Status
Available
Call number
Publication
New York Review Books (2021), 248 pages
Description
"Corbin College, not-quite-upstate New York, winter 1959-1960: Ruben Blum, a Jewish historian-but not an historian of the Jews-is co-opted onto a hiring committee to review the application of an exiled Israeli scholar specializing in the Spanish Inquisition. When Benzion Netanyahu shows up for an interview, family unexpectedly in tow, Blum plays the reluctant host, to guests who proceed to lay waste to his American complacencies. Mixing fiction with non-fiction, the campus novel with the lecture, The Netanyahus is a wildly inventive, genre-bending comedy of blending, identity, and politics-"An Account of A Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family" that finds Joshua Cohen at the height of his powers"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Narshkite
Hilarious, smart, challenging, edifying, just a great read. This is more of a 4.5, but I rounded up because it is so damn fun.
This is my first book by Joshua Cohen. When I started looking into him I saw a number of comments indicating he is the new David Foster Wallace. I see what the commenters
Apparently Harold Bloom told Cohen the story of his meeting with Bibi Netanyahu's father, and from that story this book arose. After a lifetime in NYC our MC Ruben Blum (everyone calls him "Rube") has taken a job at an upstate New York college where he is the only Jew, (faculty, staff or student.) His parents and his in-laws behave like he has moved to a place where Western civilization can no longer be glimpsed. It is the 60's and the women's movement has not yet hit Ithaca (yeah, it is Cornell, though in the book it is "Corbin") so Rube's wife is pressed into the role of faculty wife-sidekick despite her intelligence and education . Rube's daughter misses the city but makes the effort to fit in with the cool kids in bucolic Corbin and in doing so she fully embraces all things goyish. Ruben is up for tenure so despite being aware of the many issues he is not rocking any boats. When the history department decides to vet a candidate for a newly opened tenure track spot somehow Benzion Netanyahu (Bibi's father) ends up on their radar. Because he is Jewish Ruben finds himself on the welcome committee for the Netanyahu clan and hijinks ensue.
The book is a deep dive into Zionism and both Jewish identity and Jewish-American identity (they are different things, really.) These are complicated issues that most of the Jewish people I know deal with. Earlier I quoted Larry David, and when reading this I kept thinking of a scene from Curb your Enthusiasm where Susie Essman and Larry David are yelling at each other "you're a jewface" "I'm a jewface? No you're a jewface." (Its a really great episode.) For many Jewish Americans there are elements of old school Jewishness that make us squirm. The yelling, the hondeling, the conspicuous displays of spending power, the presumption, the pushiness. That is not me, (well I am loud, that is true) and though (unlike Ruben) I have no desire to not be identified as Jewish I am really bothered when I see that sort of behavior from Jewish people because I know people are going to make the same assumptions about me. Side note: It really did feel like Ruben's goal was to fully assimilate. He was like Ralph Lauren (nee Lifshitz) - the Jew trying to be waspier than the wasps. Ruben's last line in the book truly encapsulates this, and it made me bark a laugh on the train so suddenly that the woman next to me skootched away from me. So yes, we reject this stuff, and we can make fun of it, but we also have to reckon with what makes us Jewish if we are so set on distancing ourselves from that real part of our culture. This is hard stuff! Anyway, Cohen goes there, and I laughed a lot on recognition and admiration, but also, I learned a lot. There is a bunch of information on the Spanish Inquisition that was enlightening to say the least. And did I mention it was funny? (The book was funny, not the Inquisition. The Inquisition was not funny, other than as interpreted by Mel Brooks.)
