How to Find Your Way in the Dark

Sheldon Horowitz #1

by Derek B. Miller

A coming-of-age story set during the rising tide of WWII, How To Find Your Way In The Dark follows Sheldon Horowitz from his humble start in a cabin in upstate New York, through the trauma of his father’s murder and the murky experience of assimilated Jews in Hartford, CT, to the birth of stand-up comedy in the Catskills--all while he and his friends are beset by anti-Semitic neighbors, employers, and criminals.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Historical, Audiobook, Thriller, Mystery Thriller

371 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 27, 2021

About the author

Derek B. Miller is an American novelist, who worked in international affairs before turning to writing full-time. He is the author of six novels, all highly acclaimed: Norwegian by Night, The Girl in Green, American by Day, Radio Life, Quiet Time (an Audible Original) and How to Find Your Way in the Dark. His work has been shortlisted for many awards, with Norwegian by Night winning the CWA John Creasey Dagger award for best first crime novel, an eDunnit Award and the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award. How to Find Your Way in the Dark was a Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and a New York Times Best Mystery of 2021.

Miller is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (BA), Georgetown (MA) and he earned his Ph.D., summa cum laude, in international relations from The Graduate Institute in Geneva. He is currently connected to numerous peace and security research and policy centres in North America, Europe and Africa, and previously worked with the United Nations for over a decade. He has lived abroad for over twenty-five years in Israel, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Switzerland, Norway and Spain.

Reviews

[Derek Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi. I'm the author. I'm pleased to announce that HOW TO FIND YOUR WAY IN THE DARK was a 2021 National Jewish Book Award Finalist in two categories (Fiction and Book Clubs).

Meanwhile: I posted the following note back on 4 December, 2020 before the book was published. I've since considered deleting it but I'm leaving it here because I think the note helps other authors. All the best, DBM
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Why have I rated my book given that such an act is seemingly preposterous? The short answer is because of the modern-day cyber culture. I'd like to take a moment to explain, which may also help you understand why other authors do this; and it isn't cynical.

As of today, 4 December, 2020, my book has been sent to copyedit. After that, I'll receive the manuscript back for review in early January. I will be required to send back my review by the end of the month. And then "First Pass Pages" will arrive. I will read and return those, and then the copy will be produced in April. The galleys or ARCs (advanced reader copies) won't be out until March.

Given all that, "certain people" still "rate" the book when it is impossible for them to have read it. I see that some gobstopper has already done this. The fact is, it is unavailable now and will be for some time. And yet, here we are. These are fake ratings, and I do not mean that in the Trumpian sense. They are, empirically speaking, fake.

Still: If someone has rated the book with a single star and it lingers there for months (and Google will have that pop right in the searches…) it will create an "anchoring impression" that maybe the book isn't good. In this case, it might be my masterpiece. Time will tell.

So: I put up a 5 star review, balance out the one, and as soon as people actually read and rate the book, my 5 star (so significant during this pre-launch phase) will statistically vanish. Norwegian by Night, for example, has some 13,000 reviews as I write this. A single review (of any rating) will have no meaningful impact.

Consequently, and sincerely, I encourage everyone to A) not rate books you haven't read, because it's malicious and harmful and there's a chance you'll go to Hell (look … it's what I'm told, OK?) B) rate any book you have read as you so choose, C) be understanding of authors who have (especially early-on) rated their own books. They have dedicated years of their lives only to bring a new creation into the world for your pleasure and enlightenment … however much and often we may fail.

HOW TO FIND YOUR WAY IN THE DARK is a mid-century American epic spanning a decade in the early life of Sheldon Horowitz. I am immeasurably proud of this book and it is my honor to share it with you.

Best wishes from Oslo, Norway.

Derek B. Miller

[PattyMacDotComma · Rating 5 out of 5]

5★
“Sheldon was wet on the inside. This was a never-going-to-be-dry-again kind of wet. Every step he took was like lifting a tree trunk rather than a leg. Every move of his arm was like wading through the rapids of a river. Every moment that passed was one step closer to being filled up like a water balloon and then chucked off a high bridge into a wide barge where he’d explode and there’d be nothing left but little scraps of clothing and eyebrows.”

Okay, so he’s a little dramatic. He’s only twelve, after all, and he’s struggling with being made to lug sandbags to raise the levee to protect the town from flooding. If it’s possible to be more miserable, he doubts it.

He lost his mother and Aunt Lucy a year ago in a movie theatre fire, and his father was killed when the truck they borrowed was forced off the road. Only he survived. Then, left all alone, his house burned down (don’t ask).

Now he’s had to leave his hometown, his school and his best friend to live with his dad’s brother Nate in Hartford. Nate’s miserable, too, and not a very gracious host. His wife died in the same theatre fire with Sheldon’s mother, leaving him with two teenagers. Abe is eighteen and Mirabelle is a shapely sixteen, very much the woman of the house.

This covers a period from about 1938, when Hitler is marching across Europe and America is saying “nothing to do with us”. Sheldon and his family are Jewish, and while he’s never given it much thought, his eighteen-year-old cousin Abe is a political creature who reads the news and collects papers and articles. Sheldon is reminded of his dad.

“Joseph liked to say that newspapers didn’t tell people what to think, but they did tell them what to think about, and it was helpful for people to share questions because it was the only way to arrive at a common answer.”

Sheldon loved his dad and he’s set on revenge. When the truck was run off the road, Sheldon got a good look at the driver, and is sure it was no accident. He confides in Abe, who has been keeping an eye on some man in a black car that keeps parking across the road from their house. Abe asks If the man could be Sheldon’s killer? Sheldon doubts it.

“‘My guy had a mustache.’

‘He doesn’t have one. Then again, men shave.’

‘It was one of those bushy ones. People with those don’t shave them off. They name them.’”

We know just what he means. This guy is going to keep his mustache. Meanwhile, Nate changed his name from Horowitz to Corbin and works at the big – and I mean BIG – Colt Armory, an enormous firearms factory. Colt 45s and all that. So – guns.

This is probably a good time to tell you that when Sheldon and his dad were run off the road, they were on their way back from their regular trapping run in the woods. Their business was selling pelts for fur, and Sheldon grew up to be a capable hunter. They sold to the Krupinski brothers, middlemen, from whom they’d borrowed the truck.

There are several threads running through this magnificent story, and I enjoyed them all. Sheldon and Abe have their mysterious villains. Added to that, guns are disappearing from the Colt Armory, and Abe is convinced that his Jewish father (in spite of the name change) is being set up as the eventual fall guy when the powers-that-be (more villains?) in the quite white Colt business crack down on the missing inventory. But who listens to a kid, right?

Abe has a run-in with Roy Fowler, one of the Colt bosses at a dinner party.

“‘That’s what’s happening in Europe right now,’ Mr. Fowler said, turning back to Abe. ‘A balancing of the power. Germany wants its pound of flesh, and we understand that. An eye for an eye. Once the balance is achieved, all of this will die down. That’s the Old Testament right there.’
. . .

‘The Talmud says we can’t take it literally,’ Abe explained, ‘because “no two eyes are the same”.. . . This is why justice will never come from finding a balance with the forces of evil. It will come by defeating them.’”

Frustrated, Abe looks to Canada. I was reminded of the TV mini-series created by David Simon from Philip Roth’s 2005 novel The Plot Against America about a Jewish family living in New Jersey in an “alternate history”.

