The Sea Beach Line
Ben Nadler
Fig Tree Books, Oct 13 2015, $15.95
ISBN: 9781941493083
Kicked out of Oberlin for drug abuse, Isaac “Izzy” Edel stays with
his mom and accountant stepfather in New Mexico. When he receives a letter from his estranged
dad Alojzy the street schemer, Izzy ignores it though the ramblings shake him
up. Two days later a second post from a
stranger Semyon Goldov arrives claiming Alojzy is dead.
With a need to know the truth about the alleged demise of his sire
and learn more about his paternal post WWII Polish roots, Izzy heads to New
York, the site of Alojzy’s book peddling business. Moving into a storage unit, he begins his
odyssey by taking over his dad’s Greenwich Village street books for sale
business and works odd jobs for an Uzbeki gangster. He meets Brooklynite Rayna who helps him on
his quest, but the more Izzy finds out the more convoluted and confusing his
father’s world proves.
The Sea Beach Line is a mesmerizing
Jewish street lit odyssey starring an enigmatic individual who readers will at
times despise and yet also adore. The
serpentine storyline merges Americanized assimilated Jewish
mythos and the Talmud as the foundations of a confused young man’s search for
who his father truly was.
Harriet Klausner
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