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Close-Up
The protagonist of Herman’s 2005 novel Dog, J.T. Rosen, returns in a new novel that casts her as the mentor of a young poet and sends her hurtling back into a difficult relationship of her youth in this story of loneliness, misdirection, misunderstanding, longing, and redemption that traces five characters as they come together and apart in a series of interlocking portraits.
Jacob Lieb is a young magician with a specialty in close-up magic who reconnects—begrudgingly—with his estranged father at the urging of the young poet with whom he falls in love. The poet, Caroline Forester, and her mother, Jeanie, struggle with their own relationship as Caroline grows close to Jacob’s father, Martin Lieberman—and an improbable friendship develops between Lieberman and Jeanie Forester, even as Rosen and Lieberman, Jill Rosen’s old flame, circle each other warily.
Herman’s abiding interest, in all of her work, has been in what makes and drives—and complicates, and undermines—relationships: marriages, parents and children and grandchildren, siblings, cousins, romances, friendships. The missed connections and misunderstandings between people who yearn for connectedness and understanding are at the center of Close-Up—as is poetry . . . and magic.
“In her captivating new novel, Close-Up, Michelle Herman unfolds a complex family history in which abandonment has caused painful estrangements and unexpected alliances. With subtle wit and unshakeable confidence, Herman demonstrates the alternating forms a family can take: a refuge, a prison, a solace, a vexation, one at a time or all at once, and right before your eyes. Close-Up is a magic act of a novel….” -Valerie Martin, author of Property and I Give It To You
“You can’t believe how difficult it is to make the inked-upped artifice of the written word disappear before your eyes as you read. And yet Michelle Herman does this effortlessly in her vexed-less Windex-esque novel, Close-Up. You enter into this intricate, eye-poppingly lucid dream of a book, REMing along the pages that are rigged for running the clearest of clear window written styles. Herman is a master of artful artlessness, and that is no mean feat. She constructs this substantially potent, packed with the power of this ever-present very present narrative with an invisible scaffolding of a nonchalant native conjurer. How did she do it? It doesn’t matter. It is so deftly done.” -Michael Martone, author of The Moon Over Wapakoneta and The Complete Writings of Art Smith, The Bird Boy of Fort Wayne, Edited by Michael Martone
“Michelle Herman’s novel is one of those books that I read in the full belief that its characters are real. No way could Caroline and Jacob not exist; their buoyant conversation, their predicaments, their struggles to grow up whole (and sane) in the company of their infuriating parents were too alive on the page to be merely-merely?!-constructed by this canny and sophisticated, tough and tender author. Her novel, both wise and smart, is wholly deserving of its place as the first winner of the Donald L. Jordan Literary Prize for Excellence.” -Rosellen Brown, author of Tender Mercies and Before and After
Jacob Lieb is a young magician with a specialty in close-up magic who reconnects—begrudgingly—with his estranged father at the urging of the young poet with whom he falls in love. The poet, Caroline Forester, and her mother, Jeanie, struggle with their own relationship as Caroline grows close to Jacob’s father, Martin Lieberman—and an improbable friendship develops between Lieberman and Jeanie Forester, even as Rosen and Lieberman, Jill Rosen’s old flame, circle each other warily.
Herman’s abiding interest, in all of her work, has been in what makes and drives—and complicates, and undermines—relationships: marriages, parents and children and grandchildren, siblings, cousins, romances, friendships. The missed connections and misunderstandings between people who yearn for connectedness and understanding are at the center of Close-Up—as is poetry . . . and magic.
