Mazeltov
A Novel
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- € 10,99
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- € 10,99
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In a glorious debut, a boy confronts queer lust, shame, the threat of war, and the plague of family on the day he becomes a man
At a banquet hall, at the onset of war, Adam Weizmann’s bar mitzvah party turns into a glorious catastrophe. On the cusp of manhood—and the verge of a nervous breakdown—Adam has been bracing for his special day, mired in family neuroses and national dysfunction.
In a chorus of voices, a fractious cast of well-wishers narrates Adam’s coming-of-age in Israel: his newly devout father and the mystic rituals he practiced on his young son; his best friend, Abbie, who points the way to joyful transgression; Khalil, a Palestinian poet, who offers a glimpse of a different way to be; and Adam himself, filled with shame and desire as he faces the brokenness of his world.
At once tender and lustful, a work of scathing satire and piercing insight, Mazeltov is a wholly original vision of a young man’s quest to know his own heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Filmmaker Zuzovsky debuts with a shimmering novelization of his short film about an Israeli boy's coming-of-age. As Adam Weizmann's bar mitzvah looms, he's more focused on figuring out his sexuality and overcoming his stage fright in an upcoming school play. Zuzovsky portrays Adam from many characters' perspectives, beginning with his classmate Eleanor, who makes out with him during a camping trip until he politely withdraws. There's also his friend Abigail, who writes him a letter outlining everything that's special about their friendship ("like the friends from Friends, but cooler and less problematic"). In a flash-forward, Adam encounters bar mitzvah waiter Khalil in a New York City gay bar years later, prompting him to wonder at how he's longed for the other man for so much time despite never knowing him. The disparate perspectives on Adam occasionally feel diffuse, but Zuzovsky exhibits a knack for crisp phrasing ("Her tears were bitter, like black pepper"; "when it comes to Judaism, she is as ignorant as an empty jar of pickles"). It's an auspicious first outing.
