Jezer, whose previous works include biographies of Rachel Carson and Abbie Hoffman, is a gifted writer and moves with beguiling skill between general theory and and the lessons of personal experience. And this he does engagingly, from beginning to end. There is wit in the title. None of this turns out to be irrelevant. Many of the details are painful.
Adulthood brings scant relief.
Yet the life the author conveys is a full one, and his fundamental dignity and perseverance, not to mention his appreciation of the inadvertantly comic in his predicament, help to make his story much more than a lament. The force of the blow made me let go of my breath. I had found my voice and with it the rhythm of the prayer. I raced through the blessings in a clear alto voice, building confidence with each fluent word and able to segue, without a hitch, into the Torah text itself. When it is all over, family and friends gather round to congratulate him, and, to his mother's relief, his father has escaped a heart attack.