 NYRB first edition cover | |
| Author | Joshua Cohen |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Anonymous photo c. 1955, Design byKaty Homans |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical, Satire |
| Publisher | Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) NYRB (US) |
Publication date | May 5, 2021 (UK) June 22, 2021 (US) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 248 pp |
| ISBN | 9781681376073 |
The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family is a 2021 novel byJoshua Cohen. It was awarded the 2022Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[1]
The book centers on a fictionalized account ofHarold Bloom's encounter withBenzion Netanyahu and his family, including his son,Benjamin Netanyahu, at an upstate New York college in the late 1950s, blending history, fiction, and humor.
The novel's protagonist, Ruben Blum, is a historian at the fictional Corbin College in the fictional town of Corbindale, New York in the late 1950s. He is the first and only Jewish person at Corbin.
He finds himself perpetually navigatingmicroaggressions of his department chair, Dr. Morse. One of the humiliating incidents involves making Blum portray Santa Claus at the college's Christmas party because “it’ll free up the people who actually celebrate the holiday to enjoy themselves.”
Because he is Jewish, Dr. Morse involuntarily appoints Blum to the hiring committee for a Jewish historian by the name ofBenzion Netanyahu. The hiring committee assignment takes an unexpected twist when Benzion arrives for lunch at Blum's residence, not alone but with the unannounced company of his audacious wife and three feral children (Yonatan,Benjamin, andIddo). The Netanyahus' visit shakes up Ruben's life, leaving him to navigate a whirlwind of events beyond his control.[2][3]
Cohen recorded an audiobook version withPushkin Industries, which features voice work fromDavid Duchovny.[4]
In a positive review forThe New York Times Book Review,Taffy Brodesser-Akner referred to the novel as "an infuriating, frustrating, pretentious piece of work — and also absorbing, delightful, hilarious, breathtaking and the best and most relevant novel I’ve read in what feels like forever".[3] David Isaacs praised Cohen's wit at the sentence level but questioned his success in conveying a sense of depth, describing the novel inLiterary Review as "erudite, occasionally hilarious and eventually unhinged."[5]
The Netanyahus won the 2022Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[6] The Pulitzer citation for the novel described it as "A mordant, linguistically deft historical novel about the ambiguities of the Jewish-American experience, presenting ideas and disputes as volatile as its tightly-wound plot."[7] It also won the 2021National Jewish Book Award for Fiction.[8]
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