Musical Moment: And Other Stories

YOUNG MEN DISCOVERING the magic of evil and the beauty of sin are the subjects of these novellas and stories by the author of The Way To the Cats (Steerforth Press, 1994). In the title story a boy repays his mother and his violin for all of the trouble they have caused him. His mother becomes his arch enemy, and in their war he wins his manhood. In "Between Night and Dawn," Yigal, the fascistic youth leader at an ROTC-like summer camp, initiates a eucalyptus planting contest among the other boys that culminates in an episode of precocious sexual abandonment. Rites of passage and the erosion of innocence are the prominent themes in all of these stories, but in the hands of Kenaz each takes its unsentimental turn. The themes and richness of these coming-of-age tales will bring to mind the works of such masters as James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and Isaac Babel. Much like Schubert’s "Musical Moment," so do Kenaz’s stories become like a musical moment, staying and expanding in the reader’s mind long after the last page has been read.