![]() ![]() ![]() One of his adult children recalls how Joel - an atheist, of course - would respond to invitations from friends whose children were making their bar or bat mitzvahs. Joel, like the late lawyer and activist William Kunstler, has devoted his life to defending radicals and subverting convention. ![]() The Believers dissects the family of an elderly left-wing lawyer named Joel Litvinoff. She may not give us characters here to like, but Heller likes her readers enough to credit us with wider reasons for reading novels than just latching onto characters to identify with. The chilly social satire that Heller expertly executes in The Believers makes it a standout novel. Heller gambles on her readers' intelligence and wit, rather than baldly appealing to our feelings. But Heller - rightly, I think - rolls her eyes at the dumbed-down midcult notion that every novel must contain an Atticus Finch in order to secure readers' attention. She's already been chided by reviewers for not including obviously likable characters in her latest novel, The Believers. Zoe Heller has no patience with what she calls the relatively new phenomenon of "relatability" in literature. ![]()
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