon who brings Judith and him together. Will he be able to convince her that they have a future together and that god has a plan for them?
In the story, Joshua is the modern day Jonah. He is a successful lawyer in Manhattan with health and wealth. He is involved with two women and on the fast track to becoming a partner in his law firm when he has a vision at a party that changes his life. He had met an Hisidic Jew during a torrential rainstorm when they are waiting in a subway station and, being Jewish, starts a conversation that soon turns ugly as the Hasid warns against turning against his religion.
As hard as Joshua tries to ignore the vision, it is only the first of many he will see and soon his life in unrecognizable. He is assigned an important law case in a large pharmaceutical suit, and believing he is doing the right thing, sends an email to a journal and is caught by the law firm monitoring his phone. He is fired, breaks up with his girlfriend, causes a rift between his cousin and her fiancée, and start drinking and smoking. Hitting rock bottom, he travels to Amsterdam where he meets Judith who also tells her hard luck story. Jonah realizes too late that they have a commonality.
Judith, whose parents had died in the plane crash into the Twin Towers on September 9, carries her grief as a shield against happiness and human closeness. She works in an art gallery where she meets movie mogul who befriends her and offers her an opportunity to help build a complex in Las Vegas. He tells her, "You can go on nursing your secret sadness until you end up as an old woman buying a week's worth of cat food at the grocery store because you don't leaving the house. Or you can help build a city." She accepts.
Jonah has also gone to Las Vegas trying to find Judith who had told him she would be working on a real estate deal that involved a church. Joshua visits a church asking for help in locating Judith, and, ironically, she also visits the same pastor on the real estate deal who tells her that God has a plan. He then tells her about Joshua's visit to him.
Joshua has a friend named Simon who brings Judith and him together. Will he be able to convince her that they have a future together and that god has a plan for them?
December 20, 2013
When I read what this book was about, I was really interested in the concept. A modern day tale spun around the story of Jonah in the Bible? Ok, I'll bite.
At the onset, I was interested, but it fizzled rather quickly.
For example: I was curious how they would incorporate the "big fish" capacity- disappointed.
Jonah's arc as a person- Not that much parallel to the story in question after he loses everything.
And the question that kept me keep reading even when I didn't want to- How was the story of Judith going to be entwined with Jonah's? It could have been really fascinating. It wasn't.
I was bummed. At the end of the book my thought was, "What was the point of this?"
There were a few moments of revelation for characters, but they were short lived or minor in my opinion. The circumstances that happened to these people were much larger than any change I hoped to see in them while reading the book. I found it to be stubbornly cold.
Needless to say, I did not find it to be a satisfying read. As I said, the book introduced the early parts of the story of Jonah well: the man of the world running away and wanting none of it, but the main points of the story he is referencing are forgiveness, repentance and mercy which are not given their due in my opinion. I'm not saying the story needed to be tied with a big red bow. I am glad it wasn't, but I found the end of the book to be lacking.
At the onset, I was interested, but it fizzled rather quickly.
For example: I was curious how they would incorporate the "big fish" capacity- disappointed.
Jonah's arc as a person- Not that much parallel to the story in question after he loses everything.
And the question that kept me keep reading even when I didn't want to- How was the story of Judith going to be entwined with Jonah's? It could have been really fascinating. It wasn't.
I was bummed. At the end of the book my thought was, "What was the point of this?"
There were a few moments of revelation for characters, but they were short lived or minor in my opinion. The circumstances that happened to these people were much larger than any change I hoped to see in them while reading the book. I found it to be stubbornly cold.
Needless to say, I did not find it to be a satisfying read. As I said, the book introduced the early parts of the story of Jonah well: the man of the world running away and wanting none of it, but the main points of the story he is referencing are forgiveness, repentance and mercy which are not given their due in my opinion. I'm not saying the story needed to be tied with a big red bow. I am glad it wasn't, but I found the end of the book to be lacking.
May 19, 2015
Making the connection to the book of Jonah was sort of a stretch. I see how maybe Feldman was trying to compare Vegas to Nineveh. Jonah Jacobson, the main character, finds himself convicted by a Hasdic Jew he meets on a Subway. Jonah starts having visions, and this sort of reminded me the dreams biblical Jonah has. When biblical Jonah was thrown overboard, to calm the seas, this sort of reminded me of Jonah Jacobson's expulsion from his law firm. I was also thinking about Matisyahu's Hanukkah Song when Jonah started having visions and messages from the Hassid, then Feldman actually mentioned Matisyahu! Must have been an influence. There was an overlapping story as well, involving a Jewish girl named Judith. Her tragic story revolves around the death of her parents in the 9/11 event. It is no secret that as the story progresses Jonah and Judith will get together. The way this happens is the plot of the story. I'm not sure what the big fish was supposed to represent ... maybe the city of Amsterdam where J. Jacobson flees after his "escape" from NY when his job is eliminated.
