Since You Left Me

June 25, 2012
Zadoff (My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies) never quite balances the offbeat, twee, emotional, and religious elements of this story about a lie spun out of control. High school junior Sanskrit Aaron Zuckerman—he was named by his hippie mother, while his music-loving father named his sister, Sweet Caroline—is faced with yet another mandatory parent-teacher conference at Brentwood Jewish Academy that his mother has blown off. Spontaneously fibbing about a “terrible accident” keeping her away, Sanskrit finds his lie snowballing, causing stress at school even as his personal life falls apart. Sanskrit’s mother has fallen in love with her guru; his best friend Herschel (formerly Sanskrit’s co-conspirator in scoffing at overly religious Jews) has become the most devout student at school; and Judi Jacobs, the love of his life, won’t pay Sanskrit any attention. Zadoff aces some of the core emotional moments surrounding Sanskrit’s family and his friendship with Herschel, but too many of the school scenes feel forced and awkward, with thinly painted teachers and administrators mostly existing as one-shtick ponies. Ages 12–up. Agent: Stuart Krichevsky, Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency.

July 15, 2012
Funny and glum, neglected yet self-serving, Sanskrit Aaron Zuckerman ("that's my name, in all its confusing glory") trudges through junior year with a large, stupid lie on his shoulders. Sanskrit's accustomed to his mother's emotional absence; she's preoccupied with yoga and named him after the ancient Indian language, revealing hippie leanings that match neither his lethargic atheism nor his school's Modern Orthodox Judaism. When Mom garners schoolwide attention by missing a parent-teacher conference, Sanskrit announces she's been in a near-fatal accident. The outpouring of sympathy, especially from a girl he's adored since age 7, is like manna. Judi spurned him in second grade, and he's still obsessed with that rejection. His parents are divorced, inattentive and flaky; old friend Herschel is more religious and moral than Sanskrit can bear; and Sanskrit's late, Holocaust-survivor grandfather left him funding for Jewish education only (otherwise the money goes to Tay-Sachs research), forcing Sanskrit into Jewish school. His loneliness and his anxiety about the pressures attendant on being the descendent of a survivor are understandable, and sometimes he's hilarious ("Can breasts look disappointed?"), but his self-centeredness is repugnant (in addition to the lie, he bets on teachers' heart attacks). India is used for "exotic" textual flavor with a reductionist American slant: Chai, for instance, is "the taste of India." Two reveals plus the lie's exposure surprisingly lead to relief for Sanskrit's soul; hopefully moral growth follows. (Fiction. 12-16)

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September 1, 2012

Gr 7 Up-Sanskrit has a few problems. He's got a self-absorbed hippie mom and an absentee dad. He goes to a Jewish school and doesn't believe in God. He has a crush on a girl who hasn't talked to him since second grade. And his former best and only friend is now a "super Jew." When Sanskrit's mom doesn't show up for parent-teacher conferences, he tells a lie that ends up snowballing into a very big one. His mom has fallen in love with a Buddhist guru and is talking about leaving Sanskrit and his sister, Sweet Caroline, to move to India with him. As Sanskrit tries to deal with his lie and prevent his mom from leaving, he learns about love and responsibility, and even makes his peace with God. This novel is well written and has easy-to-like (or hate) characters, but its appeal is likely to be limited to fairly observant Jewish teens, who will understand the references. Other readers won't quite get the book.-Melissa Stock, Arapahoe Library District, Englewood, CO

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Grades 8-11 When your yoga-addicted, divorced mom is over the moon for a strange Indian guru and your father is a brainiac recluse, a boy's gotta do what he's gotta do to keep himself in good standing with his strict private Jewish school instructors. All of which leads to this comic novel's hero lying about the absence of his parents at the school's mandatory family conference. Sanskrit (yup, that's his name) makes up a horrific accident that has the school community rallying with everything from gift baskets to a fund-raiser. Where will it stop? Sanskrit doesn't have much faith, but he knows there's going to be a reckoning. And there is. In the meantime, readers who like their humor laced with sarcasm and angst will be wondering how their hero is going to pull off the lie as well as stop his mom from following her spiritual, but free-loving, mentor to India. Plenty of laugh-out-loud sitcom-type moments occur before a semiserious ending complete with epiphanies about finding yourself and finding faith.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)