cover image The Family Diamond

The Family Diamond

Edward Schwarzschild, . . Algonquin, $12.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-56512-410-3

T he mostly middle class, Jewish Philadelphians of Schwarzschild's adept story collection (following the debut novel Responsible Men ) lead clannish, semimarginalized existences. The young boy of “No Rest for the Middleman” finds himself, on the holiest day of the Jewish year, a pawn in a questionable deal between his father and two shady businessmen. In “Reunion,” the pregnant Kim exhausts her brother, sister-in-law and dying mother with her irresponsible search for perfect love. The longest and most dramatically satisfying story in the collection, “What to Expect,” tells of early widower Claude, who must let go of his adult son, Larry, as the latter marries and expects a child of his own. Several other stories feature Charlie and Milly Diamond, an elderly married couple facing the indignities of old age together. All the stories are told in a naturalistic style, except for the last, “Irreversible,” in which Charlie and Milly regain their youth to the puzzlement of the other residents at the Spring Garden Retirement Community. The bonds of love are alternately tenuous and tensile in Schwarzschild's acutely observed and quietly affecting stories. (Sept.)