In it, Charles Lindbergh, the aviation hero, outspoken isolationist (and admirer of Germany's revitalisation) becomes President of the United States. In Roth’s story, Americans were turning violently against their Jewish neighbours, who were being forced to flee to Canada, where Canadians were fighting the war.

I have known young people this informed and passionate. Not all teens are ignorant of the past or the possible future. I say this, because I’m sure some readers may be surprised to hear Abe and Sheldon talking so seriously. I wasn’t, and I thought the war worries were as real as those of passionate, informed Vietnam protestors.

Meanwhile, Sheldon types long letters to his best friend Lenny, back in Whately, instructing him to read and burn all letters – which Lenny does, much to my surprise. What began looking like a Boy’s Own Adventure becomes very much more. It is an engrossing, engaging novel. I did enjoy Lenny as an excellent buffer between Sheldon’s earnestness and Abe’s bitterness.

Lenny has real aspirations of becoming a stage comic, and he talks Sheldon into working at Grossinger’s in the Catskills for the summer. [This is the place that inspired the resort in the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing”, where Patrick Swayze worked his magic and famously said ‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner’. But I digress.]

Lenny is a funny, quick, smooth-talking larrikin, as Australians would call him - a likeable kid who can’t sit still (or shut up).

“Lenny Bernstein had it all figured out. Like everyone else who had it all figured out, he announced it with the customary phrase:’“Look. All we gotta do . . .’ Lenny’s hands were back behind his head, his feet were stretched out in the grass in front of his house, and he was looking at a cloud that — given another moment — was promising to look like a burlesque dancer’s ass. He was prepared to wait it out.
. . .
‘We’re going to start at the bottom of the top as bellhops and waiters and stuff. We’ll make more money, we’ll meet fancier people, and I suspect the food will be great. And there will be girls.’

‘There are girls everywhere.’

‘Rich girls angry at their fathers. That’s the sweet spot.’”

It’s the summer of 1941. Lenny fast-talks them into jobs as bellhops, they put on the uniforms and blend in with the background. Yessir, nosir, three-bags-full-sir.

Lenny’s comedy routines are funny and nostalgic, since we used to see comics like this on television. But things take a darker turn when a jewel thief, a fence, and guns come into the picture. And the man with the mustache.

They are still only fifteen this summer, but the way the story unfolds, it feels as if it covers a family saga of sorts. It is full of heart, and I wanted to know what happened to all of the characters, including those in the war in Europe (yes, we go there).

I have not read the author’s previous “Sheldon Horowitz” books where he’s an old codger, but I imagine if you have, it should only add to your enjoyment.

I am particularly tickled to see the author’s thanks in his acknowledgments to my Goodreads friend, Marianne Vincent, who was an early reader and whose review convinced me to read it. I have added another book to my favourites shelf.

Here’s a link to her review.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for the preview copy.

(Yes, yes, I know this is too long.)

I have since read and loved Norwegian by Night.
My review of Norwegian By Night (#2)

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

We first met Sheldon Horowitz in Miller’s wonderful debut novel ‘Norwegian by Night’, when at the age of eighty two visiting his daughter in Norway, he gets caught up with a Balkan gang after rescuing a young boy whose mother they had just assassinated. Going on the run with him, Sheldon’s quirky inventiveness and life experience keeps the boy safe as they evade both the gang, the Norwegian police (and in Sheldon’s mind, the Koreans). Now, in his new book, Miller has taken us back to Sheldon’s childhood in Massachusetts and Connecticut and the events that shaped him into the man we met seventy years later.

Right from the start it’s clear that Sheldon is not an ordinary boy. A deep thinker and questioner with a lively mind, he prefers books over sports and games and is best friends with Lenny, the only other Jewish kid in town. A year after Sheldon’s mother died tragically in a cinema fire with his Aunt Lucy, his father Joseph is killed when they are run off the road. Now an orphan and sent to live with his widowed Uncle Nate and teenage cousins Abe and Mirabelle, he imagines ways to find and kill the man who caused his father’s death. Sheldon keeps in touch with Lenny by writing him letters, telling him of exploits with his cousins and later the pair will reunite to spend a memorable summer in the Catskills working as bellhops while Lenny tries his hand at stand-up comedy.

As Sheldon is coming of age in the late 1930s, the world is once again at war, and anti-semitic feeling is high as America halts Jewish immigration and prevaricates about entering the war. Sheldon’s cousin Abe decides he can’t wait while America ignores what is happening in Europe and joins the Canadian air force, finding a role in protecting ships taking vital supplies to Britain.

It’s Miller’s wonderful wit and insight into human relationships in addition to his own quirky way of thinking that brings his characters so colourfully to life. Sheldon is unforgettable, even as a boy. He is a problem solver, using his big imagination to plot ways of bringing retribution to those who deserve it and finds himself up against jewel thieves, mafia-like gangsters and bagmen. Lenny is another great character whose conversations with Sheldon add much humour to the novel along with his attempts to become a stand-up comic.

Those who have met Sheldon before as an elderly man in ‘Norwegian by Night’, will enjoy acquainting themselves with his younger self and the events that helped to shape the man, while those who are meeting Sheldon for the first time are in for a treat.

With thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Netgalley for a copy to read. Publication expected 27th July 2021. Original review first published in Mystery and Suspense magazine https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/ho...

[Phrynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that Derek B. Miller has taken an important character from his book Norwegian by Night and taken him back in time to, show us his childhood and how he became the unusual man that he was.

And what a childhood it was for Sheldon Horowitz growing up Jewish, in America, in the 1930's when society's view of Jews was not good and opportunities for them were limited. After Sheldon's parents both die he goes to live with his uncle and two cousins, Abe and Mirabelle, both of whom he admires greatly. WW11 begins but America remains neutral, much to the distress of Jewish Americans who are watching the situation of their compatriots overseas. Abe in particular is determined to play his part and this of course influences Sheldon.

Not that Sheldon needs much influencing. He has his own causes to deal with, chiefly the fact that he believes his father was murdered. Revenge is always on his mind and when he gets his opportunity his planning and execution have to be seen to be believed. Sheldon Horowitz is smart, cunning and single minded in his pursuit of his aim, all characteristics he carries into his old age.

Some of the best parts of this book are the scenes with Sheldon's boyhood friend Lenny who tries to develop a career as a comedian. To achieve this the friends take jobs as bellhops in a large hotel. This leads to some very funny chapters and also some very dramatic ones involving the Mob, stolen jewels, large sums of cash and a certain hitman.

Reading this book I found myself one moment unimaginably sad for the poor boy growing up with so much tragedy, and the next I would be laughing out loud at some funny dialogue or entertaining comment. There were moments of stress - I always hate it when people are searching hotel rooms and you just know that any moment the key will turn in the door as the occupant returns. There was also lots and lots of historical fact and social commentary included in the best way as this author always does. This is an excellent book in all ways.

My thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides some of the back story for Sheldon Horowitz, the protagonist of “Norwegian by Night”, which I own but have not read. I don’t think there is a need to read the books in any particular order. This book begins in 1938 when Sheldon is 12. His mother and aunt died in a fire a year ago and now his father dies when his truck is forced off the road. Sheldon goes to live with his uncle Nate and his teenaged cousins, Abe and Mirabelle.

Each member of the family has to deal with the recent deaths. They also must cope with blatant anti-Semitism, the approaching war and mobsters. Nate has changed his last name and believes that Jews just need to assimilate and all will be well. Abe takes a very different approach. “That’s why justice can never be mechanical and God needs us to engage and restore it every day….This is why justice will ever come from finding a balance with the forces of evil. It will come by defeating them.”

