After the publication of his first novel,

The Bohemians-hailed as "stunning"

by The New York Times and found "erotic

and wickedly funny" by The Washington

Post-Alan Cheuse was heralded as an

important and resounding new voice in

fiction. Now, as the comments on the back

jacket attest, Mr. Cheuse follows with an

even more astonishing novel.

The unlikely setting for The Grandmothers

Club is a neighborhood soda fountain,

where, over a succession of meetings, Mrs.

Bloch, the elderly mother of a powerful

former rabbi turned businessman, reveals to

her friend the disquieting saga of her son s

life. The reader hears of Emmanuel Bloch s

dramatic rise from the ghetto and his sub-

sequent fall-struck down by desires that he

cannot control and women whom he can-

not understand.

But the book is far more than the story of

one man, one mother s son-it is a broad

study of the human character and human

spirit, laced with wisdom and comic obser-

vation. The book s epic proportions, and the

energy of its narrative, immediately qualify

it as a tour de force.