About this ebook
—Liel Leibovitz, editor at large, Tablet Magazine
“[A] wistful and emotionally resonant novel that finds true poetry in teenage life."
—Foreword Reviews
Full of humor, pathos, and pop cultural references, Eugene Nadelman is a tale of young love and American manners in the era of Ronald Reagan and MTV—written in the witty sonnet form of Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin.
It’s 1982, and teenaged Eugene attends his cousin’s bar mitzvah in suburban Philadelphia. There he meets a kindred spirit in the savvy, sensitive Abigail. But when Eugene’s best friend also becomes smitten with Abby, a tragic rivalry ensues and, just as in the Pushkin poem, one character kills another in a duel. (Well, in a Dungeons & Dragons game, in this case.)
Eugene and Abby’s romance deepens against a backdrop of '80s music, fashion, and VHS rentals—with serious world events like AIDS and the Cold War hovering overhead. But when Eugene leaves for sleepaway camp and Abby for Europe, temptations abound, and one question becomes paramount: can their love survive a summer separation?
About the author
Michael Weingrad is the author of American Hebrew Literature: Writing Jewish National Identity in US. He was born and raised in Philadelphia, attending McCall and Masterman public schools. Today he lives in Portland, Oregon where he is a professor of Jewish Studies at Portland State University.
