Title: Feel Want, Taste Grief, Need Friends
Author: Ivan Prashker
Publisher: Inks and Bindings, LLC
ISBN: 979-8886153910
Pages: 280
Genre: Memoir / Nonfiction / Short Stories
Reviewer: Barbara Bamberger Scott

Read Book Review

Noted author Ivan Prashker here offers a series of recollections from his personal, indeed dramatic, experiences, related to his Jewish heritage, his literary-based career, his many friendships and his lengthy, loving marriage years. Compiled in five parts, his work begins when, as a college student of Jewish heritage, he meets Alex Novograd, who is not Jewish, but like Prashker, is a baseball addict who plays in their local New York City neighborhood and soon shows himself to be as much of a social misfit as the author. Their connection centers in part on recent family deaths, that of Prashker’s grandfather and Novo’s mother. When he learns that Will, a military comrade, has died, it arouses feelings regarding the Ku Klux Klan, of which Will’s family were members, and stirs his sense of forgiveness for someone he knew to be a loyal companion. HIs wife’s birthday gift of a beagle  named Duke occasions further sweet contacts along with the extreme embarrassment of having to take his pet to a funeral, where the canine barks, then howls, near the newly dug grave. Aaron, the author’s neurologist, introduces him to his mother who details her three horrifying years as a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz. A career as an editor at Magazine Management leads to deep delving with someone destined to become a widely acclaimed writer who states that he wished Prashker was his son, giving him “renewed strength.” 

These and many other episodes, acquaintances and revelations are presented with humor, sensual undertones, and frank, believable dialogues. Throughout his winding journey of discovery and mental and emotional expansion, Prashker repeatedly lauds his dear wife Elaine, who, from the beginning, is seen by readers as anguishing in an assisted living facility. His succinct, artfully drawn sagas conclude with a heartfelt eulogy for “my cherished Elaine.”

Prashker’s literary works comprise many short stories like those arrayed here, along with the nonfiction Duty, Honor, Vietnam: Twelve Men of West Point, and have been published in such established literary outlets as, among others, Harper’s Magazine, Playboy, McCall’s and Gallery. A noteworthy aspect of his lively artistic approach, as evident in this latest offering, is that he eschews personal opinions and personal philosophizing, allowing his readers to draw their own conclusions. Thus, it is certain that his unquestionable human understanding and vivid individual portraits so subtly arrayed in each emotive story, will provide focus for group discussion and individual attention, affecting anyone for whom wordsmithing is both a challenge and a goal.  Honest and deeply human, these stories invite readers to recognize pieces of their own experiences in the joys, disappointments, struggles, and unexpected moments that make life meaningful.