September 27, 2014
I thought it was brilliant. Best anti-hero hero in a long time, and super sharp writing.
September 4, 2025
Con este libro empecé regular: me resultaba un poco aburrido ese mundo de hombres-blancos-heterosexuales-jóvenes-profesionales-prestigiosos (sé qué dije hace poco que los problemas de los ricos son muy divertidos, pero no hay contradicción: lo son los de los ricos ociosos, no los de quien gana unos cientos de miles al año a costa de dejarse la vida, y el alma).
Al contrario de lo que quizás cabría esperar, todo mejora notablemente al introducirse en la historia el elemento religioso, y es que este libro es, al parecer (carezco de cultura bíblica), una versión libre del Libro de Jonás del Antiguo Testamento. Y, sobre todo, mejora al introducir a la otra protagonista, Judith, por la que pude por fin interesarme en su complejidad (sin menospreciar a nadie, pero las preocupaciones de los anteriores personajes femeninos parecían limitarse, en un caso, a tener las tetas demasiado pequeñas, y en otro a tenerlas demasiado grandes).
Construye a partir de ahí el autor una historia en que sigue a los dos protagonistas a lo largo de sus complicadas vidas, que se cruzan fugazmente en un par de ocasiones antes de encontrarse por fin.
Pérdidas devastadoras, alucinaciones místicas, espirales de compulsión y autocastigo, abandono de la moral propia en favor de la corriente y el éxito y redención final en una originalísima y (al final sí) divertida novela.
«En una hipotética continuación de la disputa con el jasid, Jonah reconoció en su fuero interno la frivolidad de todo aquello, y a modo de réplica se acordó de todas las veces en que la vida impedía cualquier frivolidad, y se dijo que la frivolidad era una especie de decisión colectiva por parte de los que participaban en ella, y que muchas veces la vida conspiraba en su contra: así, pues, ¿por qué no tomar una copa, ligar y divertirse? Por la mañana habría reuniones, rupturas, y todos los allí presentes acabarían asistiendo a su ración de funerales. Jonah no era ningún fatalista, pero sus estudios y su experiencia como abogado le habían enseñado que no tienes por qué creer en un argumento para que este sea eficaz; de ahí que se sintiera justificado al iniciar aquella velada de beneficencia cogiendo una cerveza.»
Al contrario de lo que quizás cabría esperar, todo mejora notablemente al introducirse en la historia el elemento religioso, y es que este libro es, al parecer (carezco de cultura bíblica), una versión libre del Libro de Jonás del Antiguo Testamento. Y, sobre todo, mejora al introducir a la otra protagonista, Judith, por la que pude por fin interesarme en su complejidad (sin menospreciar a nadie, pero las preocupaciones de los anteriores personajes femeninos parecían limitarse, en un caso, a tener las tetas demasiado pequeñas, y en otro a tenerlas demasiado grandes).
Construye a partir de ahí el autor una historia en que sigue a los dos protagonistas a lo largo de sus complicadas vidas, que se cruzan fugazmente en un par de ocasiones antes de encontrarse por fin.
Pérdidas devastadoras, alucinaciones místicas, espirales de compulsión y autocastigo, abandono de la moral propia en favor de la corriente y el éxito y redención final en una originalísima y (al final sí) divertida novela.
«En una hipotética continuación de la disputa con el jasid, Jonah reconoció en su fuero interno la frivolidad de todo aquello, y a modo de réplica se acordó de todas las veces en que la vida impedía cualquier frivolidad, y se dijo que la frivolidad era una especie de decisión colectiva por parte de los que participaban en ella, y que muchas veces la vida conspiraba en su contra: así, pues, ¿por qué no tomar una copa, ligar y divertirse? Por la mañana habría reuniones, rupturas, y todos los allí presentes acabarían asistiendo a su ración de funerales. Jonah no era ningún fatalista, pero sus estudios y su experiencia como abogado le habían enseñado que no tienes por qué creer en un argumento para que este sea eficaz; de ahí que se sintiera justificado al iniciar aquella velada de beneficencia cogiendo una cerveza.»
