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The Believers (novel)
Encyclopedia
The Believers is a novel by Zoë Heller
first published in 2008
. It depicts a left-wing New York
family of grown-ups who have little in common. The patriarch suffers an unexpected stroke
and falls into a coma
, after which each family member tries to continue his own unconventional course in life while at the same time trying to accommodate various revelations about the dying man and assisting and supporting the other family members in their lives.
The motto
of the book—"The challenge of modernity
is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned"—is a quotation from Antonio Gramsci
. It has been noted that The Believers, Heller's third novel, bears no resemblance to her previous book, the successful Notes on a Scandal
(2003
).
, 18 year-old Audrey Howard meets Joel Litvinoff, a prominent leftist lawyer
involved with the civil rights movement
who is on a short visit from the United States. Although Litvinoff is a complete stranger and fourteen years her senior, the two feel a mutual attraction, and when Litvinoff, after they have had sex, half-seriously suggests that Audrey follow him to the United States and become his wife, she takes him up on his offer without hesitation as she feels her chance has come to break away from her unexciting life as a typist in suburban London.
Both Joel and Audrey are Jewish but were raised in non-observant families. When they start their own family in Greenwich Village
, they pride themselves on being atheists
and thus having to fear nothing from death or life thereafter. Audrey bears two girls, Karla and Rosa, and the couple also adopt Lenny, whose mother, a left-wing radical, is serving a long-term prison sentence. Underneath the liberal veneer, however, the Litvinoffs display many of the characteristics of a traditional family: Audrey dedicates her existence to supporting her husband's legal career, turns a blind eye to his many extra-marital affairs, and does not oppose the patriarchal attitudes and behaviour that he exhibits at home. For four decades, their family life develops according to their chosen socialist
agenda, which has its foundation in the ambition to fight injustice, help the weak, and, generally, make the world a better place to live.
In 2002, at age 72, Joel is still active as a successful and charismatic defense lawyer, in his current case representing, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, an Arab American
man accused of being a terrorist
. Rosa, a rather attractive young woman, is a disillusioned revolutionary whose four-year stay in Castro's
Cuba
has alienated her from her socialist principles and has recently made her turn to Orthodox Judaism
for an answer to the fundamental questions of life. She now works with disadvantaged children, although she thoroughly hates this job. Single, she shares a small flat with another young woman who has a more glamorous job and a more carefree outlook on life. Her sister Karla, who has had to fight obesity
since childhood, is a social work
er at a hospital—when she was young she was not encouraged by her parents to be a lawyer like her father—whose marriage to Mike, a labor union
activist, has turned sour and remained childless in spite of her ongoing efforts to become pregnant. Joel and Audrey's adopted son
Lenny has a history of drug abuse
and a girlfriend called Tanya but no other assets to speak of; the family suspect that he might be using drugs again.
During a court session, Joel has a stroke from which he will never recover. Unconscious at first, he is hospitalised and falls into a coma. All the family members gather around the patient but there is nothing they can do to improve his condition. After several months have passed, Audrey is approached by the doctors who inform her that now would be the appropriate time to turn off all life-sustaining equipment
. Audrey is furious and does not give her consent although at the same time she realizes her hypocrisy
: terminating his life would be in accordance with a mutual agreement they made long before his stroke. Eventually, a few weeks after her refusal, Joel contracts an infection and dies.
Shortly after Joel's hospitalisation, Audrey meets Berenice Mason, a young, unattractive African American
freelance
photographer and visual artist who claims that Joel is the father of her four year-old son Jamil. Audrey is incredulous at first but after seeing written proof realizes the woman is telling the truth. For Audrey, this revelation is more distressing than her husband's illness as it occurs to her how little their relationship has been based on mutual trust and honesty:
While their father is dying the Litvinoff children try to pursue their own happiness. When Lenny collapses during a family gathering and admits to taking drugs again, he is sent to the country for the summer, far away from the lure of substance abuse, to stay with a friend of Audrey. Meanwhile, Rosa tries to satisfy her newfound curiosity about Orthodox Judaism by spending a weekend with a rabbi
's family in Monsey
. Uncertain about her future, at around the same time she also has a date
with a former colleague from university. Although it is soon obvious to her that the man has become a self-obsessed bore, she has sex with him, only never to see him again. At the close of the novel, after her father's death, Rosa is preparing her departure for Jerusalem, to study the Torah
at a yeshiva
.