So why did I start by saying this is a 4.5 and not a 5? There are some problems. I mentioned the Jonathan Lethem connection in my head, and in part that is because both Lethem and Cohen are really really pretentious. I am not a person who is put off by preening displays of intellect. Believe me when I say my life would be miserable if I was one of those people because I am surrounded by that pretty much all the time. And if I am being honest I can occasionally be one of those people (though I am not half as smart or informed as Cohen or Lethem so I have less material to work with.) Still, I was a little put off by the pretension, the casual assumption that the reader was well versed enough in the differing approaches to and definitions of Zionism and the last 600 years of European history and the entrenched behaviors of Ivy faculty that no elucidation would be necessary. And perhaps paradoxically because Cohen is so broad in his references he can be downright pedantic when it comes to discussing things Jewish. I felt sometimes like he was in my head telling me why my opinions on Zionism and my "performance" of Jewishness were all wrong -- like he was picking away at all my factual and emotional truths and finding them ridiculous. I felt lectured to in parts, and that wasn't great. Overall though, this is genius. I am not sure it will resonate with non-Jews, but I am guessing if you enjoy Bellow and Roth, and especially if you like Jonathan Lethem it will work for you.
This is my first book by Joshua Cohen. When I started looking into him I saw a number of comments indicating he is the new David Foster Wallace. I see what the commenters
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are saying, but I don't agree. DFW is a midwestern boy no matter how much time he spent in East Coast ivory towers. I see a lot more Jonathan Lethem here than DFW. I absolutely get that quoting another review of my own is pretty gross, but I am going to do it anyway. In a review of a Lethem book I said "It is hard to decide if Jonathan Lethem is more in love with his general self-loathing or his certainty that all else be damned, he is the smartest guy in the room." All of this applies to Joshua Cohen. But Cohen is, to quote another East Coast Jew with a jaundiced eye and impeccable wit, the master of his domain. Lethem spins off into rabbit holes and forgets what story he was trying to tell. Cohen does not, he tells his story and he tells it well. His digressions are amusing and brief and never took me out of the story. What is that story? Well it is a good one.Apparently Harold Bloom told Cohen the story of his meeting with Bibi Netanyahu's father, and from that story this book arose. After a lifetime in NYC our MC Ruben Blum (everyone calls him "Rube") has taken a job at an upstate New York college where he is the only Jew, (faculty, staff or student.) His parents and his in-laws behave like he has moved to a place where Western civilization can no longer be glimpsed. It is the 60's and the women's movement has not yet hit Ithaca (yeah, it is Cornell, though in the book it is "Corbin") so Rube's wife is pressed into the role of faculty wife-sidekick despite her intelligence and education . Rube's daughter misses the city but makes the effort to fit in with the cool kids in bucolic Corbin and in doing so she fully embraces all things goyish. Ruben is up for tenure so despite being aware of the many issues he is not rocking any boats. When the history department decides to vet a candidate for a newly opened tenure track spot somehow Benzion Netanyahu (Bibi's father) ends up on their radar. Because he is Jewish Ruben finds himself on the welcome committee for the Netanyahu clan and hijinks ensue.
The book is a deep dive into Zionism and both Jewish identity and Jewish-American identity (they are different things, really.) These are complicated issues that most of the Jewish people I know deal with. Earlier I quoted Larry David, and when reading this I kept thinking of a scene from Curb your Enthusiasm where Susie Essman and Larry David are yelling at each other "you're a jewface" "I'm a jewface? No you're a jewface." (Its a really great episode.) For many Jewish Americans there are elements of old school Jewishness that make us squirm. The yelling, the hondeling, the conspicuous displays of spending power, the presumption, the pushiness. That is not me, (well I am loud, that is true) and though (unlike Ruben) I have no desire to not be identified as Jewish I am really bothered when I see that sort of behavior from Jewish people because I know people are going to make the same assumptions about me. Side note: It really did feel like Ruben's goal was to fully assimilate. He was like Ralph Lauren (nee Lifshitz) - the Jew trying to be waspier than the wasps. Ruben's last line in the book truly encapsulates this, and it made me bark a laugh on the train so suddenly that the woman next to me skootched away from me. So yes, we reject this stuff, and we can make fun of it, but we also have to reckon with what makes us Jewish if we are so set on distancing ourselves from that real part of our culture. This is hard stuff! Anyway, Cohen goes there, and I laughed a lot on recognition and admiration, but also, I learned a lot. There is a bunch of information on the Spanish Inquisition that was enlightening to say the least. And did I mention it was funny? (The book was funny, not the Inquisition. The Inquisition was not funny, other than as interpreted by Mel Brooks.)