October 23, 2021
What started as a guy’s version of “Sex and the City” quickly devolved. If it weren’t for the swings in locale from NY to Amsterdam to Vegas, I would have probably “jumped ship” and abandoned this novel about halfway. But the descriptions of each city were illustrative and entertaining so I stuck with it.
Every few chapters there are narrative headings from the biblical story of Jonah but the connections to the novel are either weak or so obfuscated that they really became meaningless for me. Same with his dark visions that penetrate the first half. I had this novel on my Goodreads since 2014 and if it weren’t for my trying to chip away at books that I’ve had listed for a while, I’m not sure I’d ever have picked this one up. You can skip it; there are plenty of other fish in the sea.
Every few chapters there are narrative headings from the biblical story of Jonah but the connections to the novel are either weak or so obfuscated that they really became meaningless for me. Same with his dark visions that penetrate the first half. I had this novel on my Goodreads since 2014 and if it weren’t for my trying to chip away at books that I’ve had listed for a while, I’m not sure I’d ever have picked this one up. You can skip it; there are plenty of other fish in the sea.
June 9, 2014
More than halfway through with this, and have developed a querulous, cranky feeling about the story, the uneven writing displayed, and especially the proofreading and content errors that have me re-reading sentences repeatedly, only to confirm that yeah, a word's simply been left out, or yeah, that actually makes no sense. This book screams for the firm hand of an editor--the kind of editor there used to be, who would guide a new author, show where what he wrote simply made no sense, or was cliched, or was repetitive, or where a point now treated as a given had never actually been established--the kind of editor who would say, "Joshua, you need to fix/cut/rewrite this for me and I'm not taking no for an answer." Every ten pages or so, there's a continuity or word drop or credibility or failure-to-establish problem serious enough to feel like a really deep pothole that jolts the reader out of the story.
For example, if Jonah, a nonsmoker for 8 years, actually chain-smoked 50 American Spirit cigarettes in the time it took to play a Rolling Stones album four times, I think he'd end up in the ER. Not just experiencing a bit of nausea the next day, a detail I'm thinking the author tossed in as an afterthought. I actually have tried to do the math on this repeatedly because I feel it's physically impossible, and preposterous, and the fact that it survived editing is just so irritating.
And just a few pages ago, for the first time Jonah thinks about the Hasid's "curse" -- as a given, as something he's already decided happened. But that was never established. I was waiting for it to be established, way way back when their encounter was described. Nada.
And when the first vision happens and the Hebrew letters appear, and are printed in the text, the reader wants to know: What do these letters spell? What does that mean? Does Jonah himself know? And it's not indicated, not at all. Many pages later you learn that Jonah does not know. It really should have been indicated at the time, or soon after.
There are moments of grace and promise here, but also so many moments of irritation and repetition, re-reading due to simple errors (you can even see sometimes that an attempt was made to "fix" a too-complex sentence and it was just not successful), and a teetering back and forth between: Let me now say this all over again with even more bog-like prose, versus Let me now completely fail to include crucial continuity or give any idea of the possible connection of these disparate stories.
These days I really feel that life is short, my pile of books to read is huge, and I really must insist that a book captivate me with grace in its language and structure. Then I'm much more willing to suspend disbelief.
Today I'd say that I find really bad editing coming out of most publishers, even the formerly prestigious houses. This is a shame, but I know why it's so: the young editors themselves have no clue about grace in language. The reality is: It's not just what you say, it's how you say it. This has always distinguished "literature" from "fiction." Right now I've got a book of fiction only, and yeah, I think I'll move on.
For example, if Jonah, a nonsmoker for 8 years, actually chain-smoked 50 American Spirit cigarettes in the time it took to play a Rolling Stones album four times, I think he'd end up in the ER. Not just experiencing a bit of nausea the next day, a detail I'm thinking the author tossed in as an afterthought. I actually have tried to do the math on this repeatedly because I feel it's physically impossible, and preposterous, and the fact that it survived editing is just so irritating.
And just a few pages ago, for the first time Jonah thinks about the Hasid's "curse" -- as a given, as something he's already decided happened. But that was never established. I was waiting for it to be established, way way back when their encounter was described. Nada.
