"The Here and Now"

(Reviewed by Judi Clark AUG 23, 1998)

Samuel Karnish's life is a mess and reeling out of control.  By chance he meets an Hasidic couple, the Brenner's, while flying to Houston for his best friend's third wedding.  Sam who is a "half Jew" ("What is this mathematics?" asks Brenner) is confronted with his own belief system as this unlikely encounter turns into a friendship, of sorts.  OK, he is attracted to Aaron Brenner's very shy, but enigmatic wife. But he really does like Aaron for his intelligence and certainty. So there lies some of the complication.

All in all we follow Samuel through some interesting events as his job, girlfriend, and well everything, bottoms out. There's much humor here and lots of philosophy about the Hebrew faith or any faith for that matter.

• Amazon.com reader rating:from 3 reviews

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Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)

• The Organ Builder
• The Here and Now (1996)
• Inspired Sleep (January 2001)
• The Varieties of Romantic Experience: An Introduction (Feb 2002)
• Amateur Barbarians (July 2009)

 

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Book Marks:

• Vintage books reading group guide for Inspired Sleep
• The New York Times review of Inspired Sleep
• Read an excerpt from The Varieties of Romantic Experience at MostlyFiction.com
• MostlyFiction.com review of Amateur Barbarians

 

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About the Author:

Robert Cohen has been published in GQ, Harper's, The Paris Review, Antaeius as well as anthologized in the Pushcart Prize and Editor's Choice: New American Stories. He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award, a Whiting Award, The Ribalow Prize, and the Pushcart Prize.

Cohen has taught at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Harvard University, and has been Associate Professor of English at Middlebury College in Vermont since 1997.