So why did I start by saying this is a 4.5 and not a 5? There are some problems. I mentioned the Jonathan Lethem connection in my head, and in part that is because both Lethem and Cohen are really really pretentious. I am not a person who is put off by preening displays of intellect. Believe me when I say my life would be miserable if I was one of those people because I am surrounded by that pretty much all the time. And if I am being honest I can occasionally be one of those people (though I am not half as smart or informed as Cohen or Lethem so I have less material to work with.) Still, I was a little put off by the pretension, the casual assumption that the reader was well versed enough in the differing approaches to and definitions of Zionism and the last 600 years of European history and the entrenched behaviors of Ivy faculty that no elucidation would be necessary. And perhaps paradoxically because Cohen is so broad in his references he can be downright pedantic when it comes to discussing things Jewish. I felt sometimes like he was in my head telling me why my opinions on Zionism and my "performance" of Jewishness were all wrong -- like he was picking away at all my factual and emotional truths and finding them ridiculous. I felt lectured to in parts, and that wasn't great. Overall though, this is genius. I am not sure it will resonate with non-Jews, but I am guessing if you enjoy Bellow and Roth, and especially if you like Jonathan Lethem it will work for you.
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LibraryThing member maryreinert
Strange, interesting, and funny. Ruben Blum is a professor of American economic history in a small college in upstate New York. The only Jew on the faculty in the 1950's. Dr. Blum is asked to "host" a possible hire who name happens to be BenZion Netanyahus. From here all is chaos but apparently
One of the funniest points of the book is an offhanded but funny note of a church called the "Church of the Assumption" - how often we assume! And how often we are wrong - or right!
Parts of this book were hard to read and required some history into actual Jewish history, but there were parts that were laugh-out-loud. Especially Ruben's personal family life and that of his parents and his wife's parents - representing both extremes of Jewishness. This just might be one that I would want to read again.
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based much on historical events - thus the subtitle of the book. The reader gets a background into the Netanyahus family and their version of Zionism. One of the funniest points of the book is an offhanded but funny note of a church called the "Church of the Assumption" - how often we assume! And how often we are wrong - or right!
Parts of this book were hard to read and required some history into actual Jewish history, but there were parts that were laugh-out-loud. Especially Ruben's personal family life and that of his parents and his wife's parents - representing both extremes of Jewishness. This just might be one that I would want to read again.
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LibraryThing member alexrichman
Hard going but very funny. Only really hits its stride about halfway through. Lots of similarities to The World According To Garp, but with more Zionism.
LibraryThing member muddyboy
Wow! What a unique novel. It is about a professor at a small liberal arts college who is asked to mentor a possible new hire for the history department. The new professor's name is Netanyahu but is takes me a while to get that there is a connection to the leader of Isreal which there will
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eventually be. I loved the book as it challenged my view of history which I teach. This Netanyahu is rigid in his beliefs and off the wall in his behavior. (as well as his families). A lot to think about in a pretty short novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member novelcommentary
This year's Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Cohen spins an imaginative tale based on the true story of BenZion's visit with Harold Bloom in the late 1950s. At times this is a Woody Allen- type story, especially the thanksgiving dinner and the arrival of the Netanyahu's family. Other times there is a lot
I'll bow to the NYT here for an explanatory summary: "The Netanyahus is a generational campus novel, an unyielding academic lecture, a rigorous meditation on Jewish identity, an exhaustive meditation on Jewish-American identity, a polemic on Zionism, a history lesson. It is an infuriating, frustrating, pretentious piece of work — and also absorbing, delightful, hilarious, breathtaking and the best and most relevant novel I’ve read in what feels like forever."
Ruben Blum, a professor at a Cornell-like college is asked to take around a potential candidate as he visits for the interview. Why Blum?...because he's "one of yours ". Blum has no idea the chaos that the visit will cause to his wife and especially his daughter whose quest for a nose job will not soon be forgotten.
I enjoyed the novel and the interview I listened to later where the author explains the genesis for the project. He's a good writer, no doubt, and I'll have to explore his other work.
Lines:
The fire had the same problem as the family: a lack of oxygen.