And when the first vision happens and the Hebrew letters appear, and are printed in the text, the reader wants to know: What do these letters spell? What does that mean? Does Jonah himself know? And it's not indicated, not at all. Many pages later you learn that Jonah does not know. It really should have been indicated at the time, or soon after.
There are moments of grace and promise here, but also so many moments of irritation and repetition, re-reading due to simple errors (you can even see sometimes that an attempt was made to "fix" a too-complex sentence and it was just not successful), and a teetering back and forth between: Let me now say this all over again with even more bog-like prose, versus Let me now completely fail to include crucial continuity or give any idea of the possible connection of these disparate stories.
These days I really feel that life is short, my pile of books to read is huge, and I really must insist that a book captivate me with grace in its language and structure. Then I'm much more willing to suspend disbelief.
Today I'd say that I find really bad editing coming out of most publishers, even the formerly prestigious houses. This is a shame, but I know why it's so: the young editors themselves have no clue about grace in language. The reality is: It's not just what you say, it's how you say it. This has always distinguished "literature" from "fiction." Right now I've got a book of fiction only, and yeah, I think I'll move on.
December 30, 2013
As usual I received this book for free for the purposes of review. Unfortunately I can't seem to determine exactly from whom. Whover the source of this unknown beneficence, I give my candid thoughts below.
Having read this, would I pay money for it? Probably not, but I'm on the fence.
This is a bifurcated narrative told from the perspective of two people with rather tragic lives. The story flips back and forth between the two the whole way until... well, in the interest of avoiding spoilers I'll just say "until".
On the positive side, this book is wonderfully and elegantly crafted. The author is obviously erudite and can really cobble together some wonderful sentences and has a flair for imagery. The style is very fluid and readable and despite being a VERY long 350+ pages, once you get into the rhythm of the text it speeds along quite nicely. I was able to choke it down in 8-10 hours. It's also very neatly segmented into sections of 20 pages or so if the verbal finery gets to be too much for you then you can put it down and come back later. It has a very literary feel to it; it's not at all a fluffy novel.
To the negative side of the novel, the narrative seems to hint at many grand story lines but never seems to decide to finish any of them. On one hand it's an allegory about right and wrong... but only weakly. On another hand it's a vast story arc bringing characters together in quirky and unexpected ways... but only sorta. I feel about this book the way I feel about this review I'm writing. I want to say something more powerful. I have plenty of words and I keep typing and typing and typing but it just never happens. The threads never come together. That's exactly how I feel about the book... Just left a bit dangling.
To summarize, no, I wouldn't pay money for this but boy can the author pump out some words. He's vastly prolix and quite skilled but the proverbial participles were just left a bit dangling.
Having read this, would I pay money for it? Probably not, but I'm on the fence.
This is a bifurcated narrative told from the perspective of two people with rather tragic lives. The story flips back and forth between the two the whole way until... well, in the interest of avoiding spoilers I'll just say "until".
On the positive side, this book is wonderfully and elegantly crafted. The author is obviously erudite and can really cobble together some wonderful sentences and has a flair for imagery. The style is very fluid and readable and despite being a VERY long 350+ pages, once you get into the rhythm of the text it speeds along quite nicely. I was able to choke it down in 8-10 hours. It's also very neatly segmented into sections of 20 pages or so if the verbal finery gets to be too much for you then you can put it down and come back later. It has a very literary feel to it; it's not at all a fluffy novel.
To the negative side of the novel, the narrative seems to hint at many grand story lines but never seems to decide to finish any of them. On one hand it's an allegory about right and wrong... but only weakly. On another hand it's a vast story arc bringing characters together in quirky and unexpected ways... but only sorta. I feel about this book the way I feel about this review I'm writing. I want to say something more powerful. I have plenty of words and I keep typing and typing and typing but it just never happens. The threads never come together. That's exactly how I feel about the book... Just left a bit dangling.
To summarize, no, I wouldn't pay money for this but boy can the author pump out some words. He's vastly prolix and quite skilled but the proverbial participles were just left a bit dangling.
March 14, 2014
"The Book of Jonah" parallels the biblical Book of Jonah in the guise of Jonah Jacobstein, a corporate lawyer who lives the life you would expect of one in his position amongst the Manhattan elite. He is engaged to a career driven woman while engaging in promiscuity with another who is more of a "hip" New York magazine editor.
