The novellas “Welcome to Gilgamesh” and “The Chimera in the Plaster” center on characters struggling to determine what is real in their lives and how to relate authentically to others. Eron gives readers a fascinating glimpse inside their minds, illuminating the repetition, rumination, and occasional self-delusion of their often-messy thought processes as they evaluate themselves, their relationships, and the biggest of all questions as represented, in “The Legend of Elk Avenue,” by a book of Jewish folklore. The complexity of these and many other of Eron’s characters will resonate to readers who embrace fiction concerned with life as it’s actually lived and perceived.

Eron writes with deep insight into his main players, though holding closely to their perspectives flattens the depiction of some of the other characters in their lives, especially the female ones, who often are objects of desire or projections of fantasies. These men don’t fully see them. While thought-provoking and deeply concerned with the limits of our perceptions and self-knowledge, the collection frequently offers welcome, unexpected moments of humor, especially in the often boisterous dialogue that’s often sprinkled with Yiddish. The muddled and sometimes painful self-reflection at the center of these stories, and their characters’ occasional hard-fought realizations, create a fascinating window into life’s big questions about who we are and how we should live.

Takeaway: This incisive collection examines, through short fiction, pressing questions about the limits of self-knowledge.

Great for fans of: Nathan Englander, Bernard Malamud.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A