The Netanyahus By Joshua Cohen
The Netanyahus By Joshua Cohen After The Netanyahus won the Pulitzer this year I was keen to read it to find out if I thought it was worthy. Spoiler alert: I did! Ruben Blum is a history professor at Corbin College in western New York state, a recent transplant from New York City with his wife and daughter. Ruben is the only Jew in town that he knows of, and certainly the only Jew at Corbin. As such, it seems, he is asked to host a prospective employee arriving soon to be interviewed to teach another history course (like Ruben). The interviewee is another Jew, Ben Zion Netanyahu. Ruben delves into any information he can find on this interviewee and receives letters both for and against Netanyahu. Beforehand, we learn about Ruben's home life and his anxieties about his job. He is uneasy in both realms; his wife and daughter are adjusting to life outside of the city and visits from both Ruben's and his wife's parents comically bring everyone's feelings about it to li...