- He believes in God. This is a problem.
- He thinks God has a mean sense of humor and that he is often the punchline.
- He enjoys calling God a dick.
- He fears that God will smite him, his wife, his child, his parents, and his siblings.
- He also thinks Moses was the butt of a seriously wicked prank. (Look Moses it's the Promised Land. Psyche, you're dead.)
- He had a very messed up family, but no more messed up than most religiously, fundamentalist families.
- He paid $350/hour for a psychiatrist.
- He needed it.
- He tried very hard to be a devout Jew when he wasn't shoplifting, hoarding pornography, and smoking pot.
- He is the poster child of Jewish guilt.
- He finally found a woman who could laugh with him and love him despite his debilitating neuroses.
- And they lived happily ever after but were shunned by his crazy family.
Perhaps my most favorite part of the book is what Auslander had written on his son, Paix's first birthday cake. It reads:
Happy birthday, Paix, from Mommy, Daddy, Harley, Duke, and no one else in our families because they are bitter miseries who'd rather drag us into the morass of their bleak, tragic lives than share for a moment in our joy. And many more. (p. 306)
Perhaps he should have been named tsouris instead of shalom. But it's cute he named his son peace too. Hopefully he'll have been luck with it.
ReplyDelete