This is Michael Maxwell with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I am recommending The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family by Joshua Cohen, the 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winner for fiction.
I came by The Netanyahus through a review in the Los Angeles Review of Books, and was instantly intrigued. A novel that fictionalizes the real-life story of when Israel’s future first family, the titular Netanyahus, visited a liberal arts college in Upstate New York? Sounds risky. A chapter towards the end of the book exposes the extent to which this novel walks the line between fiction and non-fiction, which makes for an interesting metanarrative that also answers a lot of questions readers may have about what they just read.
Don’t let words like “metanarrative” scare you away from this book. I, myself, thought the concept was a little bit lofty until I started listening to the audiobook read by David Duchovny. The Netanyahus is a hilarious book! There were times when I quite literally “laughed out loud” at the slapstick antics that resulted from the culture clash at the heart of the story.
Ruben Blum, the only Jewish professor at Corbin College, is put on the hiring committee for Benzion Netanyahu simply because he’s the only Jewish person his boss seems to know. Blum’s family is fairly secular, especially when compared to the fiery and defiant Netanyahus. When the two families end up under the same roof during a snowy winter, chaos ensues. The pacing and comedic timing are as close to perfection as writing can get.
Check out The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family by Joshua Cohen and other books to make you laugh at the Sioux City Public Library today!
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