cover image The Doorposts of Your House and On Your Gates

The Doorposts of Your House and On Your Gates

Jacob Bacharach. Liveright, $15.95 ISBN 978-1-63149-174-0

It’s the 1980s and, while in synagogue, New York architect Abbie Mayer hears the voice of God speaking to him, which causes him to pack up and move to Pittsburgh. Or maybe the move is really engendered by the fact that Abbie got his mistress pregnant and is seeking a fresh start with his wife, Sarah. Motivations such as these are muddled in a novel that is shot through with vagueness. In Pittsburgh, Abbie becomes involved in a land grab scheme with his sister, Veronica. Some time later, 38-year-old Isabel moves to Pittsburgh to escape a failed relationship and meets Abbie’s gay son, Isaac. As Isabel insinuates herself into the lives of Abbie and his family, past and present collide, but no plot detail is ever really clear. The novel takes incisively limned characters and sharp insights into civic corruption and embeds them in what is supposed to be a contemporary retelling of the biblical story of Abraham, patriarch of the Jews. But it’s really just a strained account of real estate shenanigans gone wrong, adding up to little. Of course, Bacharach (The Bend of the World) furthers the biblical allusions by including a scene where Abbie goes after Isaac with a knife, but in the end, the only sacrifice made here is the reader’s time spent on this frustratingly incoherent novel. [em](Mar.) [/em]