Items related to The Kiss of the Prison Dancer
Synopsis
A Holocaust survivor witnesses a murder in San Francisco and realizes that the suspect, a neo-Nazi skinhead, is innocent. The Kiss of the Prison Dancer plunges us into moral quandaries and modern mysteries that are riveting.
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Reviews
Richard's debut is a sympathetic but ungainly portrait of a Holocaust survivor struggling to move beyond his terrible past. Max Friedman supposes he survived "because he didn't really care, not since the day he learned his wife had been killed, or as the Sonderkommando had put it, was den Schornstein hinauf," or up the chimney. Now he leads a pleasureless, lonely life in 1970s San Francisco, filing papers for a social service agency by day and wandering Golden Gate Park at night. His only regular companion is Shmuel, a co-worker and fellow refugee. Late one night in the park, Max is startled by a young man dashing out of the bushes; the next day, he learns that a young woman has been found murdered nearby. While the authorities arrest a neo-Nazi named Mortimer Holtz-who proclaims his innocence-Max knows that the real killer is the boy. Max forces himself to find and confront the boy, who turns out to be a confused kid named Harold Kirby, who claims he killed the girl by accident. Max, surprisingly, decides to keep his secret. But at the same time "he could not let Holtz suffer for what the boy did. He could not let Holtz become a kind of Jew." The narrative takes a turn when, after another happenstance meeting, Max begins courting Clara Axelrod, a vivacious widow who manages to inject some joy into his haunted existence. The irony of a Jew defending a Nazi is one best left understated, but Richard is heavy-handed, and the plot takes some implausible turns. How Max comes to terms with his conscience is the biggest and thus most problematic one.
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The Kiss of the Prison Dancer
Published by
Permanent Pr Pub Co, 2004
ISBN 10: 1579621023
ISBN 13: 9781579621025
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Seller: Arundel Books, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. Signed and inscribed by author on title page. A fine first edition hardcover in jacket. // ' Max Friedman, a concentration camp survivor, goes for a walk one night in Golden Gate Park. There is a noise and then a young man leaps out of the bushes, stares at Max a moment, and runs away. The next day, Max reads in the paper that a girl has been raped and killed in the park. Soon, a man is arrested for the crime. The suspect is a neo-Nazi, but he is not the young man Max saw in the park. All his life Max lived by the motto: Mind your own business. His wife Sarah, who did not survive the camps, used to chide him about it. So he tries to ignore the case even though he knows the accused man is innocent. The man, after all, is a Nazi. Besides, Max meets a woman at the social service agency where he works and he doesn't want anything to interfere with his new relationship. But Sarah will not leave him alone. And neither will Shmuel, another survivor, who has a way of reminding Max of a past he would rather forget. As the story shifts between San Francisco in the 1970s and Germany in the 1930s, The Kiss of the Prison Dancer explores the life of a man trapped in a moral dilemma. This compelling and controversial novel will have readers asking themselves what they would do under similar circumstances.' -- publisher. Seller Inventory # 633561
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The Kiss of the Prison Dancer: A Novel
Published by
The Permanent Press, Sag Harbor, NY, 2004
ISBN 10: 1579621023
ISBN 13: 9781579621025
Used
Hardcover
Signed
Seller: Hourglass Books, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+, Not Price Clipped. American First. Inscribed by the author on the title page; minor wear; otherwise a solid, clean copy with no marking or underlining; collectible condition. Inscribed by Author(s). Book. Seller Inventory # 021414