A Curable Romantic
By Joseph Skibell
(Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Hardcover, 9781565129290, 608pp.)
Publication Date: September 2010
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Hardcover, Compact Disc, Paperback
Categories: Literary, Historical - General
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Selected by Indie Booksellers for the October 2010 Indie Next List“Joseph Skibell is one of America's great unsung writers. His new novel, A Curable Romantic, is funny, dark, and profound. If there is justice in the world, it will win a major prize next year. Skibell writes amazing prose that carries you like a dream through a complicated plot without ever leaving you impatient. Fine literary tears will be cried.”
-- Paul Ingram, Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, IA
Description
As far as romance goes, Dr. Jakob Sammelsohn is fairly incurable. Twice married, once divorced, once widowed all by the tender age of twelve he finally flees his small village and his pious, vengeful father. A lovelorn candide, young Dr. Sammelsohn wanders optimistically through history pursued by the amorous ghost of his dead wife.
Arriving in Vienna in 1890, a chance encounter with Sigmund Freud leads our hero into the arms of Emma Eckstein, one of Freud 's most famous patients. Later he romances the beautiful and wealthy Lo Bernfeld, who carries him into the world of Esperanto and the universal language movement. Finally, Dr. Sammelsohn finds himself in the Warsaw ghetto in 1940, only to become a pawn in a battle over the path to heaven.
"A Curable Romantic" is a novel of personal and historical exile that could spring only from the literary imagination of a virtuoso. Often fantastical yet always grounded in tradition and history, it is that rare literary feat a truly incomparable tale, ingenuously told, peopled with characters who live on in the memory.
Arriving in Vienna in 1890, a chance encounter with Sigmund Freud leads our hero into the arms of Emma Eckstein, one of Freud 's most famous patients. Later he romances the beautiful and wealthy Lo Bernfeld, who carries him into the world of Esperanto and the universal language movement. Finally, Dr. Sammelsohn finds himself in the Warsaw ghetto in 1940, only to become a pawn in a battle over the path to heaven.
"A Curable Romantic" is a novel of personal and historical exile that could spring only from the literary imagination of a virtuoso. Often fantastical yet always grounded in tradition and history, it is that rare literary feat a truly incomparable tale, ingenuously told, peopled with characters who live on in the memory.
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