Have Your Say

The feeling of coming upon fictional characters whose trials and tribulations closely mirror your own is, to be honest, somewhat creepy. Here I am, a formerly black-velvet-kippa Orthodox boy from New York City, who left the flock and became an unadorned human being, who flew across the continent and there ended up falling for a blonde British expatriate with a Ph.D. in English. In contrast to the fictional Howard, though, the tribalism that reared its ugly head wasn’t my own; it was the prospect of disinheritance and familial excommunication that set the dark clouds in motion over our budding relationship. Better now than later, we said, and that was that, our paths diverged. I should’ve known better, of course, but I convinced myself that these people–”my” people, who quoted Sartre and insisted that their children get a decent higher education–could possibly, possibly be rational through and through. How wrong I was. 

Thank you, Chandler, for exploring that which we’d prefer not to speak about, the uncomfortable truths that have yet to be admitted and dealt with.

Martin Bienenstock

Vancouver, BC