The days of Awe

by Hugh Nissenson

Washington Post Best Books of 2005.

Philadelphia Inquirer Top 10 Fiction Pick, Fall 2005

At age 67, Artie Rubin finds his world shaken to its foundation by events he cannot control. His tale his both universal and unique; it is the story of the end of things and their beginnings, of friends and family, of connections lost and of the endurance of love. The Days of Awe is a breathtaking call to living.

"[Nissenson] more than holds his own in the arena of gritty, all-too-present-day realism, brilliantly conveying his characters' anxiety and suffering, their conflicting ideas,emotions and beliefs, and the love for one another that makes them so vulnerable but also lends enduring value to their menaced lives."- Wall Street Journal

"Solid character writing and attention to the details of daily life make the September 11 material well motivated; as characters continue to worry, kibitz, philosophize and complain, one feels that they have a real sense of the stakes."- Publishers Weekly

"A moving, thought-provoking exploration of coming to grips with mortality."- Booklist

"I just finished The Days of Awe. I am too moved to move. (Even this pen.) An amazing novel. It is as if we are eavesdropping on life." -Cynthia Ozick

Genres: Fiction

308 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Michael Weinraub · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad I stuck this one out. It was a bit dizzying at first, despite (or perhaps due to) the way Nissenson captures life's details, but the absolutely believable and deep inter-character development really took me some place. Many Jews especially will connect to the many aspects of being insider/outsider in your own religion, and how that can evolve over time. Yes, very affecting, this one.

[Richard Odier · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/11/2001
This book tells the story of NY through the Jewish tradition of the days of awe a few weeks before and after the attack

Beautiful
Sad
Moving
Aging


To be read

[Julie Kleckner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different style of book but I really enjoyed it. I couldn't stop reading it. It was more of a journal or diary style writing to give you more of an intimate view into the characters lives.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 2 out of 5]

i enjoyed reading it until near the end when i was disappointed by an event and came to see the entire book as an argument for atheism.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

I often times wonder what motivated me to put certain books on my to read list. Since this book is definetly outside of my normal sphere, I'm having a hard time pinning down what it was that intrigued me. The family cohesion/dissillusion? The search for religious meaning in life? The NYC setting? Or 9/11 trauma? All this is covered from the perspective of a religious/nonreligious Jewish family. I certainly learned more than I could ever otherwise know about Jewish religious traditions, ceremonies and holidays. The title itself refers to period of the year when Jews believe God decides the fate of Jews in the coming year. There is also ample Gentile representation.
I had problems with the style..a sort of stream of conscience that never truly let me konw which conscience was speaking (or thoughting?) at what time without scatching my head to figure it out. It seemed as if a whole Jewish congregation was introduced thoughout the book. Half of the character could have been excised.
I happen to spend a lot of time in Manhattan and just as in TV sitcoms there never seem to be any Black people there. Contrary to the multitudes I observe. Except for the "handsome Black doorman" and cartoonish maid, the book was also dereft of any Black people. Perhaps to Jewish writers and TV sitcoms we really are invisible.

I do give the book kudos for exploring grief and legitimate victimhood and its ramifications. And how it can force different individuals to either embrace religion and cast it aside.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pretty sure that I was going to give this book a one star rating. It was depressing, but beyond that I couldn't relate or care about any of the many characters. On one level, I understood their struggles, but there was just something missing.

The constantly shifting points of view and abrupt changes between a character's thoughts and their spoken conversations was sometimes hard to follow. Add to that the many typos and I had to do a lot of backtracking.

I also found it unsettling when some of the characters expressed sexual thoughts about close family members. (A son has somewhat detailed fantasies about his father; a father notices his pregnant daughter's enlarged breasts.) An almost constant objectification of random women in a middle aged man's thoughts as he does his day to day chores around town. None of this contributed at all to the storyline; for me, it detracted from it.

