Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes (ISBN 052594933X)

enough horrors, already.:
The writing's all right, for the first hundred pages or so, but the content was unrelentingly dismal so I left off. I don't really need to be shown in vivid detail what Russian bigots did to some poor Jewish girl, what a skull fracture looks & smells like, or what heartbroken women do to themselves with razors, or children, desperate to be liked, with whatever they can find. After a while I told myself, "If this character does X, I'm putting the book down," X being an obvious and ill-chosen action; he did, and I did.

SOMEWHAT QUIRKY NONETHELESS INTRIGUING:
This author's first book, Some of the Parts, established her as one who created strong voiced characters , and wove somewhat quirky nonetheless intriguing plots. She follows this pattern with her second novel - there's little self-effacing about Esther or T. Cooper. Our story of the Lipshitz family begins with their escape from 1903 Russia and the cruel pogroms. Esther, Hersh and their four children gratefully arrive at Ellis Island only to discover that their son, Reuven, is nowhere to be found. They search all over New York City for their blond, blue-eyed son but are stymied at every turn. Finally, the family join a relative in Texas and establish a home in a place the most unlike Russia they've seen - the dusty panhandle of the Lone Star State. Esther continues to mourn the loss of her son, and when she sees a newspaper photo of Charles Lindbergh announcing his 1927 transatlantic flight she becomes convinced that he is her long lost son now grown and famous. She is so obsessed by this notion that she corresponds with the Lindbergh family and saves every scrap of news about the aviator. Now, segue to New York City a half a century later and Esther's great-grandson, T. Cooper, a writer who is not doing much writing but earns his bread and butter by imitating Eminem at bar mitzvahs. When Cooper's parents are killed in an auto accident he returns to Texas to make final arrangements, and it is there that he faces his strange family history. Actor/musician Kirby Heyborne gives a notable reading to the Lipshitz saga, by turns imbuing it with dogged determination, consternation, and humor. - Gail Cooke

Great read!:
T Cooper manages to combine two very different (yet also quite similar) stories with two very different voices into one page-turning novel. Unique characters, combined with a unique writing style make for a very interesting, witty, and enjoyable read.

a mess of a novel:
i really wanted to like this book, especially after reading the glowing blurbs all over it and having it recommended to me by my favorite bookstore, but i found it to be a massive mess of a novel. it is basically two short stories and one novella posing as a unified work, and it does not flow well at all. the first 100 pages (one of the short stories) are brutal, and somewhat unnecessary. it would have worked better as a stand-alone work with more development and less violence. if you are a sensitive reader and you want to read this book, you truly can skip the first 100 pages and still get the gist of the next part (the novella). the details of a russian pogrom are not ones that you will easily forget. i would have enjoyed the second section of the book--in fact if it had enormous potential to be developed by itself into a mature work had the author drawn out more of the other characters. i enjoyed this part of the work and would have like to have learned more about the characters from this period of esther's life. this part needed development. the third part is a complete waste and absolutely destroys the flow of the book. there is so little connection to the previous 315 pages (aside from biology) that it disrupts any connection one may have felt previously. it definitely should have been a stand-alone work and would have been interesting as a short story, but instead it just sticks out like an indulgent literary exercise. and a badly written one at that. overall this work reads like the author had three ideas for a work and couldn't decide which direction to go it, so all of them were used when two of them should have been discarded. do not waste your money on this.

A Worthy Read:
This book should be read simply because Cooper knows how to tell a compelling story. Half way through, I found myself unable to put it down. The transition from third person historical narrative to first person, while abrupt, was pulled off deftly, and the latter part of the book was utterly convincing for me. Throw in moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity and authentic, moving scenes, and you have a richly entertaining tale. Highly recommended.