“Jessamyn Hope Kibitzes About Her Kibbutz Novel, SAFEKEEPING”
June 11, 2015
“Though another century of issues and personal strife has begun, Safekeeping is a story that exhibits ways we can push forward through our own strangling legacies and find home.”
“Hope’s Novel Is a Striking Debut.” — BOOKLIST
June 9, 2015
“This beautiful story of loss and hope sweeps artfully through 600 years of Jewish resilience. With its richly drawn, believable characters and its great sensitivity, Hope’s novel is a striking debut.”
SAFEKEEPING: A “Gorgeous Debut” and An “Excellent Emotional Roller Coaster Ride”
June 9, 2015
“Safekeeping is a gorgeous debut, spanning seven centuries, that questions what it means to do, well, anything, if everything is temporary. This is an excellent emotional roller coaster ride.”
Summer Reading Recommendation: THE BOOK OF STONE
June 4, 2015
“Ultimately, the explosive storyline about a possible Jewish terror plot excited me less than the portrait of Matthew, one of the more memorably pathetic figures in recent literature.”
The “Emotional Journey” of Jessamyn Hope’s SAFEKEEPING
June 2, 2015
“A snapshot of a pivotal moment in the life of a community as well as a retrospective on the persecution of Jewish people throughout history, this emotional journey will leave readers with aching hearts and deepened empathy for the waifs and strays of our world.”
“Meyer Levin’s COMPULSION Still Haunts Its Audience”
June 1, 2015
Based on the Leopold and Loeb murder of Bobbie Franks, the reprint of the 1956 true crime novelization remains a powerful dramatization that looks closely at why they did it and the impact of the cold-blooded murder on families and communities years afterward….Over nine decades since the actual murder and almost sixty years since the original book and its subsequent movie were released, Meyer Levin’s Compulsion still haunts its audience.
“An Immersive, Impressive First Novel”: NewPages on SAFEKEEPING
June 1, 2015
“Safekeeping is an immersive, impressive first novel. It opens with suspense, is filled with compelling characters, and its timeline opens and closes like an accordion. Who knew an accordion tune could come so close to sounding like a symphony?”
Read Jason Hess’s full review on NewPages.com.
“The Psychology of Truth: A Review of COMPULSION by Meyer Levin”
June 1, 2015
“Ultimately, this is a novel that can, and has, withstood the test of time.”
“Alan Cheuse’s Magnificent Novel” Is a “Major Literary Achievement”
June 1, 2015
“Prayers for the Living reminds me of Frank Norris’s McTeague, Abraham Cahan’s The Rise of David Levinsky (especially the portrait of the hero’s mother and the irony of the title), Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Allan Ginsberg’s “Kaddish” (don’t ask me why), and Henry Roth’s Call It Sleep.”
“Revisiting the Jewish Crime of the Century”
May 29, 2015
“When I was growing up in New York in the 1950s, there was no one who did not know who Leopold and Loeb were — and there was no one who did not know ‘Compulsion,’ Meyer Levin’s roman à clef of the case.”
Read Jerome A. Chanes’s full article for The Forward.