Adam Levin (1) (1976–)

I enjoyed this a great deal. Not so much the big ideas, but rather the little things. Particular sentences or passages. Phrases like "Harpo progression", "hyperscoot", and "Slokum Dies Friday". Elaborate setups around impressing a girl could go on for ten or more pages and I loved them.

I knew going in that the book was nearly 1,100 pages long, but at around 800 pages in I was doing that Chevy Chase head-bob move at the Grand Canyon in "Vacation". I kept thinking, "Let's get on with it already," so I rushed through 100 pages or so to get to the concluding 100 pages, which were both frustrating and exhilerating.

I had trouble getting over the fact that no 10-year-old kid in history has ever talked like Gurion, even if he is (maybe) a messiah. I would have given "The Instructions" 5 stars if it were 300 pages shorter and if the kid wasn't such an asshole.… (more)

Excellent novel, detailing about four days of an eleven year old Israelite boy, permanently on detention at his school, who has such an effect on those around him that it leads him to question whether he himself could be the messiah? Adam Levin really captures the childish mind, describing the inner thoughts of Gurion, which justify his decisions with a childish certainty and short-sighted logic. The boy is very learned in Jewish literature, and approaches adults as his peers, seriously discussing the Torah, and ways of running the school. It is only as the book goes on that we learn of the difficulties he has endured; racism, incorrect psychiatric diagnoses, banishment from past friendships, his father's high profile lawyer cases, and his parent's divorce.
"I'm attention deficient...my conduct is disorderly and I'm hyper. Also I explode intermittently."
Parallels can be drawn with "The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time".
"Gurion takes his diagnoses to heart [conduct disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, antisocial personality disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder],...he does so to his detriment - affectionately embracing one's symptoms is unlikely to aid in the cause of overcoming one's disorders, it would not be therapeutic."
There's even some Klingon language used in the text: "jIH muSHa' Daj tlhej Hoch wIj tIq".… (more)

This book has the premise of a disaster that strikes downtown Chicago, leaving a number of people dead, including the family members of the protagonist, Gladman, a Jewish comedian. Alternating with his struggles to get on with his life, we see the efforts of Chicago’s mayor and his Jewish top aide, a sort of Stephen Miller, to exercise control over the spin and recovery.

Throughout the story, the author uses the opportunity to riff on what interests him in a way that is clever, but which I also found to be offensive and not at all funny. Levin reminds me a bit of the late works of Philip Roth - yeah, you can’t deny his brilliance, but you could do without the scatology, crudeness, and what I took to be a self-hating sort of antisemitism.… (more)