At various points in the book Sheldon and Abe each has to make a choice about exactly what justice means in a given situation and how to achieve it. In particular, Sheldon comes up with some very clever schemes to get revenge for his father’s death. Despite the weighty matters faced by the characters, this book is not at all grim (other than one death that really took my breath away). In fact, the time Sheldon spends with his friend Lenny Bernstein is really charming. The dialogue is realistic and amusing, especially during the time the two boys spend working at Grossinger’s resort in the Catskills. Lenny is an aspiring stand up comic. His comedy routines are hilarious and crowd pleasing, but he keeps getting fired for inappropriate subject matter like baby poo and Nazis. Michael Crouch, the narrator of the audiobook, did an excellent job with this.

The book ends with Sheldon and Lenny in their early 20s. In “Norwegian by Night”, Sheldon is elderly. That leaves a lot of years of their lives that the author could cover. I hope he considers it. They make a good team.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 1 in the Sheldon Horowitz series published 2021.

5 stars from start to finish.

This might be book one but its not the fist book in the series.
The first book was Norwegian by Night, now classifieds as book 2. So this is a prequel to the events of book 2.

At its core this book is about antisemitism in pre-WWII America. How apropos to the times we find ourselves living in today where everybody seems to be anti something or other.

This takes us back to when Sheldon was still a young boy. His mother has died with her sister in a horrible fire and now its just Sheldon and his much loved father.
One night Sheldon and his father are driving in a borrowed truck when they were driven, intentionally, of the road. That night Sheldon became an orphan and this event will shape the rest of his life.

Sheldon has been give a home with his uncle, his fathers brother, and shares the next few years of his life with his cousins, Abe and Mirabelle.

War is raging in Europe and the talk of the wholesale slaughter of Jews all over Europe has Sheldon’s cousin Abe consumed with a need to do something. To be apart of the war effort that will stop the Nazi horde from their on going genocide of his people.

At this time the war in Europe seems far away to Sheldon as his overriding need is to find the man who killed his father. But this war is about to enter Sheldon’s life whither he wants it or not.

This is story telling on a grand scale. It’s a coming of age story. It’s the horror of war story. It’s about prejudice and its effects and last but not least its about the need for revenge.

A great read and comes highly recommended.

[Kylie H · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a sort of prequel for another book Norwegian by Night. In this book Sheldon is just a boy, his mother died in a fire in a picture theatre and he is now living a reclusive life with his father.
In another tragic event that leaves him orphaned Sheldon finds himself living with his widowed Uncle Nate and his two older cousins Abe and Mirabelle. The beginning of the book is set at the beginning of the Second World War and being of Jewish descent both Abe and Sheldon feel a certain rage at being Jewish Americans, where their country refuses to be drawn into the war that is targeting Jews.
A long and sometimes rambling story, it is told very beautifully and my heart broke for Sheldon several times over.
Thank you Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Hardcourt for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There was a dance tonight. Sheldon had forgotten all about the dance. How had he forgotten about the dance? He had forgotten about the dance because he was busy. He had a mafia assassin to frame, a thief to rob, and vengeance to be delivered. These were (all) encompassing activities.”

How To Find Your Way In The Dark is book one in the Sheldon Horowitz series by award-winning American-born author, Derek B Miller. When eleven-year-old Sheldon Horowitz lost his mother to a theatre fire in 1937, he and his father, Joseph battled on. They missed Lila, even if they didn’t talk much about her, but Joseph and Sheldon were close: they connected.

His father’s death, barely a year later, meant that Sheldon had to leave Whately, the woods he loved and his best friend, Lenny Bernstein, to live in Hartford with his older, city cousins and his widower uncle, Joseph’s younger brother Nate. Nate acted more from duty than love but, despite a lukewarm welcome from Abe and Mirabelle, he was soon sharing with Abe his theory, as earlier disclosed to Lenny, about the murder of his father, and his plan for revenge.

The reception from his seventeen-year-old cousin surprises Sheldon, who expected scepticism. Abe is an intelligent and passionate young man who views the building fascism in Europe and the anti-Semitism in America (some blatant, some subtle or even insidious) with a concern absent in his father. Sheldon soon finds himself involved in an unlikely escapade with his cousins that nets him a snow globe of Cleveland.

What follows is a marvellous tale: part crime fiction, part coming-of-age, part war story. There are jewel thieves and fences; arson; the mob and guns and a bag of cash; B24 bombers and Nazi U-boats and thwarted enlistment; summer jobs as bellhops and comedy routines and master keys. There’s infatuation and love and romance and marriage.

Miller uses apt headings rather than numbers mark the chapters. His characters are multi-faceted and many are appealing for all their very human flaws and poor decisions, because there’s also kindness and courage and loyalty and doing one’s patriotic duty even when country’s leaders don’t recognise the need. Sheldon is a thoughtful, rather earnest character whose loving upbringing has produced a young man with a strong sense of justice, one who thinks deeply on serious issues.

Some of those issues, such as the reasons for America’s long delay in entering WW2, or America’s attitude to Jewish refugees, are certainly thought-provoking but, lest readers expect a humourless tome, it’s fair to say that this book is often laugh-out-loud funny. While there’s a bit of sitcom in there, it mostly comes from Sheldon: his inner monologue; and his dialogue with Lenny, with his cousins, with his dead father, with mirror-Sheldon. One particular crossed-purpose exchange is hilarious.

This is eighty-two-year-old Sheldon from Norwegian By Night, but when he was still establishing his opinions, still developing his beliefs. Readers who met and liked the rather cranky, argumentative old man in Miller’s debut novel will enjoy this examination of his early life, looking at the boy to perhaps see some of what made the man. But more than that, this is also a darkly funny tale of wrongdoing and revenge, of integrity and principles, of loss and grief, of family and friendship. Exciting, moving, insightful and hugely entertaining, this is probably Miller’s best yet.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by the author, NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[☮Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read all year. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for my advance copy.

It's been seven long years, way too long, since my five star adventure with octogenarian Sheldon Horowitz in Norwegian by Night. And now Derek Miller has given us a taste of a young Sheldon, age 11 to 21, roughly 1937 to 1947, as he mourns his parents, seeks revenge for his father's death, comes into age and his Jewish heritage trying to join the Marines to kill Nazis, breaks a few laws, pisses off a few mobsters, and falls in love with a few young women.

The characters are truly wonderful and wonderfully written. Some of my favorite parts were Sheldon's interactions with his older cousins Abe and Mirabelle and his best friend Lenny. Lenny wants to break into show biz as a stand up comedian so gets them jobs as bellhops at a hotel in the Catskills near several clubs. Miller writes in his "Acknowledgements and Denials" afterword that he wrote Lenny's material himself, which doesn't surprise me at all as I think Miller has a terrific sense of humor as well as a rare understanding of the human race. It all seems alternately madcap and darkly serious.

I admire the author's many talents and will read anything he publishes. Looking forward to the next in the trilogy!

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Derek Miller’s prequel, How to Find Your Way in the Dark, would be very dark indeed if it weren’t also funny and insightful. In my opinion, however, the plot was rambling and over-the-top beyond my ability to suspend belief. Despite very much liking young Sheldon Horowitz, I struggled through about the first 80% of the book.

