Tayari's Blog: A Changed Man by Francine Prose

The plot is pretty straight-forward. Vincent, a skin-head, decides to go to work for a human rights organization in order to "save guys like me from turning into guys like me." The organization to which he donates his services is run by Maslow, a Holocaust survivor who is struggling with the consequences of his own fame and his memories.

In A Changed Man, Prose revisits ground covered in one of my favorite of her works, "Guided Tours of Hell." Like the Holocaust survivor-turned-celebrity in that work, Maslow must look at what it means to be famous for having survived genocide. Prose is one of the few authors who is able to examine the life of Holocaust survivors for their richness and complication after WWII is over. She grants her characters full personhood in the here and now, allowing them to be more than merely vessels for memories.

The heart of this story is the family of Bonnie, the divorced mother who must take the former skinhead into her home. Prose's portrait of a woman trying to find her place in a word that has been permanently altered by the break up of her marriage is the sort of image that will stay with a reader long after the novel has been put away. There is one scene when Bonnie, removes her glasses, hoping that this will communicate sexual desire. Such details, such moments remind me that Francine Prose is one of our greatest American writers.

A Changed Man is a book about the way that people genuinely change their lives. It's a story of hope and forgiveness. There is redemption between these pages, but the rewards are both heart-felt and hard-earned.

Here are some links:
NY Magazine Book Review

Newsday

NPR

Entertainment Weekly