Mazeltov: A Novel

by Eli Zuzovsky

In a glorious debut, a boy confronts queer lust, shame, the threat of war, and the plague of family on the day he becomes a man.

At a banquet hall, at the onset of war, Adam Weizmann’s bar mitzvah party turns into a glorious catastrophe. On the cusp of manhood—and the verge of a nervous breakdown—Adam has been bracing for his special day, mired in family neuroses and national dysfunction.

In a chorus of voices, a fractious cast of well-wishers narrates Adam’s coming-of-age in Israel: his newly devout father and the mystic rituals he practiced on his young son; his best friend, Abbie, who points the way to joyful transgression; Khalil, a Palestinian poet, who offers a glimpse of a different way to be; and Adam himself, filled with shame and desire as he faces the brokenness of his world.

At once tender and lustful, a work of scathing satire and piercing insight, Mazeltov is a wholly original vision of a young man’s quest to know his own heart.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Jewish, Literary Fiction, Gay, Contemporary

182 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 11, 2025

Reviews

[jocelyn • coolgalreading · Rating 3 out of 5]

a 3.5? i liked it but i wish i had liked it more. i felt like it was missing something but i can't put my finger on it

[Yari · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character story is centered around his family and his struggle with his sexual identity. Weaved into the story are components of the Israeli and Palestinian war providing enough historical info to keep me interested, but not invested. Written from multiple POVs this coming of age novel is beautifully written, but not engaging. I found it hard to relate to or feel anything for the characters because they often required more depth. I wish the author dedicated more time to character development. That being said, this was a good debut novel and will look forward to seeing how more from this author.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company and Netgalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Matt Chisling (MattyandtheBooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

MAZELTOV is a one-sitting bruiser of a novel exploring a fractured family at a pivotal moment in one young man's life: his Bar Mitzvah.

The plot premise is simple enough: Adam, a 13 year old living in Tel Aviv, is about to become a man, per religious guidelines. He's also, as he's finally realizing, about to come out in some other ways that define his identity. But Adam's Bar Mitzvah terms out to be a moment of impact for so many people in his life: His parents, his grandmother, his best friend, his cousin, and others in his orbit on the night of his manhood. As we move through the pacy, fractured chapters of Eli Zuzovsky's debut novel, we learn how everyone in Adam's family has their lives changed by what goes down on the dance floor (and outside the hall) of his Bar.

MAZELTOV has the juice of commercial fiction packed into a jewel box of a literary fiction novel. The book is full of hilarious moments that blend seamlessly into elements of true heartbreak. And, as one might expect from a book about sexuality, there are some spiced up moments that make the story especially gripping. But, as a whole, this is a rather melancholy piece about the impact of our small and large actions, specifically as each other's family members (chosen or otherwise). The novel is full of unforgettable characters (Annabel! Ben! Meme!) and visceral imagery. The jumping in narrative POVs and writing styles helps make the story even more propulsive as it reaches a breathtaking conclusion, first 20 years in the future and then right back on the stage of the celebration. A slow burn with a tremendous payoff.

Thanks to Henry Holt Books for my gifted early copy! MAZELTOV is out in February.

[Michelle Kimber · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a well-written coming of age novel. The MMC is someone who feel with. The author puts the MC in a situation that highlight the angst. This is a well plotted, well paced read.

[Jordy Cores · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel strikes an interesting balance between moments of engagement and stretches of difficulty. While it’s relatively easy to follow, the book often feels like it doesn't live up to its potential, leaving readers with a sense of unfulfilled expectation. The premise of the story holds promise, offering glimpses of compelling characters and intriguing situations. There are moments that genuinely draw you in, making it enjoyable to follow along. However, these moments are often overshadowed by stretches where the pacing slows, and the narrative feels somewhat stagnant or underdeveloped. At times, the writing seems to wander, and the plot loses its momentum, making it a challenge to stay fully invested. Ultimately, it is a book that offers an okay reading experience. It's not a complete waste of time, but it doesn't leave a lasting impact either. I wanted more and got less.

