I Pity the Poor Immigrant
A Novel
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3.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
This stunning novel by the author of Sway is another "brilliant portrayal of life as a legend" (Margot Livesey).
In 1972, the American gangster Meyer Lansky petitions the Israeli government for citizenship. His request is denied, and he is returned to the U.S. to stand trial. He leaves behind a mistress in Tel Aviv, a Holocaust survivor named Gila Konig.
In 2009, American journalist Hannah Groff travels to Israel to investigate the killing of an Israeli writer. She soon finds herself inside a web of violence that takes in the American and Israeli Mafias, the Biblical figure of King David, and the modern state of Israel. As she connects the dots between the murdered writer, Lansky, Gila, and her own father, Hannah becomes increasingly obsessed with the dark side of her heritage. Part crime story, part spiritual quest, I Pity the Poor Immigrant is also a novelistic consideration of Jewish identity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The notorious gangster Meyer Lansky is the ostensible subject of this complex novel. Lazar uses some details from Lansky's real life (as a Jew, he sought refuge from American law enforcement in Israel, but was eventually extradited) to explore the nature of history itself, mixing fact and fiction as he did in his 2011 novel, Sway. Journalist Hannah Groff writes a story about the murder of an Israeli poet named David Bellen, who had written a book "in which the biblical King David is presented in the guise of a 20th-century gangster." Groff's article leads her to Gila Konig, who says she was Lansky's mistress in Israel (now living in New York). The book moves back and forth in time, point of view, and even genre (large chunks are written in the New Journalism style, mixing the personal with the factual). Lazar juggles the elliptical and fragmented narrative effectively; he is also an excellent stylist, cleverly mimicking multiple forms. The author ambitiously makes a point about history public and personal and how it can lead to unexpected byways. As Groff notes, "Against our deepest wishes, we become suddenly, inexplicably, committed to a path we had avoided, a line of thought we'd had no interest in." An interesting and challenging novel.
Customer Reviews
Pity the poor reader
Distressingly convoluted.The narrative becomes meaningless leaving the reader saddened for the waste of time spent on this book.