As a prequel to Norwegian by Night, which I have not read, the reader is introduced to Sheldon at age 12. He is still grieving the death of his mother, who died in a fire at a movie theater along with her sister. While riding in a borrowed truck with his father on a dark, rainy night, a man with a mustache runs them off the road – intentionally, Sheldon thinks – and his father is killed. Sheldon is alone in the world. He burns down the house, which is a strange thing for a 12 year old to do. Soon afterward, he goes to live with his uncle and two older cousins in Hartford. His Uncle Nate is an unhappy man, too, because his wife died along with Sheldon’s mother, and now he’s stuck with another kid. Cousin Abe is 18 and Mirabelle is 16. Sheldon is about to experience his first crush.

Sheldon also becomes obsessed with the idea that the guy who was responsible for his father’s death was part of the Mob, and he wants revenge. This saga is called a “coming of age” story, but I began to wonder – what age? Jumping from 12 to 30? This kid has quite an imagination and makes some very bold moves (as does his older cousin). The things they get away with are incredible! The thing is, he’s not always wrong. But Sheldon is hard to dislike. He really thinks about things. He’s like an old soul, and things matter. He especially thinks about being Jewish and pays attention to how the Jews are being treated in Europe. This is pre-World War II. He’s also very aware of being in the minority in his own community. Uncle Nate has changed his name from Horowitz to Corbin in order to avoid being thought of as Jewish.

Cousin Abe is even more serious than Sheldon, it seems. He takes standing up against Hitler so seriously that he cannot wait for America to jump into the fray. Instead, he goes to Canada and joins the fight as a bomber. Mirabelle and Sheldon have had a falling out; can they ever patch things up? Sheldon wants to join the Marines when he’s 18. He was proud of his dad and his cousin, and he thinks it’s his duty. But is it where he belongs?

Then there’s Sheldon’s best friend Lenny. Lenny’s a year older, and he wants to be a comedian. He’s actually quite funny – until he’s not. I was quite struck by Lenny’s serious side late in the book. All along, he’s been pretty much the polar opposite of Sheldon, always looking for fun and action. He actually studied the great comedians, many of them Jewish, and his jokes about current events have gotten him fired numerous times. But Lenny keeps on keeping on, learning, and perfecting his act. Eventually, however, the news of the day catches up with him, and he learns what horrors he’s been avoiding. Suddenly, he is smacked in the face with the reality that “Laughter is a great defense...Laughter, like love, makes us forget the rest if only for a moment. Were we pushing back the knowledge?” He wondered, “Was comedy the only space for us to spread our wings?” Here’s what his rabbi said: “The Greeks separated comedy and tragedy. We never did.” Then, after all of this, it was time to go onstage. He prayed for the strength to be joyful.

That segment and the final chapters wrapping up Sheldon’s quest to get revenge for his father’s death, plus a romance that he knows is just right, made the whole crazy journey so much better for me. Those three stars became four. I know many other readers love this book; I’m sorry I didn’t love it more because there’s a lot in here. It just took a long time for me to find it.

3 ½ stars rounded up

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

It must have been enormously tempting for Derek B. Miller to revisit his octogenarian and cantankerous and debut character, Sheldon Horowitz. In Norwegian by Night, we meet this retired watch repairman, haunted by his son’s death in Vietnam and his beliefs that the Koreans—he served in the Korean War—are still pursuing him.

The young Sheldon we meet here is not quite formed yet but certainly, we – as readers—gain a deep understanding of how he became the Sheldon we meet at the end of his life in the former book. Some of the same themes abound: the bonds between fathers and sons, vengeance for a murder (in this case, the murder of his father), the tragedy of war, and the callousness of nations as Jews were being rounded up like cattle and herded into an unimaginable genocide. Here, as in Norwegian by Night, there is a merging of an adventure novel, an allegory, and a sociopolitical musing.

This book can be read as a standalone; the reader need not have read Norwegian by Night although by doing so, there are richer rewards to be gleaned. Without reading the first book, it is enticing to compare this one to Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. In that novel, two Jewish cousins become major players in the comics industry during World War II, where they experience the highs and lows of fame and tragedy. Sheldon and his best friend Lenny – an aspiring stand-up comic in the Catskills —have similar adventures and the similarities are unmistakable – and also acknowledged by the author (“I feel like this book is in conversation with that one.”)

I would have liked a little less of a Chabon vibe. Derek B. Miller is a wonderful writer in his own right and particularly during the first third, the adventures threatened to overshadow the themes. Eventually, I settled into the flow of the novel and the author’s compelling story-telling ability and pages begin to turn. The YA adventure tone – a young, orphaned boy and his sidekick, out to extract revenge, take on the world, and stake their claim in life—combines with an immersion into dark times where true evil was right under our noses and the world failed to see what was beyond the horizon or immediate sight and to recognize that effect follows cause.

Lastly, as a reader—and as a Jew—I am indebted to Derek B. Miller for showcasing the heinous anti-Semitism and the outrageous view of Jewish immigration as a “national security issue.” Through the character of Abe, Sheldon’s older cousin, the author gives voice to the injustice of the treatment of Jews as “inferiors” and the disregard of those who refused to acknowledge what was happening.

For readers who have yet to discover Derek B. Miller, let me say this: each of his novels, in one way or another, is a gem. It was a treat to learn the back story of Sheldon Horowitz and how he became who he was.

[Shereadbookblog · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not read Norwegian by Night, for which this novel is a prequel.

A tender historical fiction, coming of age novel, this is well written, character driven, and introspective. There are a few different story lines, but they are woven together well. I was a bit surprised by the emphasis on the gangster side of life and felt in a way it took something from what was the more important aspect of the story…the world wide anti Semitism and horror it brought prior to and during World War II.

There were a few misses in this novel but, overall, a recommended read.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miller’s THE GIRL IN GREEN was a masterstroke of fiction, where all aspects of the novel came together flawlessly—characters, themes, plot, narrative, voice—it was one of my top ten of 2016, and I recommend it without reservation. I’m still waiting to receive RADIO LIFE in the mail. There isn’t a Derek B. Miller novel I won’t read, because he is usually a terrific storyteller. In this newest novel of Miller’s, it is historical fiction portraying Sheldon Horowitz’s younger years, starting in 1938 when he is 12 and orphaned, prior to NORWEGIAN BY NIGHT. He starts quite a journey as a confused, courageous, but grieving adolescent bent on revenge for his father’s death, and finding his place in this anti-Semitic, oh so White-loving, Christian-obsessed world.

Sheldon is in the car when his beloved father and WWI hero, Joseph, is run off the road. Was it random, accidental, purposeful? Sheldon believes it was targeted, and vows to get revenge. He is ripped from his roots in Massachusetts and goes to live with his taciturn but well-meaning Uncle Nate, whose wife, Lucy (Sheldon’s aunt) died in a fire with Sheldon’s mother just a year ago. Sheldon shares a room with his cousin Abe, a few years older than him. There’s also Mirabelle, Abe’s sister, and Sheldon’s first sense of romantic yearning. Sheldon’s best friend, Lenny, remains in Mass., and they keep in touch by letterwriting.

Sheldon and Lenny are wise beyond their years, both intellectually and emotionally. It’s this preternatural gift for keen adult capacity that didn’t persuade me. It felt contrived, and in a YA voice that contradicted the narrative. It's in third person POV, so why make it juvenile? It’s also corny and sentimental, which I suspect was Miller attempting to channel the era, but it was terribly mawkish rather than convincing.

