Avoidance: A Novel
by Michael Lowenthal
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael LowenthalEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2002-11-01
ISBN: 1555973671
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Book Reviews of Avoidance: A Novel
Book Review: Inner laws v. outside laws
Summary: 5 Stars
Absolutely outstanding. This novel is a work of brilliance on so many levels: unique, effortless prose without pretension; three-dimensional characters who deftly creep inside your mind; a beautifully constructed tale that is tense, powerful and thought-provoking. The sort of novel that is deemed 'controversial' and 'provocative' by the mindless masses, 'Avoidance' deals with the conflicts between love and reason; between sense and sensibility; between loyalty to the inner-self and the self that is presented to the outside world.
Twenty-nine year old postgraduate student, Jeremy, is Assistant Director at a summer camp for boys - a camp which he himself attended as a child. At first curiously asexual, Jeremy's passion and inner-conflict erupt upon the arrival of 14-year old Max at the summer camp. Brash, enigmatic and alluring, Max seduces everyone with his roguish charm and sweaty-adolescent sexuality (everyone orbits around Max, "as the sun from which they fear losing warmth"). Clearly, trouble lies ahead, and the tension mounts excruciatingly as Jeremy is tormented by his own desires - and those of others.
The exceptionally apt background story (of Jeremy's term-time research into the Amish people, and specifically into those members who have been expelled by the Amish community) serves to illuminate the conundrum that he must now attempt to resolve: "Can you be loyal to your old self but also to the new? To outside laws and also inner ones?" This is the truly haunting aspect of the novel: its potential lose-lose scenario; the loneliness of the decision that must be made - and the complete absence of any possibility of compromise.
An incredibly engaging work, (seemingly) effortlessly penned by a tremendously talented author, Michael Lowenthal's 'Avoidance' climbs easily into a small clique of novels (such as Rod Downey's 'The Moralist') that will quietly take up residence in a corner of your mind forever. Buy it now.
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