[Corey Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just meh. I kept looking for excuses not to pick it up but had to force myself to just finish it. Not much character development and I felt it didn’t go really anywhere. Too many perspectives.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. I read about 160 pages of this and then it occurred to me that I didn’t have to keep reading. There were really no redeeming qualities about this book. It is supposedly about a young man on the night of his Bar Mitzvah and is told from the point of view of a number of different characters, including a teenage girl who has a sexual reputation in her high school, his grandmother who seems like she had some interesting stories but then turns out she has Alzheimer’s disease, his mother who loves her son so much that she didn’t bother writing her own speech, and his father who goes on about the demise of his relationship with his ex-wife. Which doesn’t make sense bc it says elsewhere that they have four sons together, but here says they only got together for Adam. There’s also DJ Daddy who may have the most interesting chapter of all and the chapter about two male lovers, set some time later but not really explored.

This story needed far more fleshing out than it got. Less reliance on the reader being able to figure out the plot from vague references? It never really says why the Bar Mitzvah was a catastrophe unless it occurred in the last 20 pages or so of the book, or if it is so bc of the parents’ bad speeches. It needs a central character, like a narrator, to connect all of these disparate characters’ thoughts into one coherent narrative. This is definitely a fixer upper of a story. 182 pages is far too short for something like this. Too much was edited out, to the detriment of the story.

[Wren Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mazeltov is a debut queer coming-of-age novel about Adam Weizmann’s introspection in Israel. It follows Adam’s life in a non-linear path, from being a young child on Mount Meron with his devout father following the halakeh tradition to Adam as a young adult experiencing New York before being discharged from his military service. However, the novel pairs this non-linear timeline with a whole cast of voices. The reader experiences the voices of Adam’s best friend Abbie, his mother, his father, his cousin, his grandmother, etc. All of these are supposed to revolve around the pinnacle moment of Adam’s Bar Mitzvah party which inevitably does not go well.
Normally, I am a huge fan of multiple points of view. Some of my favorite chapters were the ones highlighting Adam’s friendship with Abbie, with some laugh-out-loud commentary. I also enjoyed the later years where Adam is reflecting on his life and queer identity, attempting to mold a concept of what his life can be after his mandatory military service. However, I feel that there were too many voices for such a short novel. As the reader, you are inevitably not only learning about Adam’s life but with such a broad cast of characters we are also attempting to squeeze an immense amount of context and information about every other character. There is personal hardship connected to each character such as alcoholism and parenthood. Such heavy topics need space and time to be explored.

Thus, I had a lot of mixed feelings about whether the book should be longer and have more time to equally explore both or if some of the cast should be taken out altogether. I think the cast brings a lot of complex themes such as faith, parenthood, what defines being a “man”, friendship, etc. What I wanted more of was more insight into Adam discovering his sexuality and also his feelings on the war and his country’s occupation. It was there but felt glossed over and played safely.

Overall, I think Zuzovsky is a talented writer and I am interested to see what else he comes out with. There were some lines while reading this that blew me away. For instance,

“They would hear the faint cries of their mothers—Dinner! Dinner!— like distant wind chimes, reminding them that they are loved somewhere.”

This type of writing is what makes me excited to see what Zuzovsky has in store for us and if he will continue in the literary fiction genre. This read was a 3.5/5 for me and I would recommend it for the right reader. I want to thank NetGalley, Eli Zuzovsky, and Henry Holt and Company for the advanced readers' copy of Mazeltov in exchange for an honest review.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

It would feel like a cop out to rate this less than four stars, and yet god forbid I claim this to be on the tier of Henry Henry or Martyr! when it comes to the tale of the tortured gay. You can thank Hamas Contained and the propaganda I get in my daily dose of mass media for my hypersensitivity to the treatment of the topic from the other side of the fence, and even now I honestly can't say that my above average judgment will stay on the nicer side of the half star. Some sections were beyond dull, while others blasted me out of successive states of smug complacency, and as trite as it may be to say, reading the author's postscript where he describes rejecting the idea of the one author work (he didn't whip out 'polyphonic', but I'm sure a paid per review has done so at one point or another) truly did tie it together for me. I suppose what I appreciate most in this work is its tracing of transgenerational trauma through exposés both devastating and banal, where what would seem anachronistic upon first introduction subtly slides itself into place ten years on or from another character's point of view. It made for a meditative call and response that reverberated to a final sense of closure through a vital act of transgression, which I will leave the scholars to delve into just how far the intricacies of unorthodox go when a boy chooses to wear a dress during his bar mitzvah. All in all, there was not too much I genuinely liked and even less that I likely understood, but I do appreciate the effort that went into cultivating the 'weaker' spots so as to showcase the 'stronger' all the more. Such unfortunately doesn't make for a very comprehensible review when I don't feel the need to spend more than a paragraph on wrapping up, but much as Zuzovsky did, I am not afraid to resort to brevity, lest the weave be ruined by excessive wording.

