The New York Times on Shalom Auslander's "staggeringly nervy" novel Hope: A Tragedy

"Other fiction writers have gotten this fresh with Anne Frank. But they don’t get much funnier.... He is an absurdist with a deep sense of gravitas. He brings to mind Woody Allen, Joseph Heller and — oxymoron here — a libido-free version of Philip Roth... It’s a tall order for Mr. Auslander to raise an essentially comic novel to this level of moral contemplation. Yet Hope: A Tragedy succeeds shockingly well." Read more...