I took this week off for the Jewish New Year, and will be back next week. In the meantime, I am delighted to let you know that the first chapter of a novella-in-verse I’m writing has now appeared at the Jewish Review of Books. It’s a Gen X narrative poem, set in the 1980s in Philadelphia, and chock-full of pop culture references. It’s written in Pushkin sonnets, the form used for Eugene Onegin. My hero is a 14 year old named Eugene Nadelman. Chapter one takes place at a bar mitzvah in the Philly suburbs. There are a few geek references here and there, and I can inform you that chapter two is mostly set within a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Please do read and share!
24.
As “Billie Jean” gives way to “Rio,”
The new hit by Duran Duran,
Observe these teens, their youthful brio,
Enthusiasm, and elan;
Their music, clothes, vocabulary,
Defining the contemporary.
Rod Stewart recently implied
That time itself is on their side.
And yet this festive, endocrinal
Display, had I a Polaroid
To show today, would not avoid
Appearing obsolete as vinyl
And dated as the dial tone
When picking up a land-line phone.
investigations and fantasies 