Minyan: Ten Jewish Men

by Eliezer Sobel

Winner for the Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel, Minyan is the story of Norbert Wilner, a man who mastered the art of arrested development. At thirty-seven, he lives in New York City, still trying to find his place in the world and still hanging out with the Jewish guys he grew up with in the Jersey suburbs. Most of them remain single and continue to search for God, women, and a good deli sandwich, though not necessarily in that order. Bernstein is a Hindu, Greenlatt's a Sufi, Weissbaum worships Willie Mays, and nobody likes Finkelstein, the big-shot lawyer and born-again Christian. And Freddy Lipschitz has just died. As these middle-aged men gather to mourn their childhood friend, they begin to take stock - and make shtick - of their failures relationships, missed opportunities, questionable careers, and the underlying sense of dread that pervades their existence. Norbert takes the opportunity to make two important he will become a rabbi to save other Jewish souls, and he will start the Happy Sense Funeral Parlor. Despite growing up in the seemingly carefree America of the 1950's, Norbert and his friends still find themselves living in the long shadow of the Holocaust. Fearful children of nervous Jewish mothers, they were instructed to be wary of everyone and everything; to lock the doors, wear earmuffs and marry Jewish girls. "Who knew, at age twelve, that there could be a direct link between little Mary-Anne and Hitler? But there was. The innocent Sunday school cross around her neck may as well have been a swastika, to anyone who had survived the war, as my mother did. I saw a cute girl in pigtails; my mother saw Hitler youth, saw ovens and smoke and her dead grandmother." A chance meeting with the eccentric Rob Miltie helps Norbert clarify his spiritual life. He begins to find salvation through humor, the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, and the camaraderie of lifelong friends as they passionately pursue meaning, marriage and the healing properties of brisket. Inventive, lyrical, and poignantly funny. Minyan celebrates endurance, men baffled by the affairs of the adult world, and the healing power of laughter and friendship. Eliezer Sobel has published fiction, non-fiction, and poetry in the Village Voice, Tikkun, Quest Magazine, New Age Journal, and others. He is the author of Wild Heart Dancing, and the former publisher and editor of the Wild Heart Journal. He lives in Batesville, Virginia.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

Eliezer Sobel was the Editor-in-Chief of The New Sun Magazine in the '70s, and the Wild Heart Journal more recently. He is the author of a memoir, The 99th Monkey, a novel, Minyan, (winner of the Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel), Wild Heart Dancing and the Manual of Good Luck. HIs short story, Mordecai's Book, won the New Millennium Prize for Fiction, and his short stories and articles have appeared in TIKKUN Magazine, Yoga Journal, The New Age Journal, Quest Magazine, and numerous others. For many years Sobel led intensive creativity workshops and retreats at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and similar venues in the US. He lives in Richmond, Va. with his wife, Shari Cordon, and three cats. See also http://www.the99thmonkey.com and

http://www.eliezersobel.com

and his "Mostly Silent Blog" at

www.the99thmonkey.wordpress.com.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this beautifully written and an interesting meditation on how we incorporate faith and tradition into our modern lives. This was a book I picked up randomly while browsing in my university's library and couldn't put back down; unfortunately, it's pretty difficult to find outside of a university library (though Amazon does have it) as it wasn't widely published. Ten men, raised Jewish in New York but now with widely varying interpretations of what their traditions and faith lives mean to them, come together to sit in a minyan (10 men necessary for prayer, according to the Torah) for one of their childhood friends who has passed away.
I wasn't as entranced on my second read of this book, but the first reading did fascinate me.

[Steve]

couldn't get into this book.
hopefully, i'll retiurn to it sometime in the future.

Merged review:

Catherine bought this book. I like it, thus far, but I still need my murder mysteries for napping purposes.
He has one of the characters wanting to play the lead in "The Abe Vigoda Story".... fucking hysterical!!!!!!

[Don Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eliezer Sobel has created a world

Such heartbreak and hilarity seldom dance so intimate and true as in this high-stepping chronicle of ten dear friends. Don't let the shifts in time throw you. So glad I didn't put it down until I couldn't.