Meiselman - (New Chicago Classics) by Avner Landes (Paperback)

About the Book

"Meiselman has had enough. After a life spent playing by the rules, this lonely thirty-six-year-old man-"number two" at a suburban Chicago public library, in charge of events and programs, and in no control whatsoever over his fantasies about his domineering boss-is looking to come out on top, at last. What seems like an ordinary week in 2004 will prove to be a golden opportunity (at least in his mind) to reverse a lifetime of petty humiliations. And no one-not his newly observant wife, not the Holocaust survivor neighbor who regularly disturbs his sleep with her late-night gardening, and certainly not the former-classmate-turned-renowned-author who's returning to the library for a triumphant literary homecoming-will stand in his way"--

Book Synopsis

Meiselman has had enough. After a life spent playing by the rules, this lonely thirty-six-year-old man-"number two" at a suburban Chicago public library, in charge of events and programs, and in no control whatsoever over his fantasies about his domineering boss-is looking to come out on top, at last. What seems like an ordinary week in 2004 will prove to be a golden opportunity (at least in his mind) to reverse a lifetime of petty humiliations. And no one-not his newly observant wife, not the Holocaust survivor neighbor who regularly disturbs his sleep with her late-night gardening, and certainly not the former-classmate-turned-renowned-author who's returning to the library for a triumphant literary homecoming-will stand in his way.

"Meiselman is a triumph of comic escalation." - Sam Lipsyte, author of Hark and The Ask

Review Quotes

A finalist for the Chicago Writers Association's Book of the Year Award!

"Landes's darkly funny debut chronicles a suburban schlemiel's endless capacity for self-sabotage....Meiselman's delusions of grandeur repeatedly collide with reality, to tragic and hilarious effect....Fans of Shalom Auslander will appreciate this." - Publishers Weekly

"...[a] rambunctious, Mitty-esque tale....many of its set pieces are great fun, the more cringeworthy the better; Meiselman's struggles to be a good husband, employee, and Jew are serious, but there's comedy in his falling short." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Meiselman: The Lean Years is a triumph of comic escalation, as well as a rich, witty exploration of the major elements of life, including family, community, love, work, ambition, faith, and ritual, not to mention the unforgettable power-hitting of the legendary Frank Thomas, AKA 'The Big Hurt.' Meiselman is a compelling figure, trapped between a craving for the validation of his world and a desire to somehow escape it, and Landes charts his unraveling with deadpan precision and a deep commitment to capturing both the horror and hilarity of living inside certain American and Jewish and Jewish-American paradoxes. While reminiscent of past astonishers like Stanley Elkin and Bruce Jay Friedman, Landes comes to the plate with a stance and a style all his own." -- Sam Lipsyte, author of Hark and The Ask

"Avner Landes's debut novel echoes the later work of Isaac Singer set in the modern Orthodox community in Chicago. Equally, it calls to mind the contemporary novels and stories of Sam Lipsyte. Here you have the Channukah gift to end all Channukah gifts. Seriously funny--painfully serious and hilariously funny--Meiselman: The Lean Years is the literary equivalent of Charlie Chaplin slipping on a banana peel. Do yourself a big favor and read this book." -- Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Rabbits for Food

"If you like Nikolai Gogol's comic stories about put-upon underdogs, or John Kennedy O'Toole's Confederacy of Dunces, about the life of a misshapen man, or if you like Sam Lipsyte's insane comedy of a feckless antihero, The Ask, or if you like Meshugah, the brilliantly comic novel of expat Jews by Isaac Bashevis Singer, or even if you like Saul Bellow's ebullient novel of middle-aged collapse, Seize the Day, then you will love Avner Landes' comic novel Meiselman, a novel that belongs on the same shelf as these books." -- Joseph G. Peterson, author of The Rumphulus

"If Saul Bellow wrote a comedy of manners set in the Bush years, it would resemble Avner Landes's very funny and ribald Meiselman: The Lean Years. Combining the workplace comedy and a portrait of a marriage, this rollicking tour through Meiselman's agitations and mortifications is both a treat and a trick of Landes's sharp and fluid prose." -- Leland Cheuk, author of No Good Very Bad Asian

"Meiselman: The Lean Years is a rich buffet of novelistic pleasures, including vivid characters, a finely textured portrait of the Jewish suburbs of Chicago, and a series of tragic-hilarious set pieces that simultaneously make you smile and cringe in recognition. Avner Landes delves into the head and heart of his comic hero with dexterous and supple prose that thrills and surprises on every page." -- Aaron Hamburger, author of Nirvana Is Here

"Meiselman is miserable: under-sexed, overworked, a human receptacle for small humiliations. Thankfully, Avner Landes is a superlative chronicler of American Jewish middle-aged male misery, bringing to mind the Bruce Jay Friedman of Stern and the Saul Bellow of Herzog in this funny, lively

About the Author

Avner Landes earned an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and works as a ghostwriter. He grew up in Skokie, Illinois, in a family that came to Chicagoland in the early 1900s; he now lives near Tel Aviv with his wife and two children.
Find him on Twitter: @AvnerLandes