Larry Frost, a British pharmacologist living in Paris, is exuberant, charismatic, and wildly opinionated. He's also convinced he's Jewish - or at least he's long had his hopes. But his search for what he believes is his true identity produces more questions than answers.
In early 2015, following the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, Larry is joined by his sceptical older cousin, Nick Newman. Divorced, separated from his son and desperately trying to understand his own place in the world, Nick is drawn inextricably into Larry's slipstream as they walk the fractured, uneasy, magical streets of Paris.
Then, in November, terrorism strikes the city again. With Paris and the cousins still reeling from the trauma, Larry receives the information he's urgently been seeking: a long-held family secret that will change both their lives forever.
Set against a backdrop of extremism, nationalism and the resurgence of anti-Semitism, Jacob's Advice is a timely exploration of identity, race, family and the inescapable nature of the past.
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My cousin, the well-known pharmacologist Larry Frost, always maintained his three favourite Americans were Jewish men; Bob Dylan, Saul Bellow and Woody Allen. ONE
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(@Unbound_Digital, 20 August 2020, 369 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 28 August via @RandomTTours)
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This is a well-written engaging book. There are a couple of things that put me off a little and it took a while to keep going with the book. The book is only a few chapters long so each chapter is very long. There are few paces for the reader to pause. I would have enjoyed the book a look more if it had been structured better. However, one I adjusted to the structure I enjoyed this book. The book covers many years in the life of the narrator and his cousin Larry, the later against the backdrop of the terrorist attacks in Paris. The setting in Paris is one of the things that drew me to this book. The author does a great job brining the city of lights to life. This is a slow burning book, a book where not a lot happens, not in the dramatic sense anyway but there is a lot of soul-searching and a lot about identity, culture and the like. This isn't quite what I was expecting but a decent read nonetheless.