The book read largely as a series of capers, following Sheldon, Lenny, Mirabelle, and Abe as they come of age on the eve of WW II. Abe is ruthless and has a plan for a counterplay against his father’s bigoted boss, who Abe thinks is setting up Nate as a scapegoat Jew at work (more insight than his father does). Lenny has aspirations to become a comedian. His rancor for the American aversion to enter WW II provides a provocative fount of material. Sheldon wants to catch and kill the mustached man who murdered his father, ran him off the road. As a future boss tells Sheldon, “You got a way about you…Like your brain’s always at work and there’s more going on with you than seems to be going on. Like you have this…rich inner life.” And that he does!

I did enjoy aspects of this novel, especially as these kids try to navigate the chaos of life, with landmines like war, disaster, confusion, sexuality, and “crimes large and small.” The WW II scenes were Miller’s strength; I was captivated by their authenticity.

The last 20% or so of the novel is its most convincing to me, the most compelling and tense. The author slides in “Tikkun olam” beautifully, for “repair” and “for all of time,” “or else the world.” Earlier in the novel, the importance of homing or carrier pigeons during war is folded in. “God chose us to receive the law and share it, not fulfill it by ourselves. We’re God’s carrier pigeons. Maybe that’s why everyone keeps shooting at us.” Sheldon believes in activities that improve the world, that God lovingly made an imperfect world, a Garden of Eden, where we should work it and protect it. Tikkun olam.

In the acknowledgements, Miller stated he’d like to think of this book as “in conversation” with Chabon’s Kavalier and Klay. The problem with that is--yes, the comparisons to Chabon. Chabon is a different kind of writer-- über literary, and flawless with historical narrative. DARK, however, was scattered with anachronisms from the start. Miller said he purposely placed anachronisms in Lenny’s comedy routines, but that isn’t where it bothered me. It began on the second page with “Sheldon Unleashed” and also using “crazy” as a noun, which is contemporary slang. Historical fiction should be consistent with its time and place, with particular attention on lexicon/language. When these incongruities pop up frequently on the pages, it takes me swiftly out of the narrative, and over to the author behind the curtain.

I also felt that parts of the narrative were strung together like Wiki pages, or with a long-winded lecturing tone. Some of the events felt cobbled together from stock files tweaked for this tale. And he broadcast and foreshadowed too pointedly. Instead of trusting the reader to comprehend what a character is feeling, he often trumpeted their state of mind as a scene played out, or overexplained, when I already understood the guise. He undermined his own irony.

I realize my criticisms are plentiful. But if you are a Miller fan, it’s essential reading, and I’m confident that many other readers will enjoy this from start to finish. That’s the beauty of books, how it affects people differently. Certainly I am glad I read it, and there were themes of loyalty, revenge, betrayal, identity, and justice that enfolded me. As a Jew myself, I relived moments of ignorance and anti-Semitism by others, toward me, toward my parents, certainly toward my grandparents, (who came over from Russia). I bow to Miller for keeping the message going, that all humans are made to be equal. And that prejudice is ugly, regressive, and systemic.

Thank you to HMH for sending me a copy to review. I hope I wasn’t too harsh in return for the publisher’s kindness.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derek Miller has become one of my go-to's, an author that I will read as soon as the work becomes available to me. How to Find Your Way in the Dark is the fourth such book, and whereas there is direct connection to Norwegian by Night and a tangential connection to American by Day, it can be read as a standalone but definitely should be included with the other two. There was much for me to savor here -- not many novels are located in Hartford, and as I'm familiar with that city, I enjoyed reading about 1938 pre-WWII and the Samuel Colt factory that still is featured in the riverside skyline. But other venues play large roles -- rural Massachusetts near Northampton, and what a joy to have significant parts of the story revolve around the Borscht Belt, most notably, the fabled Grossingers. There's a little mob action, a lot of coming of age, revenge, unusual family ties, historical references (I particularly liked references to Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey which I read recently in another novel). What Miller also has done is interwoven the fact of the Holocaust and the increased awareness on the part of American Jews of the horror unfolding across the ocean. There is a particularly memorable image involving newspapers at resorts that sticks in my mind. Yes this is an imperfect book in that there are a lot of anachronisms and some of the picaresque adventures may go down a bit unrealistically, but I loved this book, and if we know the ending and now the beginning of Sheldon's life, I'm hoping Derek Miller is planning at least one more installment, informing us more about the middle of his life and experiences as a sniper during the Korean War.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There was a dance tonight. Sheldon had forgotten all about the dance. How had he forgotten about the dance? He had forgotten about the dance because he was busy. He had a mafia assassin to frame, a thief to rob, and vengeance to be delivered. These were (all) encompassing activities.”

How To Find Your Way In The Dark is book one in the Sheldon Horowitz series by award-winning American-born author, Derek B Miller. The audio version is narrated by Michael Crouch. When eleven-year-old Sheldon Horowitz lost his mother to a theatre fire in 1937, he and his father, Joseph battled on. They missed Lila, even if they didn’t talk much about her, but Joseph and Sheldon were close: they connected.

His father’s death, barely a year later, meant that Sheldon had to leave Whately, the woods he loved and his best friend, Lenny Bernstein, to live in Hartford with his older, city cousins and his widower uncle, Joseph’s younger brother Nate. Nate acted more from duty than love but, despite a lukewarm welcome from Abe and Mirabelle, he was soon sharing with Abe his theory, as earlier disclosed to Lenny, about the murder of his father, and his plan for revenge.

The reception from his seventeen-year-old cousin surprises Sheldon, who expected scepticism. Abe is an intelligent and passionate young man who views the building fascism in Europe and the anti-Semitism in America (some blatant, some subtle or even insidious) with a concern absent in his father. Sheldon soon finds himself involved in an unlikely escapade with his cousins that nets him a snow globe of Cleveland.

What follows is a marvellous tale: part crime fiction, part coming-of-age, part war story. There are jewel thieves and fences; arson; the mob and guns and a bag of cash; B24 bombers and Nazi U-boats and thwarted enlistment; summer jobs as bellhops and comedy routines and master keys. There’s infatuation and love and romance and marriage.

Miller uses apt headings rather than numbers mark the chapters. His characters are multi-faceted and many are appealing for all their very human flaws and poor decisions, because there’s also kindness and courage and loyalty and doing one’s patriotic duty even when country’s leaders don’t recognise the need. Sheldon is a thoughtful, rather earnest character whose loving upbringing has produced a young man with a strong sense of justice, one who thinks deeply on serious issues.

Some of those issues, such as the reasons for America’s long delay in entering WW2, or America’s attitude to Jewish refugees, are certainly thought-provoking but, lest readers expect a humourless tome, it’s fair to say that this book is often laugh-out-loud funny. While there’s a bit of sitcom in there, it mostly comes from Sheldon: his inner monologue; and his dialogue with Lenny, with his cousins, with his dead father, with mirror-Sheldon. One particular crossed-purpose exchange is hilarious.

This is eighty-two-year-old Sheldon from Norwegian By Night, but when he was still establishing his opinions, still developing his beliefs. Readers who met and liked the rather cranky, argumentative old man in Miller’s debut novel will enjoy this examination of his early life, looking at the boy to perhaps see some of what made the man. But more than that, this is also a darkly funny tale of wrongdoing and revenge, of integrity and principles, of loss and grief, of family and friendship. Exciting, moving, insightful and hugely entertaining, this is probably Miller’s best yet.

[Jonathan K (Max Outlier) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.85

While both The Curse of Pietro Houdini and Norwegian by Night were brilliant in their own right, this story is a vast departure save the 'coming of age' element from "Houdini". In Norwegian by Night we're introduced to Sheldon Horowitz in later years when he moves to Norway to be with his daughter and husband in Norway. Much like "Houdini" the war tragedies theme was front and center due to "Donny's" continual flashbacks. With this story, the author focuses on the Anti-Jewish memes that were typical of the time period.

