Goyhood
~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp ~

The main characters in Goyhood are twin brothers Marty (later Mayer) and David Belkin. They live with their eccentric mother, Ida Mae, in the small town of New Moab, Georgia. When they are ten years old, Ida Mae informs them they are Jewish. Devil-may-care David doesn’t really care if he is Jewish or not. Marty, however, is shaken to the core by this revelation. He changes his name to Mayer and becomes an Orthodox Jew, making a profession of studying the Torah. When he becomes a man, he marries a Jewish woman named Sarah, whose father is a famous rabbi.

Years later, when Mayer and David are in their forties, they receive word that their (by-now) enormously obese mother has committed suicide. (Mayer lives in Brooklyn and David in Atlanta.) They both converge on their hometown of New Moab, Georgia, to attend the funeral. However, they learn there will be no funeral because their mother has been cremated. They are presented with an urn containing her ashes, which they, quite sensibly, refer to as Ida Mae. That’s not all, though. She has left Mayer and David a suicide not in which she reveals that they aren’t really Jewish after all.

Mayer is shattered. He has been living a lie, albeit an unwitting lie. He isn’t a Jew; he’s a gentile. He’s a fake; he’s a liar, he’s a sham. He only wants to get back to Brooklyn to convert to Judaism and make thing right with Sarah. His brother David, though, has other ideas. How about a road trip through the South? They can have some adventures, and it will give them some time to reconnect as brothers. Mayer reluctantly agrees against his better judgment. They rent a jazzed-up, red, retro car that David names Daisy.

Right away on their travels, Mayer and David encounter a lovable stray dog alongside the highway. David wants to keep the dog, but Mayer is against it. David wins, and they take the dog wherever they go, even into restaurants. David names the dog Popeye because he has been mauled in a fight and only has one eye. Despite his rough appearance, Popeye is very sweet, and both brothers fall in love with him.

The brothers spend several days in New Orleans, where David encounters an old friend named Charlayne Valentine. She is black and is on her way to hike the Appalachian Trail, which is over 2,000 miles long. She becomes a significant addition to the duo and a major character.

During the trip, Mayer unwinds a little and has some startling self-revelations: For one thing, he realizes he has been married to the wrong woman for eighteen years. And the question about his Jewishness is an obvious one. Even though he isn’t really a Jew, he can become one. We are what we think we are, even when we are (unwittingly) something else.

Goyhood is a first novel by New York Post writer Reuven Fenton, who writes some very smart dialogue. I had a little trouble with some of the Hebrew words and phrases, but that’s a minor quibble. It’s an entertaining novel, filled with droll humor, some surprising twists and turns, and a minimum of heart-rending tragedy. Highly recommended for summer reading or reading at any other season.

Copyright © 2024 by Allen Kopp