Why did the Church restore to Judaism the very converts it had just spent the better part of the Crusades trying to obtain, according to Dr. Netanyahu? Because the converts were bad Catholics? No, not all of them. Or because they were too good at being Catholic? No, not all of them either. Rather, the reason was because: as long as the Catholics still required a people to hate, the Jews had to remain a people doomed to suffer.
the economist who couldn’t make money (a figure as common as the historian who couldn’t make history)
“Of course, poorer families never had that option; I bet that’s why your parents always shared and their parents before them. But my parents slept separately, as did their parents. They could afford two beds and back in Germany they even maintained separate bedrooms. I think they thought of it as French, but the reasoning behind it was English, Victorian in a way, which for a German “Of course, poorer families never had that option; I bet that’s why your parents always shared and their parents before them. But my parents slept separately, as did their parents. They could afford two beds and back in Germany they even maintained separate bedrooms. I think they thought of it as French, but the reasoning behind it was English, Victorian in a way, which for a German
that Jackson wanted to redecorate the executive mansion, but, lacking the funds, he invited guests he could count on to wreck the place and then in the hungover light of the next morning staggered over to Congress to beg for help with cleaning up the mess and buying new furniture, in a subterfuge reminiscent of Judy’s
He was about fifty years old then, his face a tough nut of vaguely Mongol features, tiny olive pit eyes and absolutely enormous and fleshy oyster-shell ears, strong nasolabial folds that I’m not going to call “smile lines” or “laugh lines,” because the mouth itself was humorless, tightlipped.
And anyway, when I put on my galoshes, blew a kiss to Edith she refused to lasso in, and left the hacienda amid the giddyups and crack of gunshots, the association I had was with the father himself, Ben-Zion, and frankly with visiting lecturers and guest professors of all kinds, those solitary marksmen who wander as strangers from town to town, itinerant in habit, itinerant in mind, burning with the need to live down their pasts and prove their strength to the cruel and hostile locals.
This is the line of transmission. In other words, God’s words were written down in the Torah, which you call the Bible, or the Scriptures, or the Old Testament, which precedes what you call the New Testament in the books you put in the bedside drawers of your inns. The Torah is interpreted in the Mishna. The Mishna is commented upon in the Gemara. The Mishna and the Gemara together make the Talmud. Are you with me? Do you understand what I’m telling you, which my father told me, which his father told him? There is an unbroken line of descent, when the word of God enters history.”
The Spanish Inquisition was founded to provide a way out of this bind, and a justification for converso-oppression…. but the genius of the Spanish Inquisition was to insist it was a race.
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of history to learn here based on the theories of the father of the future prime minister. I'll bow to the NYT here for an explanatory summary: "The Netanyahus is a generational campus novel, an unyielding academic lecture, a rigorous meditation on Jewish identity, an exhaustive meditation on Jewish-American identity, a polemic on Zionism, a history lesson. It is an infuriating, frustrating, pretentious piece of work — and also absorbing, delightful, hilarious, breathtaking and the best and most relevant novel I’ve read in what feels like forever."
Ruben Blum, a professor at a Cornell-like college is asked to take around a potential candidate as he visits for the interview. Why Blum?...because he's "one of yours ". Blum has no idea the chaos that the visit will cause to his wife and especially his daughter whose quest for a nose job will not soon be forgotten.
I enjoyed the novel and the interview I listened to later where the author explains the genesis for the project. He's a good writer, no doubt, and I'll have to explore his other work.
Lines:
The fire had the same problem as the family: a lack of oxygen.
Why did the Church restore to Judaism the very converts it had just spent the better part of the Crusades trying to obtain, according to Dr. Netanyahu? Because the converts were bad Catholics? No, not all of them. Or because they were too good at being Catholic? No, not all of them either. Rather, the reason was because: as long as the Catholics still required a people to hate, the Jews had to remain a people doomed to suffer.