What changes the everyday life of Jonah is he begins to see visions that are so gut wrenching to him and so piercing that they are impossible to ignore. it begins to skew the way he views the world and the world around him. He begins to question everything. Jonah is a man that seemed to do this anyway but ignored seeking out the answers, due to the visions he begins to seek out those answers which only creates more questions.
On the flip side of the story is Judith, a girl trained my her parents, teachers, and mentors from a very young age through the world of academia, private girl's school, Yale, the Sorbonne and so on. She never really questioned anything. her life was set from the moment she was born, that is until a very tragic event throw her life into a spiral where she to begins to question the world and the world around her.
The book alternates from chapter to chapter focusing on Jonah then on Judith. It works very well and never does the reader feel that they are torn away from one character to focus on the other.
This book has now entered my tight pantheon of favorite books. To think that this is the author's first novel is impressive to say the least. The characters seem so vivid and the world he creates seem so real it is one of those stories that lifts you out of wherever you are and transports you to the time and place in each chapter.
I highly recommend this book to anyone that has ever looked around and thought of a universe larger than themselves and wondered what the answers were but instead of answering them simply accepted it as is and took a leap of faith.
What changes the everyday life of Jonah is he begins to see visions that are so gut wrenching to him and so piercing that they are impossible to ignore. it begins to skew the way he views the world and the world around him. He begins to question everything. Jonah is a man that seemed to do this anyway but ignored seeking out the answers, due to the visions he begins to seek out those answers which only creates more questions.
On the flip side of the story is Judith, a girl trained my her parents, teachers, and mentors from a very young age through the world of academia, private girl's school, Yale, the Sorbonne and so on. She never really questioned anything. her life was set from the moment she was born, that is until a very tragic event throw her life into a spiral where she to begins to question the world and the world around her.
The book alternates from chapter to chapter focusing on Jonah then on Judith. It works very well and never does the reader feel that they are torn away from one character to focus on the other.
This book has now entered my tight pantheon of favorite books. To think that this is the author's first novel is impressive to say the least. The characters seem so vivid and the world he creates seem so real it is one of those stories that lifts you out of wherever you are and transports you to the time and place in each chapter.
I highly recommend this book to anyone that has ever looked around and thought of a universe larger than themselves and wondered what the answers were but instead of answering them simply accepted it as is and took a leap of faith.
March 30, 2014
Retellings of classic/historic stories can always be hit and miss, especially when they're Biblical retellings that are both based on somewhat short texts and when the subject of the text is basically known for one key plot point popularly. If you're someone who isn't familiar with the details of the Jonah story in the Bible, you'll probably spend most of this story wondering what, exactly, the whale is supposed to be.
Anyway, one plotline is Jonah, a lawyer in New York who's career trajectory is followed alongside the secondary plot of Judith, a girl who ends up at Yale and loses her parents in the September 11 terrorist attacks. The first almost two-thirds of this book are an almost nihilistic, certainly dark tale of a lot of unlikable people and things across the board.
The final third is a redemption story of sorts for all involved, even if there's a lot of somewhat unreasonable maneuvering to get there. There were honestly times I was wondering what the point was until it finally got there, and, even then, I'm not really sure as to whether things needed to head in the directions they did. Never really a good sign.
I don't know if I can recommend this. On one hand, if retellings are your thing, it's worth a look. As a modern character study, eh. As a fun read? Not really. Had a not gotten a copy for review, I likely might have tossed this aside a little earlier (even if the payoff was okay).
Anyway, one plotline is Jonah, a lawyer in New York who's career trajectory is followed alongside the secondary plot of Judith, a girl who ends up at Yale and loses her parents in the September 11 terrorist attacks. The first almost two-thirds of this book are an almost nihilistic, certainly dark tale of a lot of unlikable people and things across the board.
The final third is a redemption story of sorts for all involved, even if there's a lot of somewhat unreasonable maneuvering to get there. There were honestly times I was wondering what the point was until it finally got there, and, even then, I'm not really sure as to whether things needed to head in the directions they did. Never really a good sign.
I don't know if I can recommend this. On one hand, if retellings are your thing, it's worth a look. As a modern character study, eh. As a fun read? Not really. Had a not gotten a copy for review, I likely might have tossed this aside a little earlier (even if the payoff was okay).
