The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness

July 28, 2003
First-time author ben Izzy's vocation as a professional storyteller may fill his life with heady myth and poetry, but as he acknowledges early on in this slim but memorable recollection of personal tragedy, "the absence of magic" in his childhood is the very thing "that sent me looking for it." He found it in the unlikeliest and most cruelly ironic way. After undergoing surgery to remove thyroid cancer, ben Izzy lost his voice—the instrument of not only his art, but also his livelihood. Telling himself that a return to the routine of performance would spark a recovery, ben Izzy accepted an offer to perform at a bar mitzvah, but only "whispers and gasps" emerged. Retreating into self-pity, anger, hopelessness and sullen solitude, the author searched, like the protagonists in the stories he used to tell, for a spiritual explanation of the loss. He reconnected with his estranged, cantankerous mentor, who offered support by telling dizzyingly enigmatic stories hinting at the idea that ben Izzy had been given a magical gift by losing his voice. When a doctor suggested he might be able to help ben Izzy speak again in a risky procedure, ben Izzy's wife told him she liked him better without it, an incident the author does not satisfyingly explain. But ben Izzy successfully translates the best elements of oral storytelling to the page; his memoir shines with brisk suspense as well as his unerring, precise eye for including only the elements of his hard-won wisdom that matter the most. (Nov. 7)Forecast:Ben Izzy, who now has his voice back, will go on a 12-city tour, which will certainly boost sales. The book, which is 5"×7", could become a popular holiday gift.

August 27, 2007
Joel ben Izzy has a peaceful, almost mesmerizing voice—a fine storyteller's voice—altered only when he becomes the characters in his tales. He does a perfect Yiddish accent, but he doesn't spoil other stories by struggling for genuine accents. Parables have morals: as he narrates the agonizing loss of his voice and ultimate recovery, he seeks lessons from his misery. One of his Chinese tales reminds us: “What seems like a blessing may be a curse, and what seems like a curse may be a blessing.” Izzy begins each chapter with a fairy tale from some corner of the globe, then relates it to a segment of his life. The book is a blend of fiction and nonfiction genres much in fashion now: memoir, the journey toward healing, the spiritual awakening, the search for wisdom and meaning through pain and loss. Izzy's book will find a happy home next to those of Paulo Coelho, Mitch Albom, Sue Monk Kidd, Alice Seabold et al., and will be particularly popular in audio format. An Algonquin paperback (Reviews, July 28, 2003).