A chewish satire
Jonathan Margolis and Sipora Levy meet two prodigious families, one fictional, the other factual
It’s not a joke by any means but a credible horror story — for those of a strong constitution
Mother for Dinner
By Shalom Auslander Picador, £16.99 Reviewed by Jonathan Margolis
Writers are prone to coming up with premises for novels on a regular basis, sometimes several before breakfast, only to dismiss them as ridiculous by the first cup of coffee. So it would be intriguing to know some of Shalom Auslander’s rejected ideas, given that the one-time Charedi’s first novel was about a couple who find an elderly and bad-tempered Anne Frank living in their attic in rural New York, and his second, Mother for Dinner, is about the travails of a community of religious cannibals struggling to survive in an America which, outrageously to them, forbids eating people.
Not that the modern Can-Ams (CannibalAmericans) eat just anyone; only their dead. And when those dead are old and obese, like the matriarch of the protagonist family in Mother for Dinner, they taste disgusting. Bonkers premise aside, Auslander’s brilliantly written, often hilarious but also deeply thoughtful story, riffs on the cultural conflicts within secondand third-generation immigrant families. These range from issues around assimilation to arguments over the minutiae of religious practice.
It’s not hard to assume, given Auslander’s background and everything he’s written to date, plus the fact that the protagonist family are the Seltzers of Brooklyn, NY, that the author is really talking about Jews.
He is and he isn’t. Sure, the dialogue is pure Seinfeld with a side of Woody Allen, but its canvas is more general. I am sure all sorts of religious or pseudoreligious minorities in the US, from the Amish to even the Scientologists, have concerns about assimilation, generation-on-generation strife and, of course, discrimination.
The Seltzer mother, a stickler for tradition who believes everyone is prejudiced against cannibals, has a particular hatred of Jews, whom she calls Sherwoods for being anti-Cannibal. The name is a particularly Ausland-ish reference to Sherwood Schwartz, creator of the long-forgotten TV series Gilligan’s Island, one episode of which contained a comedic depiction of cannibalism.
There is, in Mother for Dinner a quite raw anger against the maintenance of tradition for tradition’s sake. This is expressed by various characters, but most notably by the one likeable Seltzer child, the sweet-natured 27-year-old Zero, the only girl among 12 siblings.
The arguments between the 11 brothers over whether or not to eat the mother in the traditional manner after she dies, prompt Zero — normally a peacemaker — to erupt in a paint-stripping, page-long tirade against tradition as a reason for anyone doing anything:
“So we wear the hats they wore, and we wear the clothes they wore and we eat the foods they ate and we wear little crosses round our necks,” she fulminates, “never stopping to consider that these ancient people we emulate were utterly ignorant of even the most basic knowledge of our world. The average third grader today knows more than they did.”
Mother for Dinner is not a joke by any means (beyond the basic notion). And it is quite a credible horror story, which those of a delicate disposition might do well to avoid. But, for those with a strong constitution — enjoy.