[Al · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure what I’m supposed to take away from this book. It is told from several different perspectives, and it never seemed to come together as a whole. Adam starts out as a neurotic child and ends up a neurotic adult. There was really little character development or growth in the story. Overall, I found it to be a bit of an incoherent mess.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure of the extent to which the uncorrected proof copy I read differs from the published version. I'd say my expectations for this book were different, but not necessarily higher or lower: I thought there'd be more of Adam's point of view, more of an active plot. Rather, we get to see snippets of Adam in the eyes of the people in his life — specifically the people in his life that _see_ him, even though he believes himself invisible. There's something of it that reminds me of Statovci's work, especially in the train-of-thought type of narration in some chapters similar to that of Statovci's latest book. Quite charming.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing style just wasn’t my favorite which made the whole thing kinda iffy for me, but it was a short book so I didn’t wanna give up ya know

[Molly Peck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t finish it literally no clue what was happening

[Meredith Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/25
baby's first ARC!

[belton :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

if only the entire book was like the first four chapters, this could've easily been a 4.5 or 5 stars. Unfortunately, it fell off, and it fell off quite quickly.

the first four chapters were amazing. I almost cried—and I certainly teared up—while reading the beginning. I started reading this in the bookstore, and after finishing the third chapter, I bought the book right away because I thought it would be spectacular. I was quite disappointed the more I read.

but let's start with the beginning!

it's a beautiful portrait of a boy who is struggling with his sexuality, while at the same time going through different interactions between people like Eleanor, his father, and Abigail. It's incredibly heartfelt, packed with emotions, and Adam's internal struggle felt so real. Especially the third chapter, when he's about to go perform on stage, god that chapter broke me. I speed read through the first three chapters because I was utterly hooked. The characters were so beautifully written. I loved the father-son dynamic in the second chapter. Abigail's letter to Adam??? I literally almost sobbed. But maybe that's just because I'm a huge fan of writing letters and reading letters always makes me so emotional.

But then the bar mitzvah occurs, and things become less enjoyable.

the bar mitzvah scene is developed through different POVs, with each chapter representing someone else's POV, and none of them are really related to Adam anymore. Suddenly, Adam is no longer the main character, the center, the focus of the story. Each character is dealing with their own strife and troubles, causing them to stress and not be able to enjoy the bar mitvah. It was interesting to see how everyone is coping with their own problems, but it wasn't interesting enough to keep me reading. Way too many characters were being introduced, and we were only given a chapter to spend with each of them, so it was barely enough time to develop any of them either. None of them focused on the actual bar mitzvah, or even Adam, who was the center of the entire party. Even in their speeches to Adam at the party, all they did was just talk about themselves. None of it was truly memorable to me.

That's really all I have to say. So much was going on, but nothing was going on at the same time. I thought that this book was going to be a portrait of a young, queer boy struggling with his sexuality and relationships, but I guess I just didn't know what I was expecting. Perhaps this book just wasn't for me. Perhaps my disappointment came from the fact that this book didn't do what I thought it was going to do, and that's ok. Nonetheless, I still didn't think the book did anything spectacular. I wish we could've spent more time with one—or at least a couple—character and have them fully developed, but whatever. It was an alright book. But the first four chapters were so good that I had to bump up my rating from 3 to 3.5 stars. Ok bye!!!!!!

