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The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah
Jean Meltzer
368 pages
Harlequin Trade Publishing
Amazon/Goodreads/ Bookshop.org
This was one of those books that I decided to read on a whim. I had heard of the author but never read anything by her but her books always seemed like they should appeal to me. I am happy that I made that decision.
The novel, however, was not entirely what I expected. Partially, it was. I knew that Jean Melzer included the trappings of a Jewish upbringing (mine was somewhat nominal but there were elements of it through friends) and those were very “comforting” for lack of a better word. Some of those details made me hungry (nothing like lox and rugelach to rev up my appetite). On the other hand, I was anticipating a very light and fluffy read and while the dialogue was breezy and fast-paced, the novel was much more serious than I expected. We meet a couple, David and Evelyn who were married and divorced but are thrown back together through her work. Evelyn is a workaholic producer who is working on a version of A Christmas Carol. This takes her into dreams or perhaps delusions that correspond to A Christmas Carol, The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah. It was a cute gimmick and I thought perhaps it was going to be a little too cute, but it seemed to work.
I knew pretty much from the beginning how the novel was going to end, although I was a little surprised at how the ending unfolded. Sometimes it bothers me that I know what will happen but I found it comforting here and since the author did not tell us all of the details until close to the end, it worked to know the ending. In fact, I think the reader (well, this reader) would have been angry if it had ended any other way.
I think what I liked most, which was refreshing, was that the two main characters were generally likeably people, albeit with flaws. Lately, I have been reading too many novels with mean people and this was a nice change. Indeed, over the course of the book, I grew to like Evelyn even more, especially when I found out why she felt the way she did. I wanted to give them both hugs at the end. The dialogue also was very natural and light, especially given the seriousness of the content.
I will definitely investigate some of Ms. Meltzer’s other books in the future.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Books for providing me with an advance copy of this novel.
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