Mazeltov
By Eli Zuzovsky (Henry Holt and Co.)

It would be easy to categorize Mazeltov as a coming-of-age story, and it is indeed that, but it is also much more. An unexpected, nonlinear bildungsroman told from multiple perspectives, the book explores queer sexuality, religion and anxiety amid the touchstones of Israeli young adulthood.

The debut novel from Eli Zuzovsky, an Israeli Italian writer, playwright and award-winning film director, is centered around precocious, sensitive Adam Weizmann. The action follows the Israeli boy at different points in his life, from his upsherin, a ceremony centered around a boy’s first haircut at age 3, on Mount Meron to his bar mitzvah in 2009, which takes place during Operation Cast Lead as tensions between Israel and Hamas continue to escalate, to his mandatory military service and young adulthood.

Throughout, his family’s dysfunction is in full force and apparent to others, including his best friend, Abby, who has plenty to say.

In chapters that shift in time and perspectives, we hear from Abby as well as from Adam’s absentee father and his loving grandmother, Mémé, among others. Zuzovsky also presents the perspectives of Khalil, a Palestinian poet and a caterer at Adam’s bar mitzvah.

Each character’s thoughts are interspersed with Adam’s memories, providing readers with insights into his childhood traumas, social exclusion and isolation—yet each is isolated in their own way. Abby writes in a letter to Adam, “Remember how you told me I was the happiest person you’d ever met? I didn’t respond back then, you must’ve thought I was too focused on my ice cream, which I absolutely was, but the truth is that I’m incredibly unhappy. You’d be amazed.”

His father, who went on a hike instead of attending his son’s bar mitzvah, promises: “Somehow, sometime, I will make things right. I promise,” later explaining, “Maybe one day you’ll understand; being a parent is the most terrific pain.”

But it is a chapter from the perspective of Adam’s cousin Ben, in a section that also involves Khalil the poet, that is the book’s turning point. Set on the day of Adam’s bat mitzvah, the events leave an indelible mark on the 13-year-old, allowing him a glimpse of what his future could be.

Years later, Adam finds himself at a bar in New York City sitting next to Khalil, whom he recognizes, though the recognition is not reciprocated. It is an encounter filled with things left unsaid, lost hope and uncertainty; one of those encounters that has the capacity to make one realize how complicated life can be.

While points and perspectives in the novel may seem irrelevant or extraneous, Zuzovsky manages to weave them together into a short novel, only 200 pages, that will linger in your mind long after you finish it. There are no neat and tidy endings. No fully resolved issues or reassurances that things will be easy. Instead, this poignant story focuses on the complicated and often painful task of growing up and the messiness of being human.

“Yes, things will change; they always do. You rarely notice it because the world is fast,” Zuzovsky writes near the end of the book. “But now you see. It won’t be instantaneous or swift or anything like you had in mind.”  

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Jaime Herndon is a writer and avid reader. Her work can be found at Book Riot, Undark, Kveller, Motherly and other places.