Gay & Lesbian Books
Light Fell
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Manufacturer: Soho Press
Author: Evan Fallenberg
Publisher: Soho Press
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $14.96
You Save: $ 7.04 ( 32% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Soho Press
Author: Evan Fallenberg
Publisher: Soho Press
Average Customer Rating:
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Light Fell Description
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781569474679
ISBN: 1569474672
Label: Soho Press
Manufacturer: Soho Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Publisher: Soho Press
Studio: Soho Press
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781569474679
ISBN: 1569474672
Label: Soho Press
Manufacturer: Soho Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Publisher: Soho Press
Studio: Soho Press
Editorial Review of Light Fell
Twenty years have passed since Joseph left behind his entire life-his wife Rebecca, his five sons, his father, and the religious Israeli farming community where he grew up-when he fell in love with a man, the genius rabbi Yoel Rosenzweig. Their affair is long over, but its echoes continue to reverberate through the lives of Joseph, Rebecca, and their sons in ways that none of them could have predicted.
Now, for his fiftieth birthday, Joseph is preparing to have his five sons and the daughter-in-law he has never met spend the Sabbath with him in the Tel Aviv penthouse that he shares with a man-who is conveniently out of town that weekend. This will be the first time Joseph and all his sons will be together in nearly two decades.
The boys' lives have taken widely varying paths. While some have become extremely religious, another is completely cosmopolitan and secular, and their feelings toward their father range from acceptance to bitter resentment. As they prepare for this reunion, Joseph, his sons, and even Rebecca, must confront what was, what is, and what could have been.
Evan Fallenberg is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and has since 1985 lived in Israel, where he is a writer, teacher, and translator. His recent translations include novels by Batya Gur and Meir Shalev. He is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the Vermont College MFA program. He is the father of two sons.
Customer Reviews of Light Fell
Customer Rating: 
Review Summary: Life Choices
Review: I loved this book from page one. The characters are described in such a way that you feel as though you really know these people. I don't believe it's an issue of being gay and Jewish. All of us married with children have the potential to face a dilemna at some point. The question is always how much you owe yourself vs. your children. This is a beautiful, thought provoking novel.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: a father and his sons...
Review: For his 50th birthday, Joseph Licht is making special recipes for one big dinner for his sons. However, Joseph has an ulterior motive and that is to ask his sons for forgiveness for what happened 20 years earlier.
20 years earlier, Joseph, a literature professor, meets Rabbi Yoel Rosenznweig, who is something of a genius/prodigy of the Torah. Something connects between the two of them. Almost without a second thought, Joseph abandons his faithful wife and 5 sons...only to discover that Yoel has committed suicide.
I felt that *Light Fell* was a frustrating book because Joseph works hard in preparing the arrival of his sons. His sons are spoiled, judgmental and unappreciative. In addition, Fallenberg doesn't give the sons any depths as he has given to Joseph. Perhaps if we knew more about the sons' views, we might be able to understand their position with their father.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Father and sons . . .
Review: Half-way through this novel I almost gave up on it. It was hard to meet on its own terms, its plot turns a bit melodramatic, its tone almost operatic. An Israeli scholar, married with five young sons, becomes enamored of a charismatic rabbi, and after a four-month affair leaves his family. Taking place as it does within the context of religious beliefs that condemn what he has done, this turn of events creates a tidal wave of ramifications that grow and converge years later at a fiftieth birthday dinner, where long buried secrets and resentments are finally voiced. Father and sons are then left to mend a lifetime of disappointments and grievances.
The book represents on one level a kind of microcosm of points of view among Israelis about Israel - from a zealot founder of a settlement on the West Bank, to an ultra-Orthodox young couple, to reformed and secular Jews. On another level, it is a fierce domestic drama, rich with guilt, recriminations, petty cruelties, and other sorrows. Finally it is an extended meditation on the conflict between truth to oneself and what is owed to others. To what extent, the author wants us to ask, is being true to one's nature merely self-indulgent hedonism? The answer does not come easily, and when they get to the last page, readers of this novel will find the question not completely answered. There is more to the story to be told, and we are left with any number of clues about what lies in store for all of the characters we have come to know.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Weaves the secular and profane
Review: It's amazing to me that the author is a straight man, though I note he has acknowledged authorities on Jewish gay issues. The prose is mellifluous, picking you up and carrying you along so that the writing alone is a joy; the plot only adds to it.
If you are gay and Jewish, particularly if you grow up in a household with any degree of religious observance, this book will mesmerize you on many levels. From his beginning as a "conventional" intellectual, balancing his studies with a family of five highly diverse boys and his wife, to his metamorphosis to his independence as a gay man trying to reconnect with his children, the story amazes and spellbinds.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Love story on surprising levels, like a carpet with many layers and threads.