“In her captivating new novel, Close-Up, Michelle Herman unfolds a complex family history in which abandonment has caused painful estrangements and unexpected alliances. With subtle wit and unshakeable confidence, Herman demonstrates the alternating forms a family can take: a refuge, a prison, a solace, a vexation, one at a time or all at once, and right before your eyes. Close-Up is a magic act of a novel….” -Valerie Martin, author of Property and I Give It To You
“You can’t believe how difficult it is to make the inked-upped artifice of the written word disappear before your eyes as you read. And yet Michelle Herman does this effortlessly in her vexed-less Windex-esque novel, Close-Up. You enter into this intricate, eye-poppingly lucid dream of a book, REMing along the pages that are rigged for running the clearest of clear window written styles. Herman is a master of artful artlessness, and that is no mean feat. She constructs this substantially potent, packed with the power of this ever-present very present narrative with an invisible scaffolding of a nonchalant native conjurer. How did she do it? It doesn’t matter. It is so deftly done.” -Michael Martone, author of The Moon Over Wapakoneta and The Complete Writings of Art Smith, The Bird Boy of Fort Wayne, Edited by Michael Martone
“Michelle Herman’s novel is one of those books that I read in the full belief that its characters are real. No way could Caroline and Jacob not exist; their buoyant conversation, their predicaments, their struggles to grow up whole (and sane) in the company of their infuriating parents were too alive on the page to be merely-merely?!-constructed by this canny and sophisticated, tough and tender author. Her novel, both wise and smart, is wholly deserving of its place as the first winner of the Donald L. Jordan Literary Prize for Excellence.” -Rosellen Brown, author of Tender Mercies and Before and After
- GenresFiction
376 pages, Paperback
Published March 15, 2022
9 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Herman
22 books34 followersMichelle Herman‘s newest book is If You Say So, her fourth collection of essays/memoirs. You can read her parenting, family, and relationship advice weekly in the Sunday Care and Feeding column at Slate.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Michelle has lived for many years in Columbus, Ohio, where she lives in a 120-year-old house with her husband, the painter Glen Holland.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Michelle has lived for many years in Columbus, Ohio, where she lives in a 120-year-old house with her husband, the painter Glen Holland.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 16, 2023
I’m not sure exactly how I feel about this book. At first, I didn’t care for any of the characters. As the book progressed, and as the characters developed, I discovered that I liked them all. Very similar to life, as you learn more about someone’s past and motivations, you like them more.
April 22, 2022
Loved the relationships that unfolded in CLOSE-UP. Jacob and Caroline cobbled together family as best they could, the best magic trick anyone could pull off. Teared up reading Jill reflect on teaching. Loved the scene where Caroline breaks big news to Jeanie and then their relationship begins to thaw. Really enjoyed the snippets of everyone's writing, even Jacob's magic show in the end, which really did have me on the edge of my seat, imagining the disappearance of an origami phoenix. Oh, and I'm not sure I'd ever seen a young child given so much dialogue before, and—sweet Harry!—it worked. CLOSE-UP reminds us that everything seems inevitable after the fact, like a bird that flew the coop (or didn't), like two old dogs that learned new tricks (or didn't), and I'm sad it's over. Also, half the book took place between parentheses or em dashes, and a fifth of the book was in italics, and—you know what?—I loved it.
September 18, 2022
A struggle to finish. I skipped large bits of it at a time. So many characters that I never cared about any of them, except maybe the young couple.
The time jumps were jarring, reducing the continuity of the novel.
Wouldn't it be great if academic writers were able to set their novels in non-academic settings?
The time jumps were jarring, reducing the continuity of the novel.
Wouldn't it be great if academic writers were able to set their novels in non-academic settings?
May 17, 2022
I enjoyed this novel but that is not surprising as I have enjoyed every book of Michelle's that I have read. Perhaps I am a little biased as well having interviewed her and interreacted with her in person at book signings, etc.
Here is what I had to say about Dog, the novel of which this is a sequel of sorts:
"And I think this is what makes her writing interesting – outside of the obvious skill she brings to description, inner dialogue, etc. – her writing is almost emotional and psychological cartography. It is something everyone can relate to and wrestle with and yet, because Herman’s characters are just different enough from us, the exploration is fresh and new."
Close-Up is more complex, more characters and more voices, but it is this quality that continues to shine through. You explore life through the eyes of the characters but not plot driven actions, although there is some of that, but the emotional and psychological journey we take in our families, relationships, etc.
And that is what the book is about in the end: what does family mean and how does the unique experience of our own families shape and impact our lives and relationships. And isn't that what literature and art is about: explore what it means to be human.
Here is what I had to say about Dog, the novel of which this is a sequel of sorts:
"And I think this is what makes her writing interesting – outside of the obvious skill she brings to description, inner dialogue, etc. – her writing is almost emotional and psychological cartography. It is something everyone can relate to and wrestle with and yet, because Herman’s characters are just different enough from us, the exploration is fresh and new."
Close-Up is more complex, more characters and more voices, but it is this quality that continues to shine through. You explore life through the eyes of the characters but not plot driven actions, although there is some of that, but the emotional and psychological journey we take in our families, relationships, etc.
And that is what the book is about in the end: what does family mean and how does the unique experience of our own families shape and impact our lives and relationships. And isn't that what literature and art is about: explore what it means to be human.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews