Synopsis

Jews being Jewish: that’s the subject of Jennifer Anne Moses’s new collection of short stories. Whether in Tel Aviv, suburban New Jersey, or the Deep South, the characters who populate the pages of The Man Who Loved His Wife grapple with God, their loved ones, fate, death, hope, Hitler, transcendence, and the 4000 year old history of Judaism. With a Yiddish sensibility born of passion, an eye for detail, and a deadpan sense of humor reminiscent of Singer, Salinger, and Tillie Olsen, Moses captures singularly Jewish and wholly human characters as they live and breathe through their stories. A secular Israeli loses his son twice, first to ultra-Orthodoxy and then to war. An elderly survivor of Nazism living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, believes his dog to be the reincarnation of his long-dead sister. Meanwhile, in Queens, an adolescent boy mistakes love for magic and brings his family to the brink of catastrophe. Lovely, tender, and hard to put down, these are short stories that leave you yearning for more.

B&N * Amazon * BAM

Praise

Few others writing today explore as profoundly the stress of childhood, adolescence, and parenthood on the second and third generations of East European immigrants—the Jewish family in its American incarnation—as Jennifer Anne Moses. — Sol Gittelman, author of From Shtetl to Suburbia: The family in Jewish literary imagination.

At their finest the stories in Jennifer Anne Moses’s The Man Who Loved His Wife have the wit, whimsy, and surreal wonder of Chagall paintings—but a dark, depraved Chagall whose angels are as deeply flawed as they are grittily earthbound. — Peter Selgin, author of Drowning Lessons and The Inventors.

The wonderful stories in Jennifer Anne Moses’s The Man Who Loved His Wife play the heartstrings like a harp, striking deep chords of pathos and passion to wild chords of hilarity. Seldom does such essential wisdom come in such an entertaining package. — Steve Stern, author of The Frozen Rabbi.

Jennifer Anne Moses is our century’s Bernard Malumud or Saul Bellow. With warmth, tenderness, and wit, she captures the essence of the modern Jewish experience in the family, the workplace, and the bedroom. It leaves you hungry for more. — Gabrielle Glaser, author of American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption

Review

I always enjoy reading a book about a culture that I know little about. This book shares insight into the Jewish community, their history, and their way of life. But these are also stories of what everyday people experience and you might find yourself in the same situation or know someone that had these experiences. These stories are real life and I think that anyone would be able to relate or even identify with the various characters and their situations.

These stories also bring out a range of emotions for the reader. I felt joy, sadness, sorrow, and even a little anger. This is the mark of a good book in my mind when it touches many of the emotions and drags the reader into the story and the well-being of the characters.

We give the book 5 paws up.

About the Author

Jennifer Anne Moses is a multi-genre author whose books include Food and Whine, The Book of Joshua, Bagels and Grits, Visiting Hours, Tales from My Closet, and The Art of Dumpster Diving. The Man Who Loved His Wife is her first collection of short stories. Her essays and short stories have been widely published and anthologized. She’s also a painter. She is the mother of three grown children, and lives in Montclair, NJ, with her husband of more than three decades and their two bad dogs.

Website