We meet Sheldon at 11 years old during the late 1930's in MA as he mourns the loss of his mother who died with her sister in a movie theater fire. Driving a truck borrowed from the Krupinski brothers, a 'mustached man' forces his father off the road causing the truck to tumble down an embankment. Now without parents, Sheldon grows suspicious the Krupinski's were dishonest about the amounts they paid for the pelts his father sold them. He bands together with his best friend Lenny to spy on their home and is accosted by the two sons leading him to believe his suspicions were true.

An orphan, his Uncle Nate in Hartford takes him into his home where he bunks with Abe who's not only older, but offers a different life perspective than he'd been accustomed. He becomes friends with Abe's teen sister Mirabelle who has had to 'fill in' for her deceased mother. Being an only child and lacking experience with relationships, Mirabelle becomes a 'teacher'; her brother, a mentor, but far different from the one with Pietro and Massimo.

This period in time is that of heightened Antisemitism due to spread of Nazi/white supremacist memes traversing the globe. Similar to 'Houdini' and "Norwegian Nights' the undercurrent of war drones in the background. Sheldon and Lenny maintain connection via letter writing; their bond deepens during Sheldon's trips 'back home'. At age 14, Sheldon agrees to accompany Lenny to the Catskill mountains since he's confident he can 'convince' hotel managers to hire them. Not only does he succeed with getting bell hop jobs at Grossinger's Hotel, he cons hotel night club managers to let him do stand up comedy. A natural on stage, Lenny's material is borderline offensive yet hilarious; in spite of positive crowd response, every appearance results in him being fired. It's here Sheldon learns resolve is what matters regardless of the opinions of others.

When Mirabelle arrives at Grossinger's on the arm of an obvious Mob type, Sheldon is both heart broken and suspicious since the Mob was connected to the Krupinski scheme. A few years previous, Sheldon got a thrill from heisting jewels with Abe from a pawn shop in Hartford. Assuming the gangster was up to no good, he decided to slip into their room to 'investigate'; and as luck would have it finds a stash of jewelry in the luggage. Soon after, Donny spots 'the mustached man' who was responsible for forcing his father off the road at the hotel registration desk and decides to concoct a scheme to frame him. Simpler in nature, its mixture of family, coming of age and mystery makes for a different experience yet enjoyable nonetheless.

For those who may have read "Norwegian" this provides the reader missing details about Sheldon Leonard that foster a deeper sense of the character's back story. Miller's narratives are unique, immersive and evocative and while this lacks the depth and impact, I'd recommend it for those who enjoyed the others

[Alex Cantone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Outside, the white birches slipped past them like specters. The sleek black of the road became something living when the rain started to fall – slowly for a moment and then a downpour. The asphalt river slithered beneath their thin wheels as the truck began to rattle in the winds. The darkness encroached on them because the sky was as black as the forest and the headlights were too weak to illuminate any future.

After the darkly-funny Norwegian by Night, with the outstanding wit of octogenarian Sheldon Horowitz, I was looking forward to reading the coming-of-age book of teenage Sheldon in New England on the eve of the World War II. It starts well, with the double tragedy of losing both parents and an aunt within a year and moving in with his uncle, an accountant with the Colt factory and his teenage cousins, but before long the perceived and actual anti-Semitism theme began to pall with this reader. Not aided by his friend Lenny’s, an aspiring comedian, preoccupation with telling Jewish jokes. (Am I the only one who found Seinfeld unfunny, saw it only as hysteria and “noise”?) At one stage Lenny, perturbed by news of the concentration camps in Europe, consults his rabbi about the Jewish sense of humour...

and his rabbi said, “The Greeks separated comedy and tragedy. We never did.”

I liked the mob with a hand in everything, and Sheldon’s obsession to find his father’s killer, but for me his character was eclipsed by his feisty cousin, Abe (Abraham).

Abe wore a suit and walked beside Sheldon through pools of brilliant sunlight and islands of darkened shadows, his face brightening then hiding away as he strode down the busy Hartford street, his shoulders effortlessly rolling and dipping to avoid contact with the passersby who were on their way to change the world into something more amazing than it already was. He was an animal moving gracefully in his element.

Abe distrusts his father’s employer and his motives, taking matters into his own hands before he finishes school and moves to Canada to join the Royal Canadian Air Force. His crew is the first to fly out of Iceland in a long-range bomber, the B24 Liberator, into the teeth of a storm to protect a convoy of US naval vessels carrying marines from German U-boats operating in what was known as the “Black Pit” – the Atlantic Gap – outside the normal range of most aircraft. That part of the story I found riveting.

Overall, well-written, but disappointing.

[Amos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Halfway through my read I began to realize how much fun I wasn't having, and by the end of said read I realized that the halfway point was the best part. Now I'm grumpy.
Blurg...
The previous book starring this lead character (Sheldon) in the twilight of his life was so good that it really is a bummer how unbelievable his actions throughout his childhood were (he's Superboy mixed with Sherlock Holmes and the A-Team. Seriously??) and how irritating this prequel became. There were occasional witty lines and emotionally moving moments, but as a whole it was comically farfetched and (unintentionally) silly.
Meh...

2 1/2 Dissatisfied Stars

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to Find Your Way in the Dark is a coming-of-age story set during the rising tide of World War II, it follows Sheldon Horowitz from his humble start in a cabin in rural Massachusetts, through the trauma of his father's murder and the murky experience of assimilation in Hartford, Connecticut, to the birth of stand-up comedy in the Catskills all while he and his friends are beset by anti-Semitic neighbours, employers, and criminals. Twelve-year-old Sheldon Horowitz is still recovering from the tragic loss of his mother only a year ago when a suspicious traffic accident steals the life of his father near their home in rural Massachusetts. It is 1938, and Sheldon, who was in the truck, emerges from the crash an orphan hell-bent on revenge. He takes that fire with him to Hartford, where he embarks on a new life under the roof of his buttoned-up Uncle Nate.

Sheldon, his teenage cousins Abe and Mirabelle, and his best friend, Lenny, will contend with tradition and orthodoxy, appeasement and patriotism, mafia hitmen and angry accordion players, all while World War II takes centre stage alongside a hurricane in New England and comedians in the Catskills. With his eye always on vengeance for his father’s murder, Sheldon stakes out his place in a world he now understands is comprised largely of crimes: right and wrong, big and small. This is a compelling and thought-proving read highlighting the power of human connection and does so not only with rich insight but humour, too. It's a terrific bildungsroman and a darkly entertaining tale in which you cannot help championing survivor Sheldon as he continues through his life. A searing, touching and absorbing exploration of Jewish discrimination in WWII America. Highly recommended.

[Mary Lins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I have been a HUGE Derek B. Miller fan since I read “The Girl in Green” and then all the rest of his riveting novels, so I was primed and excited to read his latest, “How to Find Your Way in the Dark”, which is a prequel to the wonderful “Norwegian By Night” and the story of an unforgettable character, Sheldon Horowitz.

(Obviously you don’t have to have read “Norwegian By Night” for this novel; though you will certainly want to after you’ve finished!)
In “Norwegian By Night” we met Sheldon as an octogenarian, in this novel we meet him when he is twelve years old and recently motherless. It’s 1938, and Sheldon lives in a small village in Massachusetts not far from Connecticut.

