The Book of Life

In the Jewish tradition, there are ten days of repentance between the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) when members of this faith ask for forgiveness for their sins so that God will write them in the Book of Life for the following year. It is a time of repentance and reflection. It is also an appropriate metaphor for Stuart Nadler's seven beautifully crafted and elegantly written short stories about sin, religion, relationship and reflection contained here in his own The Book of Life.

The primary sin for Nadler appears to be adultery which features in several of his stories. In Catherine and Henry, Catherine tests  her lover's fidelity by tempting him with another woman. His short story In The Book of Life also features a complex weave of adultery among best friends while The Moon Landing tells of a young boy witness to an adulterous encounter between his mother and the so-called astronaut Michael Collins.

While all the main characters in these stories possess some degree of faith in Judaism, religion is not really the main theme here. Nadler is probably both at his most playful and most compassionate when he is tackling the paternal relationship. In Visiting, a son is unable to reconcile with his father but still wants his own recalcitrant teenage son to have some kind of relationship with the grandfather. And in Beyond Any Blessing, Nadler creates perhaps his strongest character in the form of a wisdom-spouting, ninety-year old, philandering rabbi and mad Boston Red Sox fan who is forced into bringing up his grandson in the wake of the death of the boy's parents in a car crash.   

The Book of Life is a delightful read and a marvellous showcase for a writer at the top of his game.