A*Hole A Novel

A young boy wakes one morning to discover he is sinking into the earth despite the new trainers his parents promised would save him. A young woman begins reviewing films before they are made. A postal worker named Gary fulfills his occupational cliche and attacks Danny DeVito. A father writes letters to his wayward and far-flung sons. An archeologist finds evidence, perhaps, of the permanence of time as well as earth. A detective accepts a case requiring him to connect Patty Hearst to her other self. Obenzinger skilfully constructs a novel that is lyrically beautiful.

Hilton Obenzinger writes fiction, poetry, history and criticism. His books have received the American Book Award and other honors. His book, Treyf Pesach [Un-kosher Passover], is a collection of holy blasphemous poems. He has also published How We Write: The Varieties of Writing Experience, based on the series of “How I Write” public conversations with Stanford faculty and other advanced writers. His other books include the autobiographical novel Busy Dying, a* Hole, Running Through Fire: How I Survived the Holocaust by Zosia Goldberg as told to Hilton Obenzinger, an oral history of his aunt’s ordeal during the war; American Palestine: Melville, Twain and the Holy Land Mania, Cannibal Eliot and the Lost Histories of San Francisco, New York on Fire, a history of the fires of New York in verse, and This Passover Or The Next I Will Never Be in Jersualem.