Unbeknownst to her husband Mike, Karla's dead-end marriage will not last much longer. While outwardly complying with her spouse's wish to adopt a child, Karla starts an on-and-off affair with the overweight Arab American owner of the newspaper shop at the hospital where she works. At the end of the novel she prematurely leaves the post-memorial reception held in honour of her father to meet her lover and possibly to remain with him.
against faith
", "at heart an American novel: a larger, more considered, layered and utterly assured study of a family driven by political passion whose personal lives refuse to comply with prescribed ideology
", and simply "a brilliant, brilliant book". Critics agree that it defies comparison with Notes on a Scandal to all intents and purposes, and that it is rich in character development.
Reviewers and critics frequently note Heller's "penchant for unlikeable characters", which is sometimes considered "one of her most interesting trademarks" but is also felt to be an annoying trait of her writing. Heller has retorted by stating that
Lionel Shriver
notes that the character of Joel Litvinoff may be modelled on William Kunstler
.
Zoë Heller
Zoë Kate Hinde Heller is an English journalist and novelist.-Early life:Heller was born in North London as the youngest of four children of German-Jewish immigrant Lukas Heller, who was a successful screenwriter. Her mother was instrumental in keeping up the Labour Party's "Save London Transport...
first published in 2008
2008 in literature
The year 2008 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 1 - In the 2008 New Year Honours, Hanif Kureishi , Jenny Uglow , Peter Vansittart and Debjani Chatterjee are all rewarded for "services to literature".*June 15 - Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times...
. It depicts a left-wing New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
family of grown-ups who have little in common. The patriarch suffers an unexpected stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
and falls into a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
, after which each family member tries to continue his own unconventional course in life while at the same time trying to accommodate various revelations about the dying man and assisting and supporting the other family members in their lives.
The motto
Motto (disambiguation)
A motto is a phrase meant to formally describe the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization.It can also refer to:* Epigraph , a sentence, phrase, or word, prefixed to an essay, chapter, or the like, suggestive of its subject matter* Aphorism, a short, suggestive expression...
of the book—"The challenge of modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned"—is a quotation from Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...
. It has been noted that The Believers, Heller's third novel, bears no resemblance to her previous book, the successful Notes on a Scandal
Notes on a Scandal
Notes on a Scandal is a 2003 drama novel by Zoë Heller. It is about a female teacher at a London comprehensive school who begins an affair with an underage pupil...
(2003
2003 in literature
The year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Peter Ackroyd - The Clerkenwell Tales*Atsuko Asano - No...
).
Plot summary
In 1962, at a party in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 18 year-old Audrey Howard meets Joel Litvinoff, a prominent leftist lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
involved with the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
who is on a short visit from the United States. Although Litvinoff is a complete stranger and fourteen years her senior, the two feel a mutual attraction, and when Litvinoff, after they have had sex, half-seriously suggests that Audrey follow him to the United States and become his wife, she takes him up on his offer without hesitation as she feels her chance has come to break away from her unexciting life as a typist in suburban London.
Both Joel and Audrey are Jewish but were raised in non-observant families. When they start their own family in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, they pride themselves on being atheists
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
and thus having to fear nothing from death or life thereafter. Audrey bears two girls, Karla and Rosa, and the couple also adopt Lenny, whose mother, a left-wing radical, is serving a long-term prison sentence. Underneath the liberal veneer, however, the Litvinoffs display many of the characteristics of a traditional family: Audrey dedicates her existence to supporting her husband's legal career, turns a blind eye to his many extra-marital affairs, and does not oppose the patriarchal attitudes and behaviour that he exhibits at home. For four decades, their family life develops according to their chosen socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
agenda, which has its foundation in the ambition to fight injustice, help the weak, and, generally, make the world a better place to live.
In 2002, at age 72, Joel is still active as a successful and charismatic defense lawyer, in his current case representing, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, an Arab American
Arab American
An Arab American is a United States citizen or resident of Arab ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage or identity, who identifies themselves as Arab. Arab Americans trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants of the countries comprising the Arab World...
man accused of being a terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
. Rosa, a rather attractive young woman, is a disillusioned revolutionary whose four-year stay in Castro's
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
has alienated her from her socialist principles and has recently made her turn to Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
for an answer to the fundamental questions of life. She now works with disadvantaged children, although she thoroughly hates this job. Single, she shares a small flat with another young woman who has a more glamorous job and a more carefree outlook on life. Her sister Karla, who has had to fight obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
since childhood, is a social work
Social work
Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...
er at a hospital—when she was young she was not encouraged by her parents to be a lawyer like her father—whose marriage to Mike, a labor union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
activist, has turned sour and remained childless in spite of her ongoing efforts to become pregnant. Joel and Audrey's adopted son
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
Lenny has a history of drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
and a girlfriend called Tanya but no other assets to speak of; the family suspect that he might be using drugs again.