April 12, 2014
Really thought this would be answering the question, "How do you know if you're chosen?" like the blurb on the back said. Even the author doesn't know what the answer to that question is either. The book was meandering at best, purposeless at most other than to tell the story of a very successful lawyer (Jonah) whose life changes as a result of what he believed was a divine vision, amidst the minor back story of a very successful art dealer (Judith). Maybe this book was told from a Jewish perspective and not a Christian perspective, and maybe that's why I'm not getting it. It's not even a good allegory of the book of Jonah in the Tanakh; I mean, if you can't even understand the Tanakh or the Bible, then don't try writing an allegory of any of the stories in it, especially if you're just a nominal Jew or Christian attempting to write something spiritual, because you'll totally miss it. Was thoroughly disappointed in this book.
September 22, 2014
I received this book as a Goodreads first-reads winner.
I requested to read it book because I was interested in how the biblical story of Jonah would be transferred into a modern story. After finishing the book, I don't feel like it really achieved that end. The main character is named Jonah and he has some strange visions that he eventually determines can only have been sent by God but I really didn't feel like there were any other parallels to the biblical story. The book is pretty good and held my interest but maybe largely because I wanted to see how it would end. For me, the end was kind of scattered. Maybe I wold have enjoyed this more if I had just read it as a story and not expected more.
I requested to read it book because I was interested in how the biblical story of Jonah would be transferred into a modern story. After finishing the book, I don't feel like it really achieved that end. The main character is named Jonah and he has some strange visions that he eventually determines can only have been sent by God but I really didn't feel like there were any other parallels to the biblical story. The book is pretty good and held my interest but maybe largely because I wanted to see how it would end. For me, the end was kind of scattered. Maybe I wold have enjoyed this more if I had just read it as a story and not expected more.
March 27, 2016
This book deals with the emptiness that can derive from the worship of personal success and pleasure. It tries to demonstrate that God is omnipresent with people even in the midst of their depravity and shows that redemption is possible for anyone. Although the message is ultimately a positive one, this book left a really bad taste in my mouth. The book is full of sex scenes that may seem important to character development but are ultimately repetitive and extreme. Also, the main character is so twisted and confused throughout the novel that it seems unlikely that his change is genuine. Plus the ending is rather anti-climactic and doesn't present a satisfying conclusion for either of the main characters. It's pretty boring too. Overall, 2 stars is pretty generous.
March 11, 2014
I started out mostly engaged. I understand what the author is trying to do with Jonah and Judith, but in the end, they're mostly just unlikable characters and I really struggled to have any sort of emotional connection with either of them. I am very familiar with the biblical stories he's basing this novel on and while I could appreciate from an objective sense what the author was trying to do, as a novel, I just couldn't get into it. I like the first third of the book but got bogged down in the middle. Ultimately, I decided this wasn't how I wanted to spend the next several days of my life, I had other books I'd enjoy more, so I've made the difficult decision to simply stop reading.
March 23, 2014
This novel lacked in so many ways... The story of love, failure, and new-found faith that it was supposed to be, was never really matured within the 317 pages. The ideas were there, but they were never complete, and therefore, i can't say i enjoyed the book at all. I kept returning to it, hoping that the flame would be produced or develop within the next few pages, but all i ever got was the smoke from the dampened wood that, if dried under the architecture of a well thought out, impeccably designed wood shelter, would have made an immense fire...Anyway, i was very disappointed.
August 6, 2015
Contrary to many of the reviews I've read I actually thought this got stronger as it went along. Feared from the start it would be just another 'mid-life crisis in the city' story and I'd only finish it so I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time reading the first 50 pages, but the pacing and characters were what actually kept me going and I thought the ending was great. Googled it afterwards and saw it was getting a lot of praise in Jewish circles. I'm not Jewish. Don't know what that says about me!
March 1, 2014
Jonah and Judith are people that seem to have preordained successful futures charted out before them. But nothing really goes as it supposed to which is a good thing in some ways for both of them. Feldman delivers a wonderfully told tale with twists and turns aplenty which makes the two protagonist's lives quite interesting for the reader. I think this book could be nicely adapted into a screenplay for a captivating movie. Joshua Feldman is a rising literary star.
August 13, 2016
**I received it via First Reads**
Maybe it is because I'm an atheist and did not get many biblical references, but this book did not appeal to me at all. I found the writing good- not great- and the characters were of no particular interest. I did not relate to this novel in any way. It is not bad, simply not my cup of tea...
Maybe it is because I'm an atheist and did not get many biblical references, but this book did not appeal to me at all. I found the writing good- not great- and the characters were of no particular interest. I did not relate to this novel in any way. It is not bad, simply not my cup of tea...
