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The Sea Beach Line: A Novel
by Ben Nadler
Published: 2015-10-13
Paperback : 385 pages
Paperback : 385 pages
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Set in post-Giuliani New York City, The Sea Beach Line melds mid-20th- century pulp fiction and traditional Jewish folklore as it updates the classic story of a young man trying to find his place in the world.
After being expelled from Oberlin for hallucinogenic drug use, Izzy Edel seeks ...
After being expelled from Oberlin for hallucinogenic drug use, Izzy Edel seeks ...
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Introduction
Set in post-Giuliani New York City, The Sea Beach Line melds mid-20th- century pulp fiction and traditional Jewish folklore as it updates the classic story of a young man trying to find his place in the world.
After being expelled from Oberlin for hallucinogenic drug use, Izzy Edel seeks out his estranged father?a Polish Jew turned Israeli soldier turned New York street vendor named Alojzy who is reported to be missing, possibly dead. To learn about Alojzy’s life and discover the truth behind his disappearance, Izzy takes over his father’s outdoor bookselling business and meets the hustlers, gangsters, and members of a religious sect who peopled his father’s world. He also falls in love.
As Izzy soon discovers, appearances can deceive; no one, not even his own father, is quite whom he seems to be. Vowing to prove himself equal to Alojzy’s legacy of fearlessness, Izzy plunges forward on a criminal enterprise that will bring him answers?at great personal cost.
Fans of Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn, Nathan Englander’s For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, and Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union will relish to Ben Nadler’s combined mystery, love story, and homage to text and custom.
After being expelled from Oberlin for hallucinogenic drug use, Izzy Edel seeks out his estranged father?a Polish Jew turned Israeli soldier turned New York street vendor named Alojzy who is reported to be missing, possibly dead. To learn about Alojzy’s life and discover the truth behind his disappearance, Izzy takes over his father’s outdoor bookselling business and meets the hustlers, gangsters, and members of a religious sect who peopled his father’s world. He also falls in love.
As Izzy soon discovers, appearances can deceive; no one, not even his own father, is quite whom he seems to be. Vowing to prove himself equal to Alojzy’s legacy of fearlessness, Izzy plunges forward on a criminal enterprise that will bring him answers?at great personal cost.
Fans of Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn, Nathan Englander’s For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, and Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union will relish to Ben Nadler’s combined mystery, love story, and homage to text and custom.
Excerpt
IT CAME TO PASS that four sages entered Pardes, encountering the divine. Ben Azzai died. Ben Zoma went insane. Akiva emerged with perfect faith. Elisha ben Abuyah “tore out the roots” of the orchard, and emerged with perfect doubt. From that point forward, Elisha’s name was blotted out; the rabbis referred to him only as Aher, “the other.” ...
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Discussion Questions
1) A certain portrait of Israel—infused with Jewish masculinity—emerges through what we learn about the character of Alojzy. Do you see this as nostalgia for early Zionism? A feminist critique of Zionism? Something else?2) Art (both written and visual) plays a significant role in this novel. For Izzy, does life imitate art or does art imitate life? Neither? Both? What about for Rayna, or for Alojzy (as far as we can tell, from his sketches and what Izzy learns)? What do you think Nadler may be suggesting about the role of art? What does The Sea Beach Line painting represent to Izzy?
3) Bits of other languages—namely Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew—appear sprinkled through the book. How does this affect your reading experience?
4) The Sea Beach Line appropriates certain religious tales and myths, at times taking artistic liberties with these narrative traditions. What do you think the writer’s responsibility is in using religious narrative traditions for artistic ends?
5) The Sea Beach Line is divided into three sections, each a story or canonical trope in itself: the Yeshiva Bocher, Knickerbocker Avenue, and the Binding of Isaac. To what extent do these stories and their respective associations govern the individual book sections? As the novel progresses, does it resemble one more than the others?
6) The story of the Binding of Isaac is one of the most heavily debated portions of the Torah. Does The Sea Beach Line alter your own interpretation of this story? Why or why not?
7) Recently, a wave of novels and memoirs about Hasidic experience have been appearing in the literary marketplace. What do you make of Hasidic experience as portrayed in The Sea Beach Line?
8) The Sea Beach Line deals with the lives of street vendors in New York City. What is your personal experience with street vendors? What new information did you learn about street vending from reading The Sea Beach Line?
9) Early in the novel, Izzy says he likes to see himself as a character in a story. How does Izzy’s view of himself change throughout the novel?
10) For much of the novel, Izzy seems to be battling between two different ways of life: the street life as represented by Alojzy and the upwardly mobile life represented by his other family members. What do you think is next for Izzy, after the final page?
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