Synopsis
“Those who lament that the novel has lost its prophecy should pay heed and cover-price: Muck is the future, both of Jerusalem and of literature. God is showing some rare good taste, by choosing to speak to us through Dror Burstein.” —Joshua Cohen, author of Moving Kings and Book of Numbers
In a Jerusalem both ancient and modern, where...
Details
19 November 2019
9781250234872Reviews
"Muck features talking dogs, angelic interventions, and (most importantly) the largest bowl of hummus in the world—hardly what we might expect from a book purporting to retell the Book of Jeremiah. But this epic social novel, because it is and is not set in present-day Jerusalem, is and is not a political novel, maintains a balancing act. By retrofitting the Biblical source text to a worldly rendition of the Middle East in crisis, it manages to contain its surrealism and focus its absurdity to strikingly sober ends . . . Burstein has a charmingly light touch that manages to convey both urgency and a fatalist’s taste for the absurd." —J. W. McCormack, Longreads
"Burstein’s fictional Jerusalem is mired in filth, corruption and crises of muddy intractability. One of the most brilliant of today’s Israeli authors, Burstein allows his language to slip with ease between the biblical and the contemporary . . . A tour de force . . . Muck treats readers to nothing less than postmodern prophecy." —Adam Rovner, The Forward
"[Muck is] the story of the Book of Jeremiah by way of Atlantic City; it's a tale of cosmic conflict and very small-scale, very human thwarted ambitions—and it's often bitingly funny." —Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review
"In Muck . . . Burstein brilliantly and movingly superimposes [the prophet] Jeremiah’s poetic imprecations against the Israel of his time and the strange trajectory of his career, as described in the biblical book named after him, on Israel’s present-day travails. It could easily fall flat, but in Burstein’s hands it is both hilarious and appalling." —Gabriel Josipovici, The New Statesman
"Israeli writer Dror Burstein’s novel Muck turns all the way back to the Babylonian conquest of Judah, updating the scriptural story of Jeremiah . . . An absurdist blending of ancient and contemporary details . . . in the kvetching style of Joseph Heller." —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"Influenced by such masterworks as Philip Roth's scabrous Sabbath's Theater, Joseph Heller's satirical Catch-22, and the modernist works of Thomas Pynchon, [Muck] is alternately hilarious (dig those talking dogs) and gripping in its treatment of the power of words. Ultimately, Burstein delivers page-turning suspense that gains resonance through its relevance to contemporary Israel . . . a dazzling and dizzying triumph." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"A surreal and searing story." —Vol. 1 Brooklyn
"Burstein manages to wrest Pynchonian satire from biblical eschatology, and his narrative is frequently funny . . . The prevailing sentiment, as Jeremiah’s warnings go unheeded by his fellow light-rail commuters, is an all-too-familiar sense of anxiety about an uncertain future." —Brendan Driscoll, Booklist
"Gritty realism intermixes with historical allusion, allowing [Muck] to function on several levels. The transmogrification of ancient events into a modern context creates a gripping world of hyperrealistic abandon." —Henry Bankhead, Library Journal
