I knew that I was onto something good from the moment that picked up Nathan Englander’s Ministry of Special Cases. I bought it at The Faulkner House bookstore in New Orleans. As I was checking out, the clerk congratulated me on purchase, “Great book. You are going to LOOOOOOOOOOve this.” Thanks, bro. Then, like two weeks later, BGB’s Nitro posted a glowing review.

The book is similar, thematically, to a book that I read earlier this year, Daniel Alarcon’s Lost City Radio. Both take place in South American countries torn by endless civil wars. Both tell the story of the people caught between the alternating horrors of the terror from the left and the goon squads on the right. Both books deal with the disappearance of loved ones by the ruling regime and the holes left in the lives of the people who remain. That said, the books are also entirely different.

TMoSC is also about the irreparable that families can inflict upon themselves. It is about attempting to re-write the past, and the lies that we tell ourselves in order to survive. The question of identity is central to the book as well. What makes us who we are? Our birth? Our class? Our appearance? Religion? And can any of those influences be changes in any meaningful and permanent way?

Luckily there are also some glimpses of humor that keep things from running aground. A plastic surgeon, in particular, livens up every scene in which he appears, no matter how dismal.  This is not a knee-slapper by any means, but it is not a pit of bottomless sorrow either.

It’s a powerful book, and it stayed with me after I finished. It is definitely one of those books that send you to WikiPedia early and often to fill in the back story concerning history and place. Other than seeing Evita, I was not particularly well schooled in the political history of Argentina. I was especially surprised to learn that some of the brutality in the country occurred during my lifetime. I also thought that it was interesting that the mothers of the disappeared continue to march weekly in the capitol in remembrance of the disappeared - more than 20 years after the regime in question fell. (Listen to Englander’s interview with Michael Silverblatt for more).

And don’t forget: Nathan Englander will be reading at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta (MJCCA) Book Festival on Wed, November 14. Don’t worry. I’ll remind you.