February 13, 2015
I went in expecting something more like Dara Horn's The World to Come or Everything is Illuminated, i.e., magical realism with some Jewish mysticism. Really, it's just a book about a stressed out firm lawyer which I really don't need to read about.
September 22, 2019
I think there was something more dramatic or more meaningful planned for “The Book of Jonah” that either I missed or that never fully came to fruition. The story alternates between the lives of the two main characters, Jonah and Judith. Throughout the book, the reader is never quite sure how their lives will eventually intersect, and have a great deal of reading to do until they finally find out.
Both characters have similar beginnings. Both are smart, hardworking, and unfamiliar with much of the darker sides of life. And when tragedy strikes one and an unexpected phenomenon happens to the other – their lives changes in ways they could never have imagined.
Although Jonah is the eponymous main character; Judith resonated more strongly with me. Once her life changes forever, she looks at life, at her life, from the detached point of view of a bystander. The feeling behind her voice disappears and she makes comments on her life rather than experiencing it. “This afternoon, went through my own papers. Tests, essays, going back to elementary years at Gustav’s. Odd to see that it all ended up here, in the present.” She is simply unable to reconcile the person she was with the person she finds herself living as now. “She didn’t have any of the social skills associated with a good salesperson, but she had what one of her employers had once called “artistic gravitas”: Buyers took her seriously, which Judith attributed to the fact that she didn’t smile.”
Jonah is harder to relate to. Possible because the changes in his life come from choices he makes rather than circumstances outside of his control. And the book never really made me believe in his choices – neither the bad ones nor the good ones. The reasoning he comes up with or impulses he follows don’t make quite enough sense for me to trust him as a character. He thinks to himself at one point, “But why was his faith never more than an “And yet” – no more powerful than a caveat, a foot note, a suspicion? Why when he tried to take hold of it, did he feel no more certain than grasping an icicle?” I agree with this assessment of the strength of his faith, which is one of the main reason I had trouble reconciling his actions.
(Although I can wholeheartedly agree with some of his observations, especially once he is in Las Vegas. “One of the (many) things he’d grown to dislike about the strip was the fact that you couldn’t walk in a straight line from one end to the other: navigating it required passing through a maze of skywalks, escalators, moving sidewalks, so that you might think you were walking along the strip, only to find yourself halfway down a covered bridge to the entrance at Harrah’s – which, of course, was the whole point.”
Once Jonah and Judith finally come together, the reader, for all of his/her patience, is scarcely rewarded. There is no “Aha!” moment, no big reveal about why their paths should/have crossed. Judith expresses it beautifully when she asks Jonah, “But the fact remains, you need me far more than I need you. After all, if I don’t play along, then what was the point of all the time you’ve spent looking for me? What was the point of anything you’ve been through?”
And I found myself agreeing with her. “What was the point?” What transpired upon these pages that showed a true evolution of character or faith or spirit? What was the grand plan of this story? And did I just miss it or was it never really there?
Both characters have similar beginnings. Both are smart, hardworking, and unfamiliar with much of the darker sides of life. And when tragedy strikes one and an unexpected phenomenon happens to the other – their lives changes in ways they could never have imagined.
Although Jonah is the eponymous main character; Judith resonated more strongly with me. Once her life changes forever, she looks at life, at her life, from the detached point of view of a bystander. The feeling behind her voice disappears and she makes comments on her life rather than experiencing it. “This afternoon, went through my own papers. Tests, essays, going back to elementary years at Gustav’s. Odd to see that it all ended up here, in the present.” She is simply unable to reconcile the person she was with the person she finds herself living as now. “She didn’t have any of the social skills associated with a good salesperson, but she had what one of her employers had once called “artistic gravitas”: Buyers took her seriously, which Judith attributed to the fact that she didn’t smile.”
Jonah is harder to relate to. Possible because the changes in his life come from choices he makes rather than circumstances outside of his control. And the book never really made me believe in his choices – neither the bad ones nor the good ones. The reasoning he comes up with or impulses he follows don’t make quite enough sense for me to trust him as a character. He thinks to himself at one point, “But why was his faith never more than an “And yet” – no more powerful than a caveat, a foot note, a suspicion? Why when he tried to take hold of it, did he feel no more certain than grasping an icicle?” I agree with this assessment of the strength of his faith, which is one of the main reason I had trouble reconciling his actions.
