Edie Meidav

Highly recommendable. Inspiring, even. I'd never heard of Ms. Meidav before picking this one up for three bucks or so on Kindle, but she's got what all good writers work their entire working lives to get: her own voice. Her sentences are long and fluid and, at the same time, full of odd little tics: anachronisms, an almost European formality, odd words you might get your mind stuck on in the most pleasant way imaginable. These stories, even the short ones, beg for immediate rereading. Her range of subjects and settings is prodigious (Cuba to pre-war Eastern Europe to California and back), but elaborated with an attention to detail that makes you think that a serious amount of research or personal experience went into them. The two essays -- in which the author discusses her father's long, weird journey of a life and her own vagabonding around Europe, more or less seems to confirm this. It seems that anybody with an MFA can put out a book of short stories on this or that small press these days, but "Kingdom of the Young" really is much better than the average.… (altro)

This book is utterly ridiculous. This author is one of those people who is just so self-satisfied with their ability to say in 40 words what actually can be said in 10. This book is a huge bunch of self-indulgent b.s. - she is just so pleased with her literary gymnastics. I can't stand pretentious books like this where it's like there is some sort of inside joke and somehow if you don't get that then you are somehow "less"!!! Whew....do you get that I can't stand this book? Alot?
#Edited# I changed my rating on this tripe from one star to zero stars - not sure why this didn't occur to me before. If it was possible I would give this book a negative star rating. By the way if you are ever interested in a pretentious, no-talent author conducting a condescending, ego-maniacal master class on the "state" of American fiction, just ask this hack to join your book group and she will be happy to spread her own personal brand of lunacy all over your group. Also if you ever need to cross-reference her name to look her up, make sure you look under Mark Twain or Herman Melville because this woman is under the delusion that she is in the same class of writer as they- her words not mine- Shania "Dr. Seuss put to music" Twain perhaps but certainly not Mark Twain. If she hadn't been so cowardly and deleted her post in the book group that I was unfortunate enough to encounter her in, her mania would still be out there for all to see, but apparently she not only lacks talent but character as well. My deep condolences to anyone who suffers through this book.… (altro)

Crawl Space (purchased hardcover)

Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

5.0 out of 5 stars An Enduring Achievement, December 8, 2005
By Michael Ravitch (New York, NY) The enduring accomplishment of this novel is the creation of Emile Poulquet, a fascinating character like no other in contemporary literature. Meidav boldly brings us into the mind of a functionary of the French occupation who coolly sent hundreds to their death during World War II. Poulquet is repulsive at times, sly and funny at others, but he is never banal. She does not shrink from showing the extent of his ugliness, but she also makes her fugitive from justice oddly sympathetic. He is vulnerable, imaginative, passionate and horribly self-deluded. His justifications for his actions are comically absurd, but the exploration of his self-loathing is so penetrating, he comes to seem one of us, a very human monster. This is a courageous book; Meidav insists on moral complexity, and forces us to confront our own capacity for betrayal & cowardice. Crawlspace is delightful as well as sobering.

By Randy Kasten (Oakland CA Ms. Meidav has convincingly told the story of a man of another generation, another culture and another moral system. Each thought, feeling and moment presented to the reader is supported by genuine evidence, including recollection of past events. Those past events are often selected with such a keen sense of their significance and with such vividness that reading the novel has a wonderfully eerie quality.

The novel ties into truths far beyond the words on the page and invites--almost compels--the reader to think. None of this is achieved at the expense of telling an interesting story that is unfolding in the present moment, and through this effective duality of past and present, the author achieves a meaningful exploration of morality, history, culture, the human mind, and most of all the human heart. It is a book worthy of reading more than once and its release in hardcover is an appropriate acknowledgement of its durability.

By Las Trampas "Suburban Trapper" (Berkeley, CA United States) If books were sold according to how good they were, you'd have to lay out at least a hundred bucks for this sucker. Fortunately that's not the case. Not a fast paced thriller, this book takes the time to do it right. The one big disadvantage you'll suffer from if you read it is that most everything else you've ever read (and probably ever will read)is going to seem like cheap junk. That's OK, that devilish little bargain is well worth it.… (altro)