[Raegan]

-Disclaimer: I won this book for free through Goodreads giveaways in exchange for an honest review.-

The book opens with the author discussing the search for the moon, but the narrative quickly veers off course for several pages. Giving so much backstory on characters we don’t know early on makes a reader want to pick up something else. He writes about an underage girl giving a blowjob to an 8th grader. And somehow lost the plot to his own book. Nothing really happens. Everything circles back to something gross. Overall, this is bad, and I am not continuing.

“Besides, monogamy’s a bitch...”

[Max Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Having so much power over people while telling himself he was still someone who wanted to do good became untenable… Even though [psychology] was by far the lowest grade on his diploma, Adam could diagnose himself with cognitive dissonance, a condition that he shared with everyone he knew.” Zucovsky captures the worst in people in a way that’s impossible to tear yourself away from, highlighting the incongruities between the characters’ hopes and expectations for themselves and reality— both as individuals and in their vision of a state. The kind of book that makes you take a walk after putting it down. Also fundamentally about how no one really wants to be at a bar mitzvah.

[Linda Flck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read: It’s written in a flow that resembles real thought and real speech, rather than something artificial or overly constructed.

But that doesn't mean the material is any less heavy. It's not a very hopeful or even inspirational story, but it felt very real. Even the more absurd scenes (like Adam's mother's speech at the bar mitzvah) read more like tragedy than comedy.

But despite all that, it's a very touching story, not just about a young boy discovering his identity, but also about family dynamics and community, and the suffocating feeling it can produce.

[Rowan Spangler · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOAH. Okay. I feel that this book would do a lot better less as a novel and more as a series of connected short stories, The House on Mango Street-style. I felt like all the characters were SO fascinating and wonderfully created, but they felt disjointed and often unimportant to the central plot. Adam was such a sweet and interesting protagonist, but I felt like we didn’t really get to see all that much of him. I also felt that most of the book’s prose and poetry was beautiful and moving, but some of the dialogue felt stilted, and unrealistic. I wished we got to see more of Khalil throughout the novel, not just in the last 1/4.
Overall, I think this author has so so so much potential but could have organized his novel better.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mazel Tov by Eli Zuzovsky is a coming of age book about an Israeli young man who is coming to terms with his sexuality. I liked the premise of the book and I especially appreciated how the author set the book in the background of the current war and political instability.

This is a book that I think many will enjoy. For me, it was not a good fit. I struggled with the multiple character viewpoints and I felt like the writing was intended for a young adult audience which is not generally my genre of choice.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Barry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give it 2.5 if half stars were allowed. At times I feel lost and wandering through this book, but then there’s a chapter that is an anchor and pulls me back into the characters. The constant change of perspective felt challenging to follow along and muddy at times, but the book was wrapped up nicely.

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Mazeltov” by Eli Zuzovsky is a coming of age story about a young Israeli boy trying to deal with his blossoming sexuality, his families expectations, all during a time of war. The novel delves into the family dysfunction as we hear different perspectives of their own personal challenges from his parents and grandmother.

I enjoyed the multiple points of view but felt the writing style might be intended for YA audience. An easy and very quick read for those who enjoy this genre.

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Annette Vernon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pleased to receive an advanced reader’s copy of this novel. I enjoyed the stories and the bringing to light of difficult familial and personal histories. The story was delightful. I felt the author struggled to voice some of the characters and the novel lacked cohesion due to this.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you pick this book up thinking it will be a continuous story from beginning to end, you may be disappointed. But if you are open to where the book takes you, you will be touched for the briefest of moments.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed but wanted more in some vignettes and less in others. The concept of bopping around characters was creative and mostly brought a lot of depth to story but did sometimes feel superfluous.

[julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25 Stars.

Mh. I enjoyed the writing (with the exception of the poetry parts), but I did not much care for the story that was told. It felt too convoluted for me to actually get invested or even interested in.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disjointed and disorienting, with a few interesting characters (like Mémé).

[Mira · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5. Helt okej men lite tråkig. Det finns en konstnärlighet i delar av boken men på det stora hela faller det platt.

[Annalise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, this one sucked.

[Helen Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

got lured into this by the title and cover art like an absolute fool. just okay for me, style over substance and not enough grit.