The Believers

I was excited to find a discounted hardcover of Zoe Heller's latest novel, The Believers. Her previous novel, What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal was a smart, suprising story and I expected great things from her latest effort.

While The Believers had an interesting premise it just didn't go far enough for me. The story centers on the Litvinoff family. Joel, a radical New York Lawyer has a stroke and sends his children and wife into a reexamination of everything they thought was true.

Rosa explores Orthodox Judiasm which Heller handles beautifully, but in the end Rosa's reasons and faith never seem strong enough. Karla is in a dead end marriage and begins to explore a relationship with the man that runs the newspaper stand in the hospital where she works. And Lenny, the hard case adopted son struggles with various addictions.

Of course, it wouldn't be a family drama without the discovery of an illegitimate child from an affair which sends Joel's wife Audrey into a tailspin trying first to ignore it and then make it go away.

Are their lives better after the illness and eventual loss of Joel? It's hard to know but they are all changed including what they believe.