During a court session, Joel has a stroke from which he will never recover. Unconscious at first, he is hospitalised and falls into a coma. All the family members gather around the patient but there is nothing they can do to improve his condition. After several months have passed, Audrey is approached by the doctors who inform her that now would be the appropriate time to turn off all life-sustaining equipment
Life support
Life support, in medicine is a broad term that applies to any therapy used to sustain a patient's life while they are critically ill or injured. There are many therapies and techniques that may be used by clinicians to achieve the goal of sustaining life...
. Audrey is furious and does not give her consent although at the same time she realizes her hypocrisy
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....
: terminating his life would be in accordance with a mutual agreement they made long before his stroke. Eventually, a few weeks after her refusal, Joel contracts an infection and dies.
Shortly after Joel's hospitalisation, Audrey meets Berenice Mason, a young, unattractive African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
freelance
Freelancer
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
photographer and visual artist who claims that Joel is the father of her four year-old son Jamil. Audrey is incredulous at first but after seeing written proof realizes the woman is telling the truth. For Audrey, this revelation is more distressing than her husband's illness as it occurs to her how little their relationship has been based on mutual trust and honesty:
While their father is dying the Litvinoff children try to pursue their own happiness. When Lenny collapses during a family gathering and admits to taking drugs again, he is sent to the country for the summer, far away from the lure of substance abuse, to stay with a friend of Audrey. Meanwhile, Rosa tries to satisfy her newfound curiosity about Orthodox Judaism by spending a weekend with a rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
's family in Monsey
Monsey, New York
Monsey is a hamlet , in the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of the state of New Jersey; east of Suffern; south of Airmont and west of Nanuet...
. Uncertain about her future, at around the same time she also has a date
Dating (activity)
Dating is a form of courtship consisting of social activities done by two persons with the aim of each assessing the other's suitability as a partner in an intimate relationship or as a spouse...
with a former colleague from university. Although it is soon obvious to her that the man has become a self-obsessed bore, she has sex with him, only never to see him again. At the close of the novel, after her father's death, Rosa is preparing her departure for Jerusalem, to study the Torah
Torah study
Torah study is the study by Jewish people of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature and similar works, all of which are Judaism's religious texts...
at a yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
.
Unbeknownst to her husband Mike, Karla's dead-end marriage will not last much longer. While outwardly complying with her spouse's wish to adopt a child, Karla starts an on-and-off affair with the overweight Arab American owner of the newspaper shop at the hospital where she works. At the end of the novel she prematurely leaves the post-memorial reception held in honour of her father to meet her lover and possibly to remain with him.
Reviews
The Believers was published to almost unanimously positive reviews. It has been called a "cruelly clever new novel", "an observant and unsentimental family drama that pits rationalismRationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
against faith
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
", "at heart an American novel: a larger, more considered, layered and utterly assured study of a family driven by political passion whose personal lives refuse to comply with prescribed ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
", and simply "a brilliant, brilliant book". Critics agree that it defies comparison with Notes on a Scandal to all intents and purposes, and that it is rich in character development.
Reviewers and critics frequently note Heller's "penchant for unlikeable characters", which is sometimes considered "one of her most interesting trademarks" but is also felt to be an annoying trait of her writing. Heller has retorted by stating that
Lionel Shriver
Lionel Shriver
-Early life and education:Lionel Shriver was born Margaret Ann Shriver on May 18, 1957 in Gastonia, North Carolina, to a deeply religious family . At age 15, she changed her name from Margaret Ann to Lionel because she did not like the name she had been given, and as a tomboy felt that a...
notes that the character of Joel Litvinoff may be modelled on William Kunstler
William Kunstler
William Moses Kunstler was an American self-described "radical lawyer" and civil rights activist, known for his controversial clients...
.
External links
- Skirmishes in the Family Garden Cathleen SchineCathleen SchineCathleen Schine is an American author of several novels, including Rameau's Niece .Her first book was Alice in Bed , which was followed by To The Birdhouse , The Love Letter and The Evolution of Jane . The Love Letter was filmed in 1999...
review from The New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...