What I love about Miller’s writing is his abundant wit, his beautifully crafted characters, his accessible prose style and his perfect pacing. In “How to Find You Way in the Dark”, Miller again explores themes of right and wrong, family (particularly Jewish families), grief, history, American culture (re: antisemitism, racism, sexism), war, and aging, though instead of giving us the older experienced Sheldon, we get to see how he grew up and acquired that experience. Happily, it seems that Sheldon had that inimitable sense of self at twelve, as he did in his 80s!

This novel has been compared to Chabon’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” and I can see the connection in that a LOT of things happen in this novel; it sometimes felt like a collection of “adventures” for Sheldon and his cousins Abe and Mirabelle, and his best friend Lenny. I confess, I missed the smoother plot progression of Miller’s other novels.

Though, ”How to Find Your Way in the Dark” didn’t grip my heart as tightly as “Norwegian By Night” and its sequel “American By Day”, this thrilling story of these unique characters will not soon leave me.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sheldon Horowitz and his father were struck by a vehicle deliberately targeting them, killing his father. Twelve-year-old Sheldon was able to get a good look at the driver and vows revenge. The year is 1938, and the orphaned Sheldon goes to live with his uncle and two cousins. Abe is 18-years-old and secretly attending Zionist meetings in Hartford, obsessed with antisemitism and the growing Nazi menace in Europe.

This coming-of-age novel covers the events leading up to the United States entering WWII. While Sheldon is deferred from getting revenge for his father’s death, he continues to gather clues as to whom the driver was. Even while working as a bellhop at Grossinger’s (a Jewish resort) he keeps alert for clues. His best friend, Lenny Bernstein, is determined to be a stand-up comic and his routines provide delightful humorous interludes.

Sheldon is a wonderful character that Miller created for his book ‘Norwegian by Night’ when Sheldon is 82-years-old. This prequel establishes his basic personality traits—smart, thinks well on his feet, and is not opposed to taking illegal measures to achieve his goals.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some are calling this a prequel to Miller’s Norwegian By Night, a brilliant and unusual crime fiction novel featuring Sheldon Horowitz, an 82-year-old American Jewish widower recently transplanted to live with his daughter in Oslo because she’s worried that his mind is starting to go, as he confuses today with his past life, especially his life as a soldier in the Korean War. Sheldon’s a man of action, so when somebody murders the woman upstairs and he thinks her young son is in danger, he grabs the boy and runs, despite the fact that he doesn’t speak Norwegian, the kid doesn’t speak English, Sheldon knows very little about Norway, and there’s that brain confusion thing he has going on.

It feels a little weird to me to think of How to Find Your Way in the Dark as a prequel to Norwegian By Night. In HTFYWITD, Sheldon’s life runs from 1938, when Sheldon is 12, through 1947, so there’s that giant gap of pretty much his entire adulthood between it and Norwegian by Night. I think of this book as more of an origin story. That’s apt too, because the concept of the origin story belongs to the comic book world and this book has some of the flavor of a comic book. In fact, in the author’s note, Miller writes that he feels like this book is in a conversation with Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, about a couple of immigrants who become comic book creators. The books take place in a similar time period, before and during World War II, and are rich with details of the time, especially growing anti-Semitism in America as the Nazis rise in Europe and the threat of war grows ever closer.

I suppose if I had to give a capsule description of this book, I’d say it’s a tragicomic coming of age story. So many horrific things happen to Sheldon. He loses his mother to a movie theater fire, his father dies in front of him in a car accident that Sheldon is convinced was murder, and Sheldon has to leave his only friend, Lenny, to go live with his uncle and two cousins who are also motherless because their mother, Sheldon’s mother’s sister, died with her in the fire. Yikes!

Sheldon is determined to avenge his father’s death, but he’s just a kid so he knows it will take time, patience and a plan. He take a strong ends-justify-the-means approach to his revenge plan, which fits in well with his older cousins’ attitudes to life. Cousin Abe performs several acts of revenge on anti-Semites and heads for Canada as soon as he graduates from high school so he can fight Nazis ASAP, since the Americans haven’t yet joined the war. Once cousin Mirabelle leaves too, Sheldon falls in with Lenny’s plan for them to go to the Jewish resorts in the Catskills and con their way into bellhop jobs so that Lenny can spend nights trying to break into showbiz as a comic.

Not surprisingly for this picaresque story, Sheldon gets involved in a lot more dangerous activities than carrying bags and collecting tips, as his past collides with his present. Miller takes Sheldon’s story beyond that summer through to his just beginning his adulthood, and it continues to be full of tumult, heartbreak, hilarity, and life learning.

Whew, what a ride this story is. I read it in two big gulps, sometimes feeling like I was experiencing the print version of a Quentin Tarantino movie and other times on the verge of tears or laughing out loud. I don’t want to tell Derek B. Miller what to do with his life, but I bet I’m not the only one who wants to know about Sheldon Horowitz’s life over the half century that passes from the end of this book until the beginning of Norwegian By Night.

[Robert Intriago · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot of this story is the coming of age for a young Jewish boy, Shelton, born around 1926 in the western part of Massachusetts. Shelton’s parent both died when he was 12 years old. He is sent to live with his uncle in Hartford, Connecticut, and two cousins. I understand this is the prequel to the author’s book titled “Norwegian by Night”, which I definitely want to read.
This book has a lot going for it: great humor, wonderful characters, well written, nice pace and a lot of historical fiction about the Jews' place in the world at the start of WW II. There are a couple of scenes that stretch credulity as they seem more like slapstick.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheldon is 11-years-old and living "in a world that looked solid but was actually melting" (p. 90). His mother and aunt died in a fire in a movie theatre before the start of How To Find Your Way in the Dark. A hitman mistakenly ran his father off the road, killing him. His father's death lit a slow fuse that burned throughout the book. Don't piss Sheldon off, as he will find ways to get even.

How To Find Your Way in the Dark largely takes place in the 1930s, before the US got involved in WW2, when legislators in both parties and most of the US believed we shouldn't get involved in the war. Some of us admired Hitler and believed that the Jews, Roma, homosexuals, political dissidents, etc. deserved their fates. We Americans believe many good things about ourselves, many of those things undeservedly.

Were we simply oblivious? Were we too focused on survival or selfishness to hear those screams that weren’t in English? Too proud of our own achievements in America to see others as ourselves? Too glad to have left that hellhole called Europe and too scornful of those who hadn’t been courageous enough to have done the same?

Or were we too frightened to feel the pity that would have forced our self-reflection and prompted us to action? (pp. 330-331)

Sheldon, his best friend Lenny, his cousins Abe and Mirabelle, and his uncle Nate – all Jews – each found different ways of responding to the foment around the world. Lenny had a comedy acy that was so politically charged that club owners fired him at the end of a set. Nate changed his name and attempted to assimilate; Abe joined the Canadian RAF (remember, the US had not joined the war yet); and Mirabelle survived through a mix of avoidance, denial, and hedonism. Young Sheldon was prevented from joining the military, but that doesn't mean that he was a passive bystander.

This is the fourth of Derek Miller's books that I've read, three in 2021 (when I actually read this). His books are thoughtful and fun, making me think of Mary Poppins (in a good way): "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down…" Sheldon is in his early 20s at the end of How To Find Your Way in the Dark and in his 70s in the earlier Norwegian by Night. I expect this is not the last time we'll see Sheldon Horowitz.

I read this with my mother.

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this backstory of Sheldon Horowitz, whom I first met when he was 82 in Norwegian by Night. Here we meet him when he's 12 and follow him until he's 20-ish. I could hardly put this down! I've put the earlier book on hold at the library - I'm sure I'll have a new appreciation of it.

