A Blessing on the Moon, by Joseph Skibell

Retrieved from: someone else's library
(1565121791), 1997
Suggested by: not sure; it was on my list of good books to read
My Ratings: 9 Merit, 10 Interest, 9 Fun

A funny book about the Holocaust? A ghost story about a man shot by German soldiers? A fable about the disappearance and retrieval of the moon? The revenge of the dead Jew, which entails kicked the dismembered head of the soldier who shot him through the forest? All that, in one book?

The story starts with Chaim being shot and left, with the rest of the Jews in his Polish village, in a pit. He immediately climbs out and goes back to his house, where Polish peasants have moved in lock, stock and barrel. Once he realizes he's dead, he isn't particularly upset with the new 'owners,' although he wishes they took better care of his family's things.

In the course of the story, he finds his rabbi has become a crow, his spirit can't be calmed by petty revenge, he resurrects the rest of the dead villagers and commences a walk across Poland with them. They find a lovely hotel which seems like it may be The World to Come, but isn't. He almost meets his first wife, dead for 25 years, and with the help of two old Hasidic Jews, he digs up the moon after the fall of Communism and places it back in the sky where it belongs.

One of the most creative and funny books I've read in awhile. I love Chaim, but he makes me crazy. He loves his family--with whom he is all-too-briefly reunited, in spite of their being scattered across Poland at the beginning of the war--but they also make him crazy. In fact, this is a bit of the Exodus story retold. The central question--WHY? WHY US?--is never answered, but then how can it be?

Great book. One to read again perhaps.