Forest Dark

Starred review from May 1, 2017
Krauss’s elegant, provocative, and mesmerizing novel is her best yet. Rich in profound insights and emotional resonance, it follows two characters on their paths to self-realization. In present-day Israel, two visiting Americans—one a young wife, mother, and novelist, the other an elderly philanthropist—experience transcendence. In alternating chapters, Krauss (The History of Love) first presents Jules Epstein, a high-powered retired Manhattan lawyer whose relentless energy has dimmed with his recent divorce, the death of his parents, and an inchoate desire to divest himself of the chattels of his existence. A change of POV introduces a narrator—a Brooklyn resident named Nicole who has a failing marriage, two young children, and writer’s block. Both Jules and Nicole are vulnerable to despair and loss of faith, and trust in conventional beliefs. Although they never meet, similar existential crises bring them to Tel Aviv, where each is guided by a mysterious Israeli and experiences glimpses of a surreal world where they feel their true identities lie. A charismatic rabbi, Menachem Klausner, claims that Jules is a descendant of King David. Meanwhile, Nicole is lured into meeting Eliezer Friedman, a retired literature professor and perhaps an ex-Mossad agent who attempts to convince Nicole of a preposterous but increasingly alluring idea: that Franz Kafka didn’t die in Prague but secretly was smuggled into Israel. He wants Nicole to write about the hidden life of this famous literary figure. Nicole’s conversations with Friedman and Epstein’s with Klausner about God and the creation of the world are bracingly intellectual and metaphysical. Vivid, intelligent, and often humorous, this novel is a fascinating tour de force.

July 1, 2017
Two American visitors to Israel undergo separate but similar metamorphoses in this cerebral novel by Krauss (Great House, 2010, etc.).As the story opens, Jules Epstein, a wealthy retired divorce, has gone missing in Israel, leaving behind a host of questions: why did he trade in his Fifth Avenue apartment for a decrepit seaside hovel? Why did he choose to spend a chunk of his fortune to help fund a biopic about King David? And what prompted the "slow unfurling of self-knowledge" that led him to abandon his well-off life? Meanwhile, in an alternate set of chapters, an unnamed young novelist has come to the Tel Aviv Hilton hoping to kick-start her next book and escape her crumbling marriage. There, she's contacted by a man soliciting her help on a film based on an unpublished Kafka play and who also has some hard-to-believe news to deliver about Kafka himself. Jules and the novelist never directly connect, but they share similar existential predicaments: both are struggling to reconcile American and Israeli cultures and wrestle with religious and philosophical questions. Jules falls under the spell of a rabbi who opines on the connection between global and personal transformation, while the novelist revisits Kafka and Freud's concept of unheimlich, a sort of world-weary anxiety and dread. Krauss, as ever, writes beautifully about complex themes, and she has a keen eye for the way Israel's culture, slower but more alert to violence, requires its American characters to reboot their perceptions. Her big questions don't always provoke big effects, though, and much of the drama she establishes for her two characters feels dry, with her riffs on Kafka and Judaism more essayistic than novelistic. And though the novel never promised high drama, its low boil makes it harder to inspire the reader to draw connections within her braided narrative. An ambitiously high-concept tale that mainly idles in a contemplative register.

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Starred review from July 1, 2017

In her complex new novel, National Book Award finalist Krauss (The Great House) suggests why it's been seven years since fans have heard from her. As depicted here, the writer's life, one of isolation, even selfishness, is the opposite of society's norms, and Krauss looks to Franz Kafka, Jewish scholars, and the Bible to examine the writer's responsibility to self and to history. At the heart of the story are two characters, secular Jews in the throes of transformation, shedding their pasts but unsure about their futures. At 68, Jules Epstein, a larger-than-life millionaire businessman and collector of beautiful things, is lightening his load. Divesting himself of wealth and possessions, he travels to the Hilton in Tel Aviv, Israel, to meet with potential recipients of his generosity. Our first-person narrator was actually conceived at the hotel and often returns there, in this case to escape the confines of home and begin a novel. Each character falls under the intrusive spell of strangers who act as guides through the dense, dark forests of Jewish mysticism and literary theory. Will their two lives collide? VERDICT Wildly imaginative, darkly humorous, and deeply personal, this novel seems to question the very nature of time and space. Krauss commands our attention, and serious readers will applaud. [See Prepub Alert, 3/8/17.]--Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017

In her complex new novel, National Book Award finalist Krauss (The Great House) suggests why it's been seven years since fans have heard from her. As depicted here, the writer's life, one of isolation, even selfishness, is the opposite of society's norms, and Krauss looks to Franz Kafka, Jewish scholars, and the Bible to examine the writer's responsibility to self and to history. At the heart of the story are two characters, secular Jews in the throes of transformation, shedding their pasts but unsure about their futures. At 68, Jules Epstein, a larger-than-life millionaire businessman and collector of beautiful things, is lightening his load. Divesting himself of wealth and possessions, he travels to the Hilton in Tel Aviv, Israel, to meet with potential recipients of his generosity. Our first-person narrator was actually conceived at the hotel and often returns there, in this case to escape the confines of home and begin a novel. Each character falls under the intrusive spell of strangers who act as guides through the dense, dark forests of Jewish mysticism and literary theory. Will their two lives collide? VERDICT Wildly imaginative, darkly humorous, and deeply personal, this novel seems to question the very nature of time and space. Krauss commands our attention, and serious readers will applaud. [See Prepub Alert, 3/8/17.]--Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.