Days of Awe [Paperback]

This compelling and exquisitely wrought novel ­ from a National Book Award and Pen-Faulkner Award finalist ­ at once luminous and discreet is Hugh Nissensonıs masterpiece.

At 67, Artie Rubin, author of illustrated books of mythology, finds his world shaken to its foundation. With breathtaking insight into the human condition and a delightful dry sense of humor, Nissenson finds the symbols, the language, and the wisdom to shed light on seemingly unfathomable aspects of all our lives.

Even as it questions the meaning and purpose of life, The Days of Awe resonates on many levels, offering a story of heartbreak and hope, portraying the soulıs endurance and confirming the fidelity of love, all while laying bare the myths of post-millennial America. An amazing read- I HIGHLY recommend it.

To this non-Jewish reader, "The Days of Awe" presents a trove of conflicts, both as a literary work and as to its subject matter. I would not characterize this novel a masterpiece, as some have, because I agree to a certain extent with another amazon reader's review that this book could have been more than it is. The domestic ordinariness of Muggs' three walks per day, breakfast foods, the abiding health worries of senior citizens, etc., began to wear me down as I worked my way toward September 11 and then proceeded into its aftermath. Also, there is that the vulgar treatment of sex that diminishes Artie and Johanna rather than believably humanizing them. Earthiness is one thing, crudity dropped on the pages for seeming shock value is another.

Stylistically, the novel's habit of skipping into and out of characters' minds at the drop of the proverbial hat reduces readability. Author Nissenson remarks in the book's-end conversation (that offers valuable context) that he experimented for the first time with switching points of view between characters in the middle of scenes. That experiment unfortunately leads to narrative confusion and density this reader would rather have done without.

Returning September 11, I had gotten the impression from reviews I had read prior to opening the book, that "The Days of Awe" turned on this event. It doesn't. Nissenson says that he began writing in the spring of 2001 and when September 11 happened, he had to include it. He did, but it is clearly an inclusion, not a seminal anchor, and I think that was an opportunity for germane and thorough character exploration lost.

However, I'm glad I read the entire novel. It provides remarkable food for thought. Not only does it inform convincingly about the lives of well-to-do New York West End Jewish (and to some degree, Protestant) people, but it explores the reality -- common to all people -- of grappling with the meaning of life and death. Secularity has encompassed and largely defined Artie, his family and most of their friends. Yet, as is so often the case with human beings, when he is faced with the threat of loss through death, he turns to a form of religious expression. Despite his lifelong interest in other cultures' myths (Greek, Navajo, Nordic), Artie Rubin seeks a kind of sanctuary in the faith of his fathers. He convinces himself that garbing himself in "tefillin" and praying according to Jewish tradition will keep death at bay. In so doing, Artie makes the human error of converting religious ritual into a superstitious formula. He isn't really doing what Rabbi Klugman advises; he isn't letting himself be a conduit for prayer's ends, he is using prayer as a means to his own obsessive-compulsive ends. That this results in bitter consequences for Artie and leads him to resume living in the secular world "from which there is no appeal" is perhaps the consummate message of "The Days of Awe," in my opinion.

Both Artie's personal and professional life zero in on death. Artie is writing and illustrating a book about the god, Odin. He spends a lot of time assembling a digital image of Odin's face at the pivotal moment when he (Odin) realizes he must die. The finished image is the only picture in "The Days of Awe," and it is quite stunning. It encapsulates the raw and primitive, uncomprehending disbelief that we mortals feel too about life's finite essence.

Despite its imperfections, this book says something rich and yet ineffable about the struggles we all have with the meaning of life and its inevitable end. I recommend it highly for precisely that discussion.

Hugh Nissenson's recent novel "The Days of Awe" explores the realities and mysteries of aging, sickness, and death in the lives of a secular Jewish family and their friends in New York City at the time of September 11. The story takes place between August and October, 2001. The two primary characters are Artie Rubin, 67, an artist and a writer of books on various world mythologies, and his wife of nearly 40 years Johanna, 62, a financial planner who is seriously ill with a heart condition. The book includes a large range of supporting characters. The couple's daughter Leslie, works with Johanna. She is married to Chris, a non-Jew. and the couple is expecting a child. Rabbi Klugman, of Etz Hayim Synagogue, where Artie attends services and tries to find God, tries in an unobtrusive way to encourage skeptics such as Artie to deepen their religious practices. He delivers several sermons during the book which illustrate religious themes and possible responses to the issues of modern life. Artie's friend and attorney, Adam and his family, several immigrants from Israel, a Yiddish poet and Holocaust survivor, and many other secondary characters enrich and provide variety and commentary on the story.

The book is short, with no chapter breaks. The story is told in a collage of voices and from a variety of perspectives, all of which intersect in the themes of the book. We see Artie struggling with his final project, a book with illustrations about the Norse god Odin -- unique among all mythology as a god that dies and with the illness of Johanna. Artie worries about his grandchild and whether he will be raised Jewish. Joanna and Artie work to maintain their sexual attraction for each other and their sexual activity amidst the vicissitudes of old age. Many characters get an opportunity to speak in their own voices during this novel. The book shows the impact of September 11 for a variety of secondary characters in the story as well as the principals. The characters combine the mundane and the trivial activities of daily life with the serious as they face their own mortality and that of their dear ones.

Much of the story revolves around themes of secularism and religion. Johanna has long made her peace with secularism. She fears death but is able to write to her husband: "I am grateful to have spent so much of my allotted time in time with you and Leslie." Johanna loves the rondo of Beethoven's "Waldstein" piano sonata (a woman after my own heart!) which appears at many places throughout the novel and appears to have an almost mystical siginficance for her. She also loves the family pet, a sheepdog named Muggs, which is over-sentimentalized, I think, in the story.

Artie, is a secular Jew as well but reflects the author's own ambivalences. He is a conflicted character who experiences a religious experience as Johanna's health deteriorates. He becomes increasingly interested in the practices and beliefs of traditional Judaism as it becomes interthreaded with his life work on mythology and with Johanna's illness. Artie's increasing religiosity and devotion to Jewish ritual threatens briefly to drive a wedge between the couple after a long, happy marriage.

The book has a positive tone with a happily married couple and a vibrant New York City and United States at its core. The author's love for our country and the City -- and the opportunities for life and life-choices which they offer are at the center of this book. There are deep issues explored in this book, centering largely on death and religion, and they are explored well, if somewhat lightly.

Artie, and presumably Hugh Nissenson, show some fascination with traditional Judaism and its rich teachings, but in the end the values of secular living -- living in and loving the everyday -- win out. This theme deserves treatment in more depth than we get here. Readers who enjoy this book might also enjoy E.L. Doctorow's fine novel "City of God" which also explores the relationship between religion and secularism in New York City as the land of American dreams.

Robin Friedman

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 11 reviews  3.7 out of 5 stars