Jacob's Ladder

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Jacob Glassman, the hero of Montreal writer Joel Yanofsky’s first
novel, almost succeeds in getting through life without making decisions.
He still lives in his deceased parents’ house just north of Montreal,
and he ghostwrites a psychology column for a suburban newspaper hardly
anyone reads. Jacob excels, in fact, in moving in small circles,
allowing his circumscribed world to do with him what it will. There is,
however, Hope in his life—specifically, Hope Biehnstock, the woman for
whom he yearns, even while he is having an affair with his best
friend’s wife.

Besides dealing with two women, Jacob also has to deal with Joseph
Alter, the rabbinical student across the street. Joseph drives a
converted van that he calls his “Mitzvah mobile” and phones Jacob
daily, leaving oddly apocalyptic messages on his machine: “I know you
are there, Glassman, but never mind. I will leave my message, as you
request. Here it is: ‘Betrayal is not such a terrible sin. Not when it
is expected.’ ”

The journal format in which much of this novel is written is well
suited to the complications that begin to visit themselves on Jacob’s
life. While his self-deprecating humor wears a bit thin in places, Jacob
remains a sympathetic, well-rounded protagonist.