Review: It takes place in Israel, and breaches daring new ground. The struggle between the lure and pull of Jewish sources and love of another soul are tangible and delicately depicted. Yes, one can have a love affair with study and meaning. The struggle of someone at the critical age of 50, and the meeting with his adults sons, who are people struggling to define themselves in light of their father's choices. The meeting between the father and his adults sons rings true with painful accuracy, the anger, the expections and the disappointments and surprises. Some amazing story telling takes place, because the characters each tell a story of the human condition, which is heart wrenching and real, and thus they get to know each other, and we do too. So the author is setting the scene, and we are invited to a table heaving with home made delicacies which we have been a participant in their creation,but the characters themselves do the story telling. We, as readers, learn about the power of storytelling as a tool for breaking down the isolation between human beings, generations, sexual preferences, and those with different beliefs and abilities. I loved the exposee of a woman with special needs being more developed in love than those who are "typical." Highly recommended. Bravo!
Review Summary: Life Choices
Review: I loved this book from page one. The characters are described in such a way that you feel as though you really know these people. I don't believe it's an issue of being gay and Jewish. All of us married with children have the potential to face a dilemna at some point. The question is always how much you owe yourself vs. your children. This is a beautiful, thought provoking novel.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: a father and his sons...
Review: For his 50th birthday, Joseph Licht is making special recipes for one big dinner for his sons. However, Joseph has an ulterior motive and that is to ask his sons for forgiveness for what happened 20 years earlier.
20 years earlier, Joseph, a literature professor, meets Rabbi Yoel Rosenznweig, who is something of a genius/prodigy of the Torah. Something connects between the two of them. Almost without a second thought, Joseph abandons his faithful wife and 5 sons...only to discover that Yoel has committed suicide.
I felt that *Light Fell* was a frustrating book because Joseph works hard in preparing the arrival of his sons. His sons are spoiled, judgmental and unappreciative. In addition, Fallenberg doesn't give the sons any depths as he has given to Joseph. Perhaps if we knew more about the sons' views, we might be able to understand their position with their father.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Father and sons . . .
Review: Half-way through this novel I almost gave up on it. It was hard to meet on its own terms, its plot turns a bit melodramatic, its tone almost operatic. An Israeli scholar, married with five young sons, becomes enamored of a charismatic rabbi, and after a four-month affair leaves his family. Taking place as it does within the context of religious beliefs that condemn what he has done, this turn of events creates a tidal wave of ramifications that grow and converge years later at a fiftieth birthday dinner, where long buried secrets and resentments are finally voiced. Father and sons are then left to mend a lifetime of disappointments and grievances.
The book represents on one level a kind of microcosm of points of view among Israelis about Israel - from a zealot founder of a settlement on the West Bank, to an ultra-Orthodox young couple, to reformed and secular Jews. On another level, it is a fierce domestic drama, rich with guilt, recriminations, petty cruelties, and other sorrows. Finally it is an extended meditation on the conflict between truth to oneself and what is owed to others. To what extent, the author wants us to ask, is being true to one's nature merely self-indulgent hedonism? The answer does not come easily, and when they get to the last page, readers of this novel will find the question not completely answered. There is more to the story to be told, and we are left with any number of clues about what lies in store for all of the characters we have come to know.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Weaves the secular and profane
Review: It's amazing to me that the author is a straight man, though I note he has acknowledged authorities on Jewish gay issues. The prose is mellifluous, picking you up and carrying you along so that the writing alone is a joy; the plot only adds to it.
If you are gay and Jewish, particularly if you grow up in a household with any degree of religious observance, this book will mesmerize you on many levels. From his beginning as a "conventional" intellectual, balancing his studies with a family of five highly diverse boys and his wife, to his metamorphosis to his independence as a gay man trying to reconnect with his children, the story amazes and spellbinds.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Love story on surprising levels, like a carpet with many layers and threads.
Review: It takes place in Israel, and breaches daring new ground. The struggle between the lure and pull of Jewish sources and love of another soul are tangible and delicately depicted. Yes, one can have a love affair with study and meaning. The struggle of someone at the critical age of 50, and the meeting with his adults sons, who are people struggling to define themselves in light of their father's choices. The meeting between the father and his adults sons rings true with painful accuracy, the anger, the expections and the disappointments and surprises. Some amazing story telling takes place, because the characters each tell a story of the human condition, which is heart wrenching and real, and thus they get to know each other, and we do too. So the author is setting the scene, and we are invited to a table heaving with home made delicacies which we have been a participant in their creation,but the characters themselves do the story telling. We, as readers, learn about the power of storytelling as a tool for breaking down the isolation between human beings, generations, sexual preferences, and those with different beliefs and abilities. I loved the exposee of a woman with special needs being more developed in love than those who are "typical." Highly recommended. Bravo!