The Book of Stone / Jonathan Papernick 389 pp.

Matthew Stone is the grandson and son of a gangster and influential judge, respectively. Unlike his 'big man' forebears, Matthew has always felt himself a very small man, indeed. Unable to finish school, maintain relationships or mental health, his father's death sends Matthew into a downward spiral. His father has left him access to a large stash of funds which he may or may not have intended him to use to fund a group of Israeli terrorists functioning out of a cell in Brooklyn, and his father's former friends stalk Matthew in pursuit of the money. Very dark and atmospheric (Matthew never knows who to trust, and he is nearly always drunk, high, or self-mutilating), the story moves toward a grim end which the reader can never quite see coming, for which I give Papernick high marks. The author tried to say a lot here, about becoming a man, and specifically becoming a Jewish man weighted with history, and he didn't fully achieve it, but this was still an engrossing read.