October 16, 2007
Review of Michael Simon's 'The Last Jew Standing'
There’s a lot to like about Michael Simon’s new novel, “The Last Jew Standing.”
The book follows the travails of Dan Reles, a Jewish homicide detective at the Austin Police Department. He’s got a promising career, a new house, a beautiful wife and young son.
One night, Dan’s long-lost father — whom Dan has not spoken with or heard from in 15 years — shows up on his doorstep with a Russian prostitute in tow. What’s more, the elder Reles may be connected to a New York murder.
This latter bit of knowledge forces the young detective into a delicate balancing act: he’s got to decide whether to arrest his father for murder or to believe him when he declares his innocence.
If Dan Reles waits too long and his father turns out to be guilty, it would make the detective an accessory to the crime. As a law enforcement officer, he’s supposed to report everything he knows immediately or he could be charged with aiding and abetting a criminal. Do you think he’s nervous when a local FBI agent starts asking questions about the murder?
Ah, but that’s just the beginning of this splendid crime thriller. Simon expands the scope of the story to include a sadistic Jewish gangster and then he keeps the plot twists coming. There’s a citywide blackout, looting and rioting and the threat of a gas explosion that would devastate Austin.
I thought the story was heading into murky territory when this Jewish gangster — the macher — manages to have the city’s electricity shut off. But, Simon writes with aplomb and he makes it work.
The macher is a 72-year-old Jewish gangster from Elmira, N.Y. named Sam Zelig. He’s more Bugsy Siegel than Meyer Lansky. Actually, he’s what Bugsy would have become if he had lived long enough to need Viagra.
To put it bluntly, Zelig has become completely unhinged after losing his ability to perform. And, he’s after the Russian prostitute who once worked for him but absconded with the elder Reles. It’s more the principal of the thing than anything else.
And although Zelig is a Jewish senior citizen, he’s not someone you want to tangle with. He’s tough, smart and, if he can’t do something himself, he’ll hire someone who can. Case in point: plunging the city into a blackout and finding a way to create a tremendous gas explosion.
You don’t find many books out there like this. Although, it’s ironic that this year Michael Chabon wrote a novel featuring a Jewish detective as the protagonist and Philip Roth wrote one featuring a Jew with impotence.
Of course, Michael Simon couldn’t have known about those books when he wrote his. And, in all fairness, this is Simon’s fourth novel in the Dan Reles series, so the character is not a new invention.
Indeed, a reviewer at the Austin American-Statesman gave Simon some flack for his earlier novels in which some of the Austin cops were portrayed as being racist and connected with the Mob. Because Simon once worked as a parole officer in Austin and he draws on his law enforcement experience in writing his novels, the reviewer said a reader might assume that the Dan Reles books have a ring of truth to them (a charge Simon denies).
I disagree with that assessment. I don’t think readers would confuse Simon’s fiction with the real Austin Police Department. It’s too much of a stretch. But, I know police officers can be sensitive about the way they’re portrayed in books, movies and other works of fiction.
Well, at least Simon doesn’t say they’re impotent. Imagine what all the Jewish gangsters in Elmira must think of ‘The Last Jew Standing.’
Michael Simon’s “The Last Jew Standing