The Beggar's Cup

At once comic and heartbreaking, Blau's novel is by turns a fiercely loving inquiry into Jewish identity, an acid satire on Hollywood and a touching interfaith love story. Having fled to America after narrowly escaping the Holocaust, Morris Cohen becomes a devoted supporter of Israel--even to the point of covertly manufacturing bazookas for the struggling new state under the cover of his sewing machine business. Years later, now a Tinseltown horror-movie mogul, Cohen wants to redeem a schlocky career by producing a serious movie about Zionist leader Theodor Herzl. His instinct to hire gentile screenwriter Zachary Barthelmes proves ironically successful when, in the process of retracing Herzl's travels from Jerusalem to Paris to Istanbul, the writer discovers that he himself is half-Jewish. Barthelmes's affair with Baptist advertising copywriter Kalia Wiggins yields further surprises, including revelations of childhood sexual abuse by her Bible-thumping father. Cameo walk-ons by David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Teddy Kollek and John Wayne, plus snippets of Barthelmes's emerging film script, enliven a sprawling meditation on religious faith and the centuries-old rift between Christians and Jews. Blau, a director, producer and author of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris , has taken many risks in this novel and succeeded on all counts. (Sept.)