the economist who couldn’t make money (a figure as common as the historian who couldn’t make history)
“Of course, poorer families never had that option; I bet that’s why your parents always shared and their parents before them. But my parents slept separately, as did their parents. They could afford two beds and back in Germany they even maintained separate bedrooms. I think they thought of it as French, but the reasoning behind it was English, Victorian in a way, which for a German “Of course, poorer families never had that option; I bet that’s why your parents always shared and their parents before them. But my parents slept separately, as did their parents. They could afford two beds and back in Germany they even maintained separate bedrooms. I think they thought of it as French, but the reasoning behind it was English, Victorian in a way, which for a German
that Jackson wanted to redecorate the executive mansion, but, lacking the funds, he invited guests he could count on to wreck the place and then in the hungover light of the next morning staggered over to Congress to beg for help with cleaning up the mess and buying new furniture, in a subterfuge reminiscent of Judy’s
He was about fifty years old then, his face a tough nut of vaguely Mongol features, tiny olive pit eyes and absolutely enormous and fleshy oyster-shell ears, strong nasolabial folds that I’m not going to call “smile lines” or “laugh lines,” because the mouth itself was humorless, tightlipped.
And anyway, when I put on my galoshes, blew a kiss to Edith she refused to lasso in, and left the hacienda amid the giddyups and crack of gunshots, the association I had was with the father himself, Ben-Zion, and frankly with visiting lecturers and guest professors of all kinds, those solitary marksmen who wander as strangers from town to town, itinerant in habit, itinerant in mind, burning with the need to live down their pasts and prove their strength to the cruel and hostile locals.
This is the line of transmission. In other words, God’s words were written down in the Torah, which you call the Bible, or the Scriptures, or the Old Testament, which precedes what you call the New Testament in the books you put in the bedside drawers of your inns. The Torah is interpreted in the Mishna. The Mishna is commented upon in the Gemara. The Mishna and the Gemara together make the Talmud. Are you with me? Do you understand what I’m telling you, which my father told me, which his father told him? There is an unbroken line of descent, when the word of God enters history.”
The Spanish Inquisition was founded to provide a way out of this bind, and a justification for converso-oppression…. but the genius of the Spanish Inquisition was to insist it was a race.
Show Less
LibraryThing member brianinbuffalo
It's fun. It's clever. At times, it's even enlightening. But in this reader's estimation, it simply isn't worthy of a Pulitzer. This is not the first time I've reached this conclusion about a widely acclaimed book (Think "A Visit From the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan, "Less" by Andrew Sean Greer or
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"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon). But I digress. "The Netanyhaus" is definitely an odd work -- as reflected in many other reviews. It's an eclectic mix of slapstick, fictionalized history and social commentary. Although some of the first half dragged a bit, I enjoyed "The Netanyahus" and was even inspired to do some armchair research and learn more about the famous family. An added plus: This strange story is set in Chautauqua County -- a community that's about an hour from my Buffalo home. Show Less
LibraryThing member Castlelass
Unusual fiction about a Jewish professor, Rueben Blum, hosting Benzion Netanyahu (a real person) and his family while he was interviewing for a position at Corbin College in New York in the 1960s. It is a combination of Jewish history and over-the-top storytelling using satire and parody. It
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becomes clear that Cohen is no fan of Netanyahu. The reasons are explained in the narrative. It is also pretty humorous in places. I decided to read it after it won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is well-written. I found myself puzzled by what the author was trying to say and concluded that I probably do not have the right background to fully appreciate it. Show Less
LibraryThing member spounds
I always like books that are read by the author because you know they are reading them just as they imagined you would. The inflection in always in the right place. This was kind of a silly story--Pulitzer worth (eh?)--but well written and entertaining. I especially liked the Credits and Extra
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Credits at the end where he explained the origins of the story and the fate of the real life characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member TimBazzett
Joshua Cohen was a young author unknown to me, so THE NETANYAHUS (2021) was my introduction to his work, and I just flat-out enjoyed the holy hell outa this book. It's a rather cerebral (much about the persecution of the Jews in the middle ages and beyond, some of which may or may not be true) and
