Trenton Makes

November 20, 2017
In this taut debut, Koelb takes on manhood and the rise and fall of the American Century as Trenton, N.J., evolves from a booming postwar factory town to a place full of closed factories and dope-smoking, draft-dodging hippies. The protagonist, Abe Kunstler, is a watchful, angry man whose life is predicated on keeping his secret: he is no man at all, but a woman who killed her traumatized veteran husband in a marital fight, cut her hair, and, physically built up from wartime factory work, went out into the world. For Abe, power lies in manliness, not the weak body of a disrespected female. For a while he achieves that power: he acquires the suit that makes him feel like a “real man”; a marriage of sorts with Inez, a dancehall girl with a taste for alcohol; and even a son. But the son intended as the final proof and future of Abe’s masculinity comes of age when America is riven by generational divides and mired in a senseless war. Koelb is insightful, if not always subtle, about how short the era of triumphant white American manhood was and its tendency to fight a rear-guard action that hurts men and those they love. Agent: Anna Stein, ICM Partners.

February 15, 2018

This ambitious first novel addresses very important subject matter: gender and identity. Set in Trenton, NJ, the story begins just after World War II. Protagonist Abe Kunstler is a hard-drinking laborer who works with a large group of men at a wire factory. The only difference between Abe and everybody else there is that Abe is actually a woman who has been living as a man since accidentally killing her abusive husband in a violent domestic quarrel. As unlikely as it may sound, Abe is somehow, we are given to believe, able to maintain this life for decades, even finding a way to marry a woman and have a son. Koelb is obviously exploring complex emotional and psychological territory here. Unfortunately, he leaves a great deal undeveloped and unexamined--especially in terms of Abe's motivation, psychology, and interior life. Readers may therefore be unable to accept the main premise of the novel. Nonetheless, the author's overall message is powerful. Koelb shows how profoundly gender roles influence individual lives and how devastating it is for those who become strangers or impostors in their own lives. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in gender and identity. [See Prepub Alert, 9/15/17.]--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2018
WWII is over, and men return home, many to left-behind wives who became wholly self-supporting citizens out of necessity. For one such couple in Trenton, New Jersey, the postwar clash proves fatal, and the sole survivor completely reinvents herself. My name is Abe Kunstler. I was a soldier and a POW . . . and I was wounded in the war. The name is especially telling. In German, Kunstler is both artist and performer, and Abe is a thorough creation. His haircut, fitted suit, and the necessary, body-altering bindings, attributed to war woundsall affirm manhood. Deliberately, he acquires the symbols of masculine successfactory job, wife, home, even an heir. Nineteen years later, that son, compellingly named Art, becomes the greatest threat to Abe's existence. First-time novelist Koelb, an Andre Gide translator and Rutgers writing instructor, spent two years learning Trenton's historical vernacular via radio serials and period tabloids. With that scrupulously acquired voice, he deftly confronts gender, identity, and socioeconomic limits to create a piercing tragedy of a life caught between free will and utter desperation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)