Fertig

by Sol Yurick

Cover art by Harry Bennett.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Sol Yurick was an American novelist. He was born to a working class family of politically active Jewish immigrants. At the age of 14, Yurick became disillusioned with politics after the Hitler-Stalin pact. He enlisted during World War II, where he trained as a surgical technician. He studied at New York University after the war, majoring in literature. After graduation, he took a job with the welfare department as a social investigator, a job he held until the early 1960s, when he took up writing full time. He was involved in Students for a Democratic Society and the anti-war movement at this time.

His first novel, The Warriors, appeared in 1965. It combined a classical Greek story, Anabasis (Xenophon), with a fictional account of gang wars in New York City. It inspired the 1979 film of the same name. His other works include: Fertig (1966), The Bag (1968), Someone Just Like You/i> (1972), An Island Death (1976), Richard A (1981), Behold Metatron, the Recording Angel (1985), and Confession (1999).

Yurick passed away of complications from lung cancer, at age 87.

Reviews

[Jonathan Norton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harry&Sara Fertig bring their feverish young son to the Mercy Hospital one night but can't get anyone to take his condition seriously. The child then dies during the ride home. Months later Harry shoots 7 people associated with the hospital that he blames for the death. He soon confesses all to the cops, and looks forward to telling his version at the trial, refusing to plead insanity.

Existentialism, as it was popularly understood, is in the background, and the narrative features appearances from plenty of commenting voices who want to integrate Fertig and "Fertigism" into their own glib theorizing about the modern condition. But the irony is that Fertig is an anti-Raskolnikov: he has specific, calculated ends to his killing and is not casting himself as a man of destiny standing above social norms. So his message has to be smothered by all the vested interests who would prefer him as a lone crank or crazed psychotic, an "Oswald" figure (scepticism about the Warren Commission is not yet conventional opinion). The corruption of US healthcare and the "generosity" of donors and sponsors (who get to reap financial rewards from the shiny new facilities they support) is the main topic here. Along the way we get a full immersion in the snobbery and cynicism of the playboy Ivy League defence lawyer; a trip to the dingiest of downtown bars; and portraits of life inside the psychiatric wards and prisons which Yurick must have gleaned from his social work experience. Altogether this is a tough but engrossing read that waves 2 fingers at injustice and also the cheap cafe-philosophers who want to make empty chatter out of it.

[Logan Ortiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would’ve given more of a 2.5. The novel is intriguing but meandering. Not many like able characters if any. And even if they’re not intended to be like able, they’re just not even interesting. The narrative switches between perspectives quite often and i found myself most interested in the passages and perspectives of two of the most minor characters over any and all of the major players. Also somewhat infuriating is the way Yurick writes, or refuses to write, dialogue in key scenes. It’s as if we just get the gist of the event from a third party recalling the events and words spoken. This was one i definitely had to push myself to finish and not stray from as if i did i was sure I’d never come back to it.

[Fabio Zacà · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice and humorous view on the justice system in the US and the human nature at large.

[zunggg · Rating 1 out of 5]

This American 60's novel uses the case of a mass killer, disaffected and angry with "the system" after losing his young son to an undiagnosed condition, to expose the corruption of the judiciary and body politic while also attempting an (inconclusive) analysis of whether a sane person can commit a capital crime. The plot is devoid of suspense, but at least tries to make progress before dissolving into incoherency with a hundred pages left. The book is pervasively misogynistic, with every female character serving a sexual purpose, without exception in a degrading way and often without any point in terms of the story. And while I'm the last person to demand characters I "like" or can "empathise with", the unrelenting obnoxiousness of all the characters in Fertig gets tiresome very quickly (n.b. the main character actually isn't the titular killer, but the revolting lawyer who takes up his case). The prose is self-conscious, the narrative style changing willfully from chapter to chapter, which comes across as pretentious rather than virtuosic. If this is a novel of ideas, they are few and bad; if a crime novel, then the novel is the crime - a capital one.

[Emma Burris · Rating 3 out of 5]

finally finished this book. it was really really fascinating at first, but then the last 200 pages ended up being mostly boring legal stuff with bleakie who’s an insufferable character to read. as another review said, overall unlikeable and uninteresting characters. also the grenoble stuff never got resolved! overall unsatisfying ending. what even are we supposed to glean from that? what’s the significance? it didn’t resonate. sad because when i started reading this i was like “omg this is one of the best books i’ve ever read.” then it ended up being an absolute drag. i think overall the book should’ve been like 200 pages long, not 350.

[Johnny Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic to have a new edition of this long out of print novel. Scarily prescient, wholly contemporary it could just as easily be written this year instead of 1965. It should be required reading for all opponents of Obamacare. As one reviewer put it, this is 'like Raymond Chandler, like some Norman Mailer; it's not, as so many good thrillers are today, angling for a TV series or a film. Fertig is a book'.