Joshua: A Brooklyn Tale

Kane's sprawling novel charts the ways in which two divergent communities in Brooklyn, N.Y.%E2%80%94the Hassidic and African-American populations of Crown Heights%E2%80%94converge through an exploration of the interconnected lives of Joshua, an African-American man struggling with drugs and crime; Rachel, the daughter of a rabbi; and privileged Paul, from a Long Island Jewish family, who hopes to escape his troubled past. Perhaps overambitious in his scope, Kane attempts to cover everything from city life and life on the street to race relations and religion, shoehorning in race riots, interracial love triangles, adultery, a secret love child, therapy, murder, rape, incest, blasphemy%E2%80%94and that's when things really start to take off. The author certainly has a story to tell, and while there's nothing especially original about the way he tells it, readers willing to commit to this profuse novel will be entertained.