The Mitzvah [Paperback]

(Warning to all collectivists: don't read if you can't stand having favorite mental ruts filled in and paved over. If you can still go left-brain after years of thinking with your emotions, you're in for the ride of your life--and, I devoutly hope, a philosophical transformation.)

What would you do if you were a rather agnostic, liberation-theology Catholic Monsignor well-settled into a comfortable career rut--and then you found out you were really a Jew, spirited out of Nazi Germany after the SS nabbed your parents for later liquidation? That's the dilemma confronting protagonist John Greenwood--but I won't reveal the plot, except to say that it reminds me of Conrad's 'Lord Jim' without the pathos and with better readability. Both authors know how to hook the reader with humorous asides, none of which detract or distract from the main story.

Collaborations are difficult-I know, I've tried-but Aaron Zelman and L.Neil Smith bring this one off with dash and aplomb. They make their characters life-like and life-sized, and their scene-setting and description come across vividly without being intrusive. The malefactori remind me of actual evil people I've known (and in one case, worked for). (The research and facts cleverly presented within the narrative are chillingly accurate--I can vouch for them, particularly for anything to do with the United Nations-which was founded in part by Alger Hiss, a known Communist agent.)

But the strength of this book resides equally in its message: first, that government kills, and only fools believe otherwise, usually the same fools who set up speech codes on college campuses or the fools who work for other leftist causes; and second, that armed citizens can stop both amateur and professional statists. Our government doesn't want you to know that, because there are more of us than of them. Tyrants fear armed people, and for good reason: find out what a few Jews with fewer guns did to the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto!

Note to surfers: you can't buy it or even order it from B.Dalton or Books-A-Million: they couldn't find it in 'Books in Print' when I tried. Conincidence? I think not...

BUY THIS BOOK--and have a great reading experience while you're sticking it to the System! Better yet, buy copies for friends: you'll be afflicting the Hamiltonians with the Death of a Thousand Cuts.

I plan on giving my copy of the book to a Jewish friend of mine but I must emphasize that this book is for anyone of any (or no) religion.

I am doing something else: I have written into the book jacket that this copy belongs to no one person. All I ask is that the recipient read it, make a little tick mark on the book to show another person has read it, and then to pass it on to a friend. I stongely urge that you read this book and pass it on. This profound message can reach people but only one person at a time.