The Men Can’t Be Saved

Poet Purkert (For the Love of Endings) makes his fiction debut with a smart satire centered on a New York City copywriter turned religious seeker. Seth Taranoff works for an ad agency, RazorBeat, where he wins an award for a viral campaign advertising underwear designed for men with incontinence (“Everyday Briefs for the Everyday Hero,” went the tagline). But after RazorBeat downsizes, Seth is laid off. He then pursues freelance work, takes a barista job at a coffee shop called Sötma, and makes various half-hearted attempts at meaningful relationships. After traveling to Allentown, Pa., to track down a woman he’s interested in from the Sötma staff, he meets a rabbi and is welcomed into a Chabad house. Seth’s time with the rabbi’s family and their religious sect offers opportunities to explore his Jewish identity, but it’s also a place for free meals, and Purkert keeps readers guessing as to whether Seth is capable of sincerity. Like its protagonist, Purkert’s freewheeling narrative sometimes feels unsteady in its direction, but the finely wrought prose and spot-on descriptions are undeniable: visiting a strip club with an odious former colleague, Seth notices how during a break between sets, “the mostly male audience twitched like a smattering of crabs at low tide.” This is great fun. Agent: Alia Hanna Habib, Gernert Co. (Aug.)