Tell Me How This Ends Well

In Levinson’s (Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence) prescient second novel, which speaks to the current political moment, the year is 2022 and anti-Semitism is on the rise in America. Against this background, the three adult Jacobson children gather in L.A. for their annual family Passover celebration. Jacob, a playwright, flies in from Berlin with his German lover, Dietrich. Moses, a former reality TV star, uses the holiday as a pretext for making a comeback, with his wife and their large brood accompanied by a camera crew. And Edith, a divorced college ethics professor, comes west while fighting a sexual harassment suit. All three have a secret agenda to kill their abusive father, Julian, on behalf of their terminally ill mother, Roz, who only has a few months to live. As the siblings squabble over the best way to accomplish this, they dredge up old rivalries and spend endless time re-evaluating the successes, failures, and old loves that have made up their lives to this point, making a case for the Passover Seder being the Jewish equivalent of Thanksgiving when it comes to airing family grievances. The characters here are gargoylesque caricatures, and the jokes, knowing and hilarious, fly fast and furious in the black comic manner of Bruce Wagner, Howard Jacobson, and Bruce Jay Friedman. The story’s environment is claustrophobic, and in the book’s depiction of latter day anti-Semitism, Levinson leavens the humor with some chilling cautionary notes. (Apr.)