Manhattan Loverboy

A novel of a young man’s adventures in New York City by an author who is “part Lewis Carroll, part Franz Kafka” ( Library Journal ).
 
This tale introduces us to Joey, a New York City graduate student. Brought up by emotionally—and physically—distant adoptive parents, he has no idea what his heritage really is, though he did decide to try being Jewish after being dragged into a mitzvah tank by a Hasid. Now he has worked his way through most of a graduate history program at Columbia University—but when his academic fellowship from a mysterious benefactor is suddenly rescinded, he will be led into a furious and bizarre quest—in a novel from an acclaimed author praised for his ability to blend dark, fantastic satire with genuine human feeling.
 
“Paranoid fantasy and fantastic comedy in the service of social realism . . . At its best, [ Manhattan Loverboy ] assays the grittiest, funkiest urban-magic-realism yet, creating a satirical fiction avidly in search of the truth it’s all too aware is even stranger than itself.” — Downtown
 
“Nersesian renders Gotham’s unique cocktail of wealth, poverty, crime, glamour, and brutality spectacularly . . . But in the end, it is Joey’s search for his own identity that makes this book a winner.” — Rain Taxi Review of Books on East Village Tetralogy