The war between Israel and Hamas feels so all-consuming, that it was a nice break to read the well-written novel Adam Unrehearsed by Don Futterman, set in Queens in 1970. Adam is an almost bar mitzvah boy, and his coming of age is set against the background of antisemitism (some things never change), the Soviet Jewry movement, and those cringe-worthy moments of awkwardness we all remember from our youth.
Twelve-year-old Adam has just started junior high in a giant Queens high school that has 1,800 students on triple shifts. My own high school on Long Island had 800 students in each class, and I remember that feeling of being totally overwhelmed by the number of students and the different groups.
Futterman writes: There was a war going on in the corridors between a black gang and rival white gangs. Busloads of students arrived from the South Bronx every day, most of them black, supposedly to be integrated into the school. But in practice, they were shunted into the Opportunity Classes – the OC – to mingle with a few local underachievers.
The Italians called the blacks the N-word, a word outlawed in Adam’s house on pain of a literal mouthwash with bar soap.
I have to admit that my favorite character was not the protagonist Adam but the Romanian-born Orthodox cantor who is trying to find his way in the US. Despite Adam’s clear lack of musical talent, the cantor is convinced that Adam will be a star at his bar mitzvah when he chants the Torah portion.
As in the Conservative shul I grew up in, the bar mitzvah boys learn just a few verses from the Torah reading (the maftir), and then chant the haftarah from the Prophets. But in the novel, the cantor, who comes from an Orthodox background, wants more for Adam, his star pupil.
The Cantor was on a personal mission to rouse the congregation of lawyers, doctors, store owners, accountants, insurance agents, and even one assemblyman (although not representing their district) to vigorous prayer. The Cantor was going to roar his way into heaven and take everyone with him. Adam was untapped potential Exhibit A and would prove how much a child could master.
A semi-autobiographical account of growing up Jewish in Queens
Futterman says the novel is semi-autobiographical.
“Much of the story and some central characters are wholly invented, but there are settings, like the shul and school, drawn from life” he told The Jerusalem Report. “There are incidents which happened to me or to people I knew, if not always the way they’re described, and characters inspired by real people, but not exactly them either. Adam is a more worldly and aware version of myself, while hopefully still a convincing 12-year-old.”
Like Adam, the writer grew up in Queens, so several pivotal scenes in the novel take place on the subway.
“As Queens boys, we identified as New York City kids, very much not as suburbanites, aware that Queens was still growing and newer than Manhattan – ‘the City’ at the end of the 7 [subway] line,” he said. “I grew up in Flushing, so I have first-hand experience of what it was like during this fraught and exhilarating time.”
Futterman is also a storyteller, although this is his first novel.
“The process of writing was thrilling and demanding,” he said. “I was working through many drafts to balance the truth of what I remembered, what I imagined, and what I wanted to say, with the needs of the plot and the places my characters chose to go, sometimes seemingly on their own.”
It’s well worth following those characters. Adam Unrehearsed is a great read and highly recommended. ■
- Adam Unrehearsed
- Don Futterman
- Wicket Son, 2023
- 320 pages; $28.99