Why I'm reading this: I really liked Miller's Norwegian by Night, especially the old man Sheldon. This book takes his story all the way back to his childhood. 25 pages in and I'm hooked! I might have to reread Norwegian by Night.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have so enjoyed and admired the previous Miller novels I've read and I came to this with high expectations. The character of Sheldon Horowitz appeared as an 80 year old in the wonderful 'Norwegian by Night'. This novel begins with Sheldon at 12, experiencing the tragic deaths of his parents and setting out to wreak revenge. He lives for a time with relatives in Connecticut and then spends a summer as a bellboy at a Jewish hotel in the Catskills with his friend, Lenny, who is determined to carve out a career as a comedian.

We are all aware of Jewish comedy and the capacity of Jewish comedians to laugh at themselves and the stereotypes of their race and religion. Towards the end of the book, Miller writes: "Laughter is a great defence. Had Jewish Americans been defending themselves? Laughter, like love, makes us forget the rest if only for a moment. Were we pushing back the knowledge?" Behind this question, and behind much of the novel, is the rise of Nazism in Europe and the persecution of the Jews. Were Jewish Americans cowardly in not pushing for the US to enter the war against Hitler? Was the rise of comedy simply a desire to avoid reality? Sheldon's cousin, Abe, believes so and heads to Canada to join the Canadian Air Force. Abe is a character representing one moral position, Lenny another. Sheldon must find his own way.

In all his novels, Miller combines genres in a unique way: thriller, comedy, character study, contemporary or historical issues. This is a tall order and I don't think he pulled it off in this novel. Some characters' actions seemed implausible, even farcical and other sections long winded or not relevant. There was a lot to like, a lot to think about and a lot to laugh about but overall I was disappointed.

[Mich · Rating 2 out of 5]

In probability theory there is a concept called a Random Walk where one imagines an individual starting out at a lamppost with equal probability that they could go one step in either direction randomly and continue doing so until they wind up at some finishing point. This is what I got out of reading Miller’s book, How to Find Your Way in the Dark. The story lurches from one character to the next, disposing of them along the way, and introducing new ones. It’s almost like a story telling game among a group of people where one person starts a story with characters for a bit and then passes it on to the next one who adds additional plot as they see fit, and passes it on to the next person, etc.
Not only does the structure of this book create problems, but the improbability of the young Sheldon, his brother Abe, and his friend, Lenny’s actions spoil any elements of the relatively good humorous situations in the book.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this story, but it just didn't move quickly enough for me. I didn't feel invested in the characters, even Sheldon, despite his having experienced two tragedies at a young age.

[Jim Thomsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I’m going home tonight to see my wife, and when I do, I’m going to tell her that a fifteen-year-old orphan came to my office today wanting to sign up and fight the Nazis as a marine so he could be the first boots on the ground during the liberation of Europe. No, Sheldon Horowitz, you are no coward. And I’m sure your father knew that from the moment you took your first steps. What I’m telling you is that your job, right now, is to go live. My personal advice? Go make something. Build something. Fix something. The whole world’s breaking. We need all the help we can putting things together.”

*****

HOW TO FIND YOUR WAY IN THE DARK is so busy being so many awesome and profound things at once — a semi-polemic against ethic and economic injustice, a history lesson, an odyssey of dark revenge, a coming-of-age adventure, an American immigrant's success tale, an inquiry into and a celebration of Jewish identity in America during the run-up to World War II — that its biggest triumph is simply that it never forgets to be entertaining.

Derek B. Miller has a rare and compelling genius for being lightest on his narrative feet when his story and themes get heaviest, as he showed in his *other* Sheldon Horowitz novel, NORWEGIAN BY NIGHT, which not surprisingly was a hand-selling sensation at the bookstore I worked at a few years back. This one has all There's much more I could say about HOW TO FIND YOUR WAY IN THE DARK, but why listen to me tell when Derek B. Miller can show? Because it's the kind of novel that's impossible to not love. Go on. I dare you to resist its charm, its force, its emotional urgency, its ability to make you laugh and gasp in the space of a single breath, repeated ad infinitum, on virtually every page, and earning each breath it steals from you every step of the way without a whit of triteness or trickery. Its hills are alive with the sound of music. And laughter. And everything else contained in the heart and the soul, and the bladder and the bowels.

And if you still need convincing, here's some examples of what I'm talking about, from among more than one hundred passages I highlighted in HOW TO FIND YOUR WAY IN THE DARK (my experience is that the more quotable a book is, the better it is):

"She had told her father that her best subject was English because she knew that girls were supposed to like English, reading novels about sad people, and correcting grammar so they can become secretaries and perform the general etiquette of ladyhood."

“Jews wait too long to throw a punch, and we’re always second-guessing ourselves. You think the fu**in’ Italians are out there second-guessing themselves? You think the Irish are? The Greeks? The Russians? You think people in the Mob are thinking, ‘Oh no, should we really have slit this guy’s throat from ear to ear? Maybe he wasn’t going to say nothing. Maybe we were hasty.’ ”

"He said what’s weird is the gentiles buying evergreens to celebrate a Jew born in a desert. You think they had trees like this in the Holy Land? he says to me. Whoever thought of selling evergreens to gentiles was a fu**in’ genius, he says."

"Killing him would be both murder and a mercy, and Sheldon didn’t like the combination."

"Comedy—for some reason neither one of them yet understood—was always talked about in terms of life and death. Comedians killed or they died onstage. They murdered their audience or were murdered by them. Some nights they brought the house down, and other times they bombed. It was a full-contact blood sport and it wasn’t for the fainthearted."

"You can’t expect women to be perfect servants of your needs. We’re people and we’re trying to weave our way through obstacles you can’t even see. You think being Jewish is tough? Being a Jewish woman is tougher.”

"He shouldn’t be weighing vengeance for his father’s death against the chance to feel up Miriam in a broom closet."

“I’m starting to understand why everyone changes their names in show business,” Sheldon said, as they started to walk back toward Miriam. “You try, you die onstage, you come back as someone else and try again. There’s a lot of death and reincarnation. You’d think the Hindus would dominate in this profession rather than us.”

"On this day, Sheldon had seen Mirabelle and lost her. He’d visited a town that would soon vanish from the face of the earth. He’d thrown a fortune in jewels into a river, and someday all of New York would drink the water that hid those sparkling gems. He’d heard his best friend fill a room with laughter and joy and be punished for it; and he’d seen how beautiful a girl can be when she feels happy."

"It was a strange combination of traits a person needed to have to be a top criminal: enough imagination to set it all up but not enough to become lost in it. The creativity to outthink everyone but yourself. Not a natural balance."

"There can be a cost to contentment, and he was starting to see the range of ways that fate can demand payment."

"Since almost killing that drunk who ran Lenny off the road near Grossinger’s, Sheldon’s taste for crime novels had changed. They never matched the emotional intensity of the reality, and their distance from lived experience made him edgy. He preferred mysteries now to violence or revenge. Painless puzzles were interesting."

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one deserves a 4 1/2.
A story about family and friends tragic, feel-good events that will make the reader, sad, angry, and ahhh, the whole works. It is 1938 Sheldon Horowitz and his father gets run off the road in their truck. Sheldon survives but his father does not. Sheldon is convinced it was on purpose and is determined to find the killer at all costs. Off to live with his uncle and cousins he begins his adjusted life full blast.
It is a worthwhile story.