(Although I can wholeheartedly agree with some of his observations, especially once he is in Las Vegas. “One of the (many) things he’d grown to dislike about the strip was the fact that you couldn’t walk in a straight line from one end to the other: navigating it required passing through a maze of skywalks, escalators, moving sidewalks, so that you might think you were walking along the strip, only to find yourself halfway down a covered bridge to the entrance at Harrah’s – which, of course, was the whole point.”
Once Jonah and Judith finally come together, the reader, for all of his/her patience, is scarcely rewarded. There is no “Aha!” moment, no big reveal about why their paths should/have crossed. Judith expresses it beautifully when she asks Jonah, “But the fact remains, you need me far more than I need you. After all, if I don’t play along, then what was the point of all the time you’ve spent looking for me? What was the point of anything you’ve been through?”
And I found myself agreeing with her. “What was the point?” What transpired upon these pages that showed a true evolution of character or faith or spirit? What was the grand plan of this story? And did I just miss it or was it never really there?
February 5, 2021
I’m honestly not too sure how to feel about this book. I was gifted this book on Christmas 2020 because someone saw it in a book store and thought it would be a funny gift (I’m named after Jonah).
At first I thought the storytelling was fantastic. The buildup made it seem as if it would lead up to a huge event and I half expected Jonah to have his life fall apart (metaphorically being swallowed by a whale). The other character, Judy/Judith is a very interesting character and you spend half the book getting to know her, but I’m still not entirely sure what became of her at the end.
Towards the end of the book, I felt more desperate to see some kind of resolution for these two characters. I wanted there to be some kind of meaning for all the events that had transpired. I wanted to understand why Jonah was having visions. I wanted to understand Judith a lot more, to make some sense of her.
But nope. The book just ends. I felt a little disappointed because it felt like the first 90% of the book was leading up to something spectacular, but then in the last 20 pages, everything just gets thrown together and it almost feel as if there was no point to the first 90% of the book. I guess there is some kind of poetic irony to how this book ends so abruptly, just as the Book of Jonah does, but it’s still quite disappointing.
I thought the writing was great and the premise was fantastic, the characters were all quite interesting and it was really fun to gain some tiny insight into each of their lives and personalities. In a way, many of the characters felt like central figures, which makes it all the more disappointing when they just get written away in a final montage at the end of the book. All in all, still a pretty decent read nonetheless.
At first I thought the storytelling was fantastic. The buildup made it seem as if it would lead up to a huge event and I half expected Jonah to have his life fall apart (metaphorically being swallowed by a whale). The other character, Judy/Judith is a very interesting character and you spend half the book getting to know her, but I’m still not entirely sure what became of her at the end.
Towards the end of the book, I felt more desperate to see some kind of resolution for these two characters. I wanted there to be some kind of meaning for all the events that had transpired. I wanted to understand why Jonah was having visions. I wanted to understand Judith a lot more, to make some sense of her.
But nope. The book just ends. I felt a little disappointed because it felt like the first 90% of the book was leading up to something spectacular, but then in the last 20 pages, everything just gets thrown together and it almost feel as if there was no point to the first 90% of the book. I guess there is some kind of poetic irony to how this book ends so abruptly, just as the Book of Jonah does, but it’s still quite disappointing.
I thought the writing was great and the premise was fantastic, the characters were all quite interesting and it was really fun to gain some tiny insight into each of their lives and personalities. In a way, many of the characters felt like central figures, which makes it all the more disappointing when they just get written away in a final montage at the end of the book. All in all, still a pretty decent read nonetheless.
March 24, 2020
A smart, odd novel--odd in ways that make it interesting. A young, ambitious, Jewish, corporate lawyer in NYC has a vision that causes him to try to do what's right, to follow a God he's not sure he believes in and whose intent for him is obscure. The pursuit is disastrous for his career and his relationships. Meanwhile, in a parallel story, a young woman, a brilliant student, loses her beloved parents on 9/11 and subsequently loses her way. Both are accused by their greedy employers of failing to understand how the world really works. The story of these two characters is set up as a modern retelling of the story of the biblical Jonah (as in Jonah & the whale), though I suspect that without the title character's name and the chapter headings drawn from that biblical account, few readers would recognize the parallels. Overall, it was OK--and, as I said, smart--but I found little to relate to in these characters; nor did it open up new worlds to me.
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