RaveLos Angeles Review of BooksThe genius of Thrall’s book lies in its ability to unearth the lives, aspirations, and sentiments of his protagonists ... The tragedy that Nathan Thrall depicts is, in the first instance, a family tragedy ... But it is above all the tragedy of a society under occupation, without freedom of movement, rights of citizenship, or the ability to breathe. In this regard, A Day in the Life challenges us to rethink the designation of the crash as an \"accident,\" a term that suggests happenstance and chance.
Joshua Cohen
RaveLos Angeles Review of BooksCohen has performed a literary miracle of sorts, transforming the shadowy, dour figure of Benzion Netanyahu into the protagonist of an uproariously funny book. In its skewering of the small-mindedness of academic culture, The Netanyahus conjures up the hilarity of David Lodge, and in its piercing gaze and over-the-top, transgressive moves, it evokes the late Philip Roth, who ripped open the soul of the American Jewish parvenu—and that figure’s grinding quest for respectability—like no one else ... It is striking how much Cohen gets right about Netanyahu’s scholarship, the historiographical traditions against which he pushed, and the milieux in which he was formed, particularly the distinctive academic culture of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem ... Cohen’s narrator captures something essential about the actual Netanyahu ... Cohen lays out the twists and consequences of Netanyahu’s argument with exceptional acuity. But he is equally exceptional in tacking back to the comic. The truly unexpected climax to the book comes in the madcap scene near the end when the Blums and Netanyahus return home to discover a naked Jonathan Netanyahu dashing from the room of the Blum’s deflowered naked daughter, Judy.