The Barnes & Noble Review Because the Night, Hopkins matches wits with a criminal mastermind in a bloody battle that will push the already unstable investigator "beyond the beyond."
Those who know Doctor John "The Night Tripper" Havilland see him as a self-made spiritual guru, a maverick psychologist who caters to those at the extremes of Southern California society -- from the disaffected rich to the impoverished poor. But when Hopkins, investigating a botched liquor store robbery that left three dead, runs across Havilland in his inquiries, he too gets pulled into the doctor's evil plans. A master of manipulation and mind control, Havilland quickly finds Hopkins's weakness: beautiful women in need of protection. With the help of drop-dead-gorgeous prostitute in his thrall, the deranged doctor draws Hopkins into a winner-take-all match of wits that includes missing cops, brainwashed killers -- and lots of dead people.
Set on the sleazy streets of Los Angeles and featuring a plethora of unsavory characters -- prostitutes, drug fiends, pimps, thugs, psychos, et al. -- Ellroy's three Hopkins novels (Blood on the Moon, Because the Night, and Suicide Hill ) are archetypal contemporary crime fiction. Ingeniously narrated in tightly woven, brutally realistic vignettes and filled with profoundly moving (and sometimes sardonic) metaphors and symbolism. Because the Night is as much crime fiction as it is literary fiction. Intense, abrasive, and compelling, this is Ellroy at his very best. Paul Goat Allen
In a provocative call to action, Dershowitz argues that American Jewry is in danger of extinction by the middle of the next century, because of skyrocketing rates of intermarriage and assimilation, combined with low birth rates. In order to survive, "Judaism must become less tribal, less ethnocentric, less exclusive, less closed-off, less defensive, less xenophobic and less clannish," asserts this Harvard Law School professor, lawyer and prolific author (Chutzpah ). His most original proposal calls for an overhaul of Jewish education to make classes and study groups more accessible, widespread and relevant to secular Jews who are largely ignorant of Jewish history and culture. He advocates further that Jews become more welcoming of the non-Jewish spouse in intermarriage. Religious Jews, he adds, must accept the validity of secular Jews who reject ritual but embrace Judaism as an evolving civilization. Although Dershowitz believes that institutionalized anti-Semitism has all but disappeared, he offers suggestions as to how Jews can monitor and oppose bigotry among the militia movement, Holocaust deniers, African American extremists and the religious right. His thoughtful, unsentimental analysis of the future prospects of American Jewry deserves close attention.
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Many people know of high-profile lawyer and Harvard Law School professor Dershowitz from the well-mined stories of his defense of celebrities from Claus von Bulow to O.J. Simpson. In this work, Dershowitz switches gears and talks about a subject closer to home: Jewish identity and destiny, previously touched on in his autobiography, Chutzpah (LJ 6/1/91). Dershowitz feels that Jewish identity is slowly dissolving in our American culture. Jews have been busy defining themselves in too negative a sense: anti-Semitism has been a rallying cry. He feels that American Jews, even agnostics like himself, have to reawaken to the treasures of Jewish culture and tradition. His call to action has some echoes of an earlier book, Leonard J. Fein's Where Are We?: The Inner Life of American Jews (LJ 5/15/88). What makes this offering so compulsively readable is Dershowitz's clear writing style and bountiful use of Jewish humor to illustrate his points. His prescription for change is likely to provoke disagreement and debate. Libraries serving a Jewish clientele should be sure to purchase.-Paul Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., Ill.
