The Sea Beach Line

August 15, 2015
Stories both ancient and contemporary lurk beneath the surface of this New York saga of discovery and revelation. Izzy Edel, narrator of Nadler's (Harvitz, As to War, 2011) new novel, embarks on an odyssey of a peculiar sort after he's expelled from Oberlin for overenthusiastic use of hallucinogens. A cryptic postcard from Izzy's long-estranged father, Alojzy, and a mysterious letter from someone named Semyon Goldov reporting that Alojzy is missing and perhaps dead-received two days apart-prompt Izzy to leave New Mexico, where his mother and stepfather had been providing him with rest and rehabilitation, for his father's world of Brooklyn and downtown New York. Upon arrival in New York, Izzy undertakes to solve the puzzle of his father's life or death. When he steps into Alojzy's role selling books from a cart in Greenwich Village and takes up residence in his storage unit, the gritty realities of his father's hidden life are perplexingly revealed. Rayna, a fragile young woman with mysterious ties to a shadowy Hasidic sect in Borough Park, aids Izzy's bookselling and detective efforts but hides secrets of her own. As more of Alojzy's dubious business dealings are revealed, Izzy descends further into a world of questionable activity and finds that the answers to his father's mystery are as complicated as the circumstances he finds himself in. The confluence of a byzantine plot, intriguing references to Jewish folktales and the Talmud, and an epic storm results in an updated noir providing a glimpse of the Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan hidden from tourists and hipsters alike.

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Starred review from August 1, 2015

When Izzy Edel receives an enigmatic postcard from Alojzy, the father with whom he has not communicated in several years, his young wasted life immediately takes on purpose. Expelled from college, Izzy heads for New York City to find Alojzy. There are no answers as to his father's whereabouts, but Izzy takes over his father's business selling books on the street. He becomes involved with gangsters who may have worked with his father. He also rescues Rayna, a young woman who has fled her Hasidic home and is living on the streets. For Izzy, life becomes extremely complicated as no one he meets is actually who he seems to be; and the questions about Alojzy's disappearance and Rayna's existence become even more mysterious. VERDICT In his second novel (after Harvitz, As to War) Nadler has crafted a New York hustler coming-of-age tale in which his protagonist's life mirrors that of a yeshiva student, then the hero of a pulp novel about the Mafia, and finally the biblical patriarch Isaac. The interweaving of Izzy's search with Hasidic tales and the the realities of life on the streets results in a mesmerizing narrative that will speak to any readers who have tried to make sense of their parents' lives or the secrets that people keep.--Andrea Kempf, formerly with Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS

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