Book Review: Readings

Love Burns

by Edna Mazya

Europa Editions, 220 pp., $14.95 (paper)

What do you do when you find out your wife is having an affair? For Ilan Ben Nathan, a middle-aged college professor married to Naomi, a beautiful but much younger woman, it fast becomes the predominant issue in his life. Weighing the pros and cons of whether to let the affair burn out on its own or confront his lover, he ultimately confers with his mother. One gets the impression that IIan, overly dependent on alcohol and pharmaceuticals and suddenly back to smoking again, is neurotically inclined under the best of circumstances. But when an unexpected turn of events radically changes the playing field, the story quickly evolves into a more urgent psychological drama. Originally published in Israel in 1997 under the title An X-Ray Burst by the esteemed playwright Edna Mazya, this debut novel is both unexpectedly suspenseful and tremendously funny, often in a cunning and understated manner. Mazya's ear for conversation is sharp and insightful. Most strikingly, every chapter is one long paragraph punctuated with run-on sentences that blend conversation and narrative into a near stream-of-consciousness flow. While this tends to create a perception of density that might otherwise not be so easily perceived, it also emphasizes Ilan's first-person thought processes and emotional turmoil as he ties himself into brooding knots of mental anguish. He too often resigns himself to a fate based on assumptions of fact his fellow characters ultimately do not have. This swings both ways in tightening the suspense and evoking the humor. Mazya draws an interesting cast of supporting characters from Ilan's life-long Arab friend and police detective, Anton, to his obnoxious work colleagues. Most intriguing perhaps is Ilan's quick-witted mother, Erna, who will be at least somewhat familiar to anyone with a Jewish mother without lapsing into parody. Employing astrophysics lectures and dinner-party banter about Pulp Fiction as metaphors for interpersonal relationships and societal perceptions, respectively, may have proved effective but hardly subtle. So, what do you do if you discover your spouse is having an affair? You might consider using this entertaining read as the basis for what not to do.