In spite of all of that, somehow in the final pages with no conscious awareness, I must have started to care about the characters because I found myself crying by the end. Because of this and the strange melancholy hope in the final sentences, I changed my rating to a neutral three stars. It left me feeling more confused about my reaction than anything. I would not read it again or recommend it.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nissenson began writing this book in the spring of 2001, a story that unwinds (much like sitting unnoticed through a meal that extends for months) as friends and family carry through their lives -- you're given the opportunity to play both eavesdropper and telepathic with subtle shifts from one person's conversation/inner monologue to another with stunning insight into widely different characters -- brokers, artists, atheists, jews, christians, clergy, stumblers, addicts, the full sweep of any given microcosm, here all part of the rolling current of modern new york city. as the book began taking shape, 9/11 struck; the author saw no other way of progressing than to include the experience in the story itself, making for a heartbreaking movement halfway through the pages. written with brutal honesty, it weaves a subtle reminder of the joys in living, loving, and relationships.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not like this book at all. A bunch of extremely self-absorbed New Yorkers obsessed with their own minute lives and nothing else. Also - the writing style! Lots of random, short sentences with too many exclamation points! And I had to skim all the mythology and sermon parts - too boring. Oh - and the worst part was the inexcusably sloppy editing... how can you have a book centered around 9/11, and mis-date the narrator's journal entries with the year 2002 and 2003? This happened not once, not twice, but 3 or 4 times.

[Kara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I DID NOT LIKE THIS BOOK. From a purely organizational point of view, the fact that the editor didn't find that the years in daily letters kept switching from 2001 to 2003 (w/o meaning, really, it was all set in 2001) was annoying. The fact that a Jewish man, living on the Upper West Side of NYC who was in his 60s wrote about a Jewish man, living on the Upper West Side of NYC in his 60s left me feeling like I was reading a really dull version of some old man's journal. Probably because I was. Next, please.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I discovered this author, who wrote the book "The Tree of Life." Not standard organization for a novel, but once I settled into it, it made great stream-of-consciousness sense to me (it no doubt helps that I'm a psychotherapist and so think in this style a lot). Obviously the themes--life-and-death, marriage, the place of religion in life for 21st century Americans--are of great concern to the author. I felt deeply for the main characters, and alternated between laughing out loud at the Jewish humor and feeling tears running down my face.

[Matthew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not even finish this book. The writing is awful, with the linguistic complexity appropriate for a fifth grade creative writing assignment. Compound sentences were rare. Vulgarity and profanity were included with all the subtlety of a brick to the face. Honestly, this is one of the only books I have ever had to put down, and I don't understand how anyone could possibly think this was worth publishing.

Thematically, it was slightly more interesting, but I could not overlook the horrific writing.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that really stays with you. I read it over a year ago now, and the degree to which I still think about it, and can be moved by remembering parts of it has convinced me to raise my review from four stars to five.

[sk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an easy book to like because its chief characters are not easy to like. Alternately gross and graceful in capturing its characters, whose lives (and deaths) are not necessarily lovely. A few spiritual surprises and moments of sheer heartbreak.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be an intriguing piece of writing. The omnipresent narrator switches point of view sometimes in the middle of a scene. The interweaving of these "points of view" makes it feel as though you are eavesdropping on others thoughts while the story line is progressing. I liked it.

[Jeffrey Stalk · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel about love, life and death. Artie Rubin is 67 years old and he feels death's breath on his neck. When death takes his wife first, he is surprised and sad that he has to go on alone. The novel deals well with some universal experiences of old age.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

The characters are vile. The choppy prose and incomplete sentences, mixed with the inconsistent and constantly changing narrators, made this a very slow read. It was painful to finish, and wish I could have done so quickly.

[Sol Salinas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok. Not great. Kind of depressing.

[Socket Klatzker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading it at my mom's house. Don't know if I'll finnish before I return home. So far I am compelled by the unsensational and lack of steamy-ness of the sweet and graphic sex described.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, this is amazing! A random find at the book exchange, and I'm hopeful this will break my dry spell of books that blew me away.

[Ashley Harrington · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 and a half. There is one really beautiful, sad passage in this book when Nissenson describes 9/11 that sort of makes up for a lot of the other crap going on.

[Lavada · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not so good.

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a fan of the style, the editing (were the dates intentionally wrong? If so, I don't get it), or the story.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at the life of an older adult couple. Sometimes confusing to following who's thoughts you were reading. Emotional recalling of September 11.

[Leanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't think I would finish this book. It was a tough read. Hard to follow who's the narrator from one paragraph to the next. Can't decide
if I should have just given up.

[Kalen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a re-read and while I liked it a lot, it didn't hit me the way it did the first time I read it (before it was published.)

[VerJean]

to follow......

[Stefano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Raggirato alla grande da titolo e copertina.