The Prophet of Tenth Street

Marcus Weiss is a middle-aged Jewish writer living in New York City, working on a novel called The Reverse Turn of the Heart, as well as a literary reference book%E2%80%94the Dictionary of the Human Gesture in Western Literature. His girlfriend Gina and best friend Oscar have nicknamed him "The Prophet of Tenth Street," "because he can't bear the idea that others%E2%80%A6 are not exactly like him." Marcus is neurotic like a Woody Allen character without the buoyant humor, obsessing over his literary pursuits, religion, women, love, and death. He produces his notebooks to quote Hitler and Maimonides for visitors, while Gina talks about him like he isn't in the room%E2%80%94"He's gracious, too," she says, "wants nothing better than the well-being of his guests... He tries to memorize their every word, every muscle twitch." Marcus's musings will be familiar to any struggling author, as when he considers, "What happens to my characters when I take a break?" One day, Marcus discovers that an old man has entered his book, but can't recall how he got there, or who he is. In an intriguing conflation of the writer and the text, readers are left to parse out whether the old man is a projection of a future version of Marcus, or a contemporaneous Marcus attempting to reinsert himself into the story of his younger self. Poet and novelist Keller (Retelling) handles this poignant tale with the deftness of a writer who has struggled alongside her characters. (Mar.)