The Ministry of Special Cases: Amazon.co.uk: Nathan Englander: Books

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Product Description

The Times
'A powerful and engaging first novel ... the work is shot through with a dark humour, which makes it all the more moving.' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Daily Telegraph
'Full of humour and tinged with cruelty and frustration, Nathan Englander's story is entertaining [and] involving.'
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
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4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Low Comedy and Sharp Wit Lead to Laughter, Tears, Sadness, Hope, Desolation, and Absolution, 2 Jul 2007

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Seldom has a novel commanded so many of my emotions. My heart felt like a piano on whose strings a master musician was playing both polkas and dirges. But most of all, Mr. Englander kept surprising me. I usually read mysteries to enjoy fictional surprises, but The Ministry of Special Cases provided many more surprises than any mystery I've read in recent years.

When I began reading the book, I had to stop and start over. I couldn't believe what I was reading. It's almost as though Hamlet started with the grave digger's scene.

How can I summarize this book? I'm not sure I can do so accurately, but I'll hit some of the right notes of I call this book Don Quixote at The Trial. In the process, Mr. Englander unerringly portrays a society that's failing because each person only wants to look out for himself or herself.

You will find yourself in Argentina during the beginning of the "dirty war" when many young people disappeared. What would it like to be a parent of such a young person? That's what you will graphically experience by reading The Ministry of Special Cases.

Kaddish Poznan was conceived through an accident between his prostitute mother and a customer. The rabbi granted Kaddish such an unusual name in hopes it would protect him. As the book evolves, you'll see that the name has indeed shaped his character as well as his actions. Many of the "respectable" Jews in Argentina at the time had forbearers who also engaged in illicit and illegal activities, while sporting colorful names such as Hezzi Two-Blades.

Kaddish has been looking for the big score all of his life, but hasn't found it. As the book opens, Kaddish is busy defacing a grave in the older part of the Jewish cemetery so that a connection to a dubious forbearer can be disguised. That's how Kaddish earns his cigarette money. His university student son, Pato, is a reluctant participant. Father and son are in continual conflict. Kaddish's wife, Lillian, supports the family by working hard for little pay in an insurance broker's office. Concerned about safety, she is soon out buying the strongest door she can locate.

I won't go into more of the story from there lest I give away important details, but you'll find the plot to be amazingly well constructed to open up unexpected doors to empathy and understanding as you identify with one or both of the parents and wonder what you would do to keep your youngster safe.

How can I summarize what I feel about the book? It's a masterpiece.

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary underrated novel, 17 Oct 2007

By	pseudopanax (London) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Ministry of Special Cases (Hardcover)

The promise of Nathan Englander's collection of short stories For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is fulfilled with his first novel. Very few authors can achieve such a haunting conflation of comedy and tragedy as Englander. No better example can be found than his short story Tumblers--who would have thought that the Holocaust and circus performers could be brought together in a story both shocking and hilarious. Well, he has done it again with this novel but on a much grander scale. Argentina in the time of the Generals and the disappeared is at the beginning only a backdrop to the domestic comedy of the Poznan family, Kaddish, Lillian and Pato, but it soon creeps into their lives despite denial and the installation of a door designed to keep dangers at bay. The domestic comedy ebbs into a domestic tragedy that is at once unexpected and inevitable. The Poznans, already outsiders in the Jewish community, now become outsiders in their own country as well. The characterisations are marvellous--Lillian, Kaddish and Pato come to life on the page and the menagerie of minor characters is beautifully realised. Englander is a major novelist in the making and this is the best book I've read in 2007.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant but grim tale of post-coup Argentina, 30 April 2009

By	Jezza (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ministry of Special Cases (Paperback)

Like the other reviewers, I had a strong emotional reaction to this book. It's very well written, and the subject matter (a Jewish couple's response to the "disappearing� of their son) very powerful and well handled. The background of one of the main characters in Argentina's rejected Jewish community of pimps and prostitutes is a forgotten part of Jewish history, which deserves to be better known.

As a middle-aged man with teenage sons, I like the way that the author handles the central character's coming to terms with the fact that he is not the hero of his own or anyone else's life; we all have to face this eventually, whether we buy a big motorbike or whatever.

One of my best books for years.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars The grief obscured by the clever clever writing
At its heart, this book is a tragedy. The tragedy of two parents whose eldest son is "disappeared", and their attempts to find out where he went and to try to get him back. Read more

Published 9 months ago by chris widgery

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully desperate
I bought this book on a whim, the title grabbed me and what I expected was not delivered. Instead I was treated to the horror of the parents of the Disapeared. Read more

Published 10 months ago by J. L. Carter

3.0 out of 5 stars In the dark
This is a good - and sometimes very funny - book on a frightening subject. We're set up with a typically dysfunctional family in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Essex Girl

5.0 out of 5 stars Low Comedy and Sharp Wit Lead to Laughter, Tears, Sadness, Hope, Desolation, and Absolution
Seldom has a novel commanded so many of my emotions. My heart felt like a piano on whose strings a master musician was playing both polkas and dirges. Read more

Published on 2 Jul 2007 by Professor Donald Mitchell

› See all 7 customer reviews...

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