I WAS A STUDENT IN A WRITING WORKSHOP WITH THE DIRECTIOIN OF E.H. HE CHANGED MY PROSE STYLE AS WELL AS THE WAY I READ AND WRITE. HE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED THE NEW, CONPT. FICTION WRITERS ALONG WITH JOHN SMOLENS, KATE MYERS HANSON, AND FLAN O'CONNER. (NOT IN AGE ORDER--FLAN DIED YEARS AGO; JOHN AND KATE AND EHUD ARE STILL WORKING AND PRODUCING GREAT WORKS)

read all all the above, and also ANDRE DUBUSE.

I thought these stories were very nearly perfect. The language is so subtle and controlled, and the story's ultimate meanings are sometimes surprising but inevitable. I know people like these characters - people who are complicated and imperfect but actually just fine. Read Leah, the longest story in the book, it's amazing. I would have to say the Lyon story and the final one (8 rabbis on the roof?) add the least to the book, but certainly don't detract from it. PS: Yes, he is Jewish, and yes, that's his real name.

This is a remarkable collection. "Lyon" is a subtle, lowkey story that captures the horror of the Holocaust in a single incident. The characters in this book ultimately provide a moving portrait of a Jewish family in the 1960s and thereafter.

Amazing, spectacular... the first story especially takes off and never looks back. I wish I wrote this.