I absolutely loved this novel. So much that I already have another Joshua Cohen novel (MOVING KINGS) on my must-read list. Very, very highly recommended.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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often hilarious novel of academia set on a small college campus in rural New York in 1959-60. I call it cerebral because you really have to pay close attention to some of the rants and speeches here about being Jewish and the historical trials and tribulations of same. Our narrator is Professor Ruben Bloom, the only (token?) Jew on the faculty at Corbin College, indeed perhaps the only Jew in town. He is tasked by his Department Chair to host an applicant coming to interview for a faculty position. That applicant is Dr Ben-Zion Netanyahu, coming from Israel via Philadelphia, who brings along his whole family - outspoken wife Tzila and three rowdy sons: Jonathan (13), Benjamin/Bibi (10) and Iddo (7) - who proceed to disrupt and lay waste to the Blooms' quiet home and family, and to the whole carefully planned proceedings. And yes, that middle son is THE Benjamin Netanyahu who is still so much in the news today. Indeed the book's subtitle is AN ACCOUNT OF A MINOR AND EVEN NEGLIGIBLE EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF A VERY FAMOUS FAMILY. So. Fiction based on fact? Yes, or kind of. And be sure to read Cohen's "Credits & Extra Credits" at the end of the book, which explains much about the whole Netanyahu family and also the author's unique friendship with the noted literary critic Harold Bloom. I absolutely loved this novel. So much that I already have another Joshua Cohen novel (MOVING KINGS) on my must-read list. Very, very highly recommended.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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LibraryThing member Dreesie
This audiobook was quite well done, with sound effects (doorbells, phones, music, etc)--I think audiobooks have as much potential to be true audio experiences as old radio shows. Very few even try, but this one certainly does--though some of the musical interludes were way too long (the chapter
I am always ready to admit my frustration with books that are "based on history" ie, present real people in real-ish situations and write around it. I hate this, especially when featuring living people or their immediate descendants. It is fake history, there are no standards, and often presents a negative image (which may or may not be accurate--but there are no sources!!). So, much of this story annoyed me. BUT--the sections that can truly be considered a "campus novel" were hilarious. The politics of departments, the infighting in class schedules and the ownership of subjects were absolutely hilarious. I truly laughed, especially in the section where Blum explains that though his history department has a reputation as being progressive ahead of its time in that it focused less on Europe, it wasn't because of any anti-colonial belief. It was because the chair. wants to be the only Europeanist in the department. Europe was his, and he would not hire anyone who might compete with him. This is so hilariously believable AND it is also hilariously believable that that would get twisted into the department being ahead of its time (when really it was the opposite--old WASP can;t tolerate any "competition").
So--this evened out for me. Good audio production, hilarious and infuriating sections.
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breaks, maybe?).I am always ready to admit my frustration with books that are "based on history" ie, present real people in real-ish situations and write around it. I hate this, especially when featuring living people or their immediate descendants. It is fake history, there are no standards, and often presents a negative image (which may or may not be accurate--but there are no sources!!). So, much of this story annoyed me. BUT--the sections that can truly be considered a "campus novel" were hilarious. The politics of departments, the infighting in class schedules and the ownership of subjects were absolutely hilarious. I truly laughed, especially in the section where Blum explains that though his history department has a reputation as being progressive ahead of its time in that it focused less on Europe, it wasn't because of any anti-colonial belief. It was because the chair. wants to be the only Europeanist in the department. Europe was his, and he would not hire anyone who might compete with him. This is so hilariously believable AND it is also hilariously believable that that would get twisted into the department being ahead of its time (when really it was the opposite--old WASP can;t tolerate any "competition").
So--this evened out for me. Good audio production, hilarious and infuriating sections.
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LibraryThing member banjo123
literary and discursive, but somehow good. Cohen based this novel on a real life incident that Harold Bloom had told him about, when The Netanyahu's (the parents, siblings and a young Benjamin Netanyahu) visited Cornell, where Bloom was teaching. In this novelized version of the event, Reuben Blum
It's funny at times, with lots of discussion about anti-semitism, history, Jewish identity in the US and Israel.
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is a professor of economic history, and the Netanyahu visit lays waste to his professional and family life.It's funny at times, with lots of discussion about anti-semitism, history, Jewish identity in the US and Israel.
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Awards
Pulitzer Prize (Winner — Fiction — 2022)
National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2021)
National Jewish Book Award (Winner — Fiction — 2021)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction — 2021)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2021
Physical description
248 p.; 8.49 inches
ISBN
1681376075 / 9781681376073