Welcome back to Buchanan’s Best Books, your place to discover fabulous literary gems! This week I’ve got reasons #5,692 and #5,693 to love reading novels…
They help us understand ourselves (a lifelong quest for most of us), and they illuminate our relationships. Both concepts are broad and both are mind-boggling. How can a writer who doesn’t know you capture your experience and open your eyes to something that’s been there all along? That’s the magic of books a.k.a. “soul portals.”
Michael Laser’s Eulogy (Regal House Publishing, 2022) is one of those magical portals, a window to the soul.
A Journey Toward Understanding
Eulogy unfolds quietly and thoughtfully. And while Laser’s brushstrokes are subtle and impressionistic, they pack an emotional punch. The book begins with death but ends–and don’t worry, you’ll never get a spoiler in my reviews–with a new life. Ken Weintraub, the protagonist, thinks he knew his father, Morris Weintraub, as well as anyone. He saw his father as an average and pleasant man, remarkable because he was so unremarkable.
But Morris Weintraub turns out to be someone else, someone his son didn’t know as well as he thought he did. Morris had secrets, and Ken digs in to uncover them.
Like Ken, we all tend to pigeonhole our fathers. We know what we experienced in the relationship and what we observed or gleaned from others. Even so, it’s never a complete portrait. Why is it such a surprise, then, to learn that our own fathers are multi-dimensional?
Eulogy unfolds the truth about Morris Weintraub as Ken travels to interview his father’s closest friends and others. Solving the mystery of his father’s secret leads Ken to a place of deeper understanding of who his father really was.
With grace and elegance, Michael Laser takes a look at racism, men’s friendships, and the father-son connection. Plus he explores why we believe what we do about others.
Meet the Author
Michael Laser has written several books for adults and younger readers. He lives in New Jersey with his wife. They have a son and a daughter who are in their twenties.
I asked Michael about Eulogy and his answers make me love the book even more. I think you’ll enjoy getting to know this author…
1. Why did you write this book?
ML: The inspiration came from two different sources. The first: when I delivered a eulogy for my father many years ago, I thought I would get through it calmly—his health had been in declining for a long time—but I found midway that I couldn’t speak. My throat locked. That unexpected emotion was a powerful moment for me, and years later, I decided to write a novel that began there. The other inspiration came from a book called Beautiful Souls, about ordinary people who behave bravely in a crisis, risking their own safety. I wanted to tell the story of a person who does exactly that—but I chose to tell it from the perspective of a son who never knew about his unassuming father’s long-ago heroism. In the book, the son delivers his father’s eulogy; a few hours later, while going through a box of his father’s belongings, he learns that his father spent three years in prison. He then has to dig to find out how this could have happened. It’s a difficult journey.
2. What was the most rewarding aspect to writing it?
ML: My favorite part of writing any book or story is the brainstorming that comes before the writing. Unlike many authors, I rarely set down a first sentence until I know a fair amount about what’s going to happen. Throwing ideas onto the page with total freedom is exciting. (At this stage, it could still be a masterpiece!) Shaping those first thoughts into a story is always a pleasure.
Research is also fascinating, though I dread it, because I’m basically shy. Every time I write something, I have to cold-call strangers who know things I need to know, or else pester friends, which I’d rather not do. But almost everyone I’ve ever asked for help has generously answered my questions, and those conversations are fascinating. They also supply surprising facts that I never would have invented on my own.
To answer the question you didn’t ask, my least favorite part of the job is the first draft. It terrifies and depresses me. Every time, I feel incompetent. (How did I ever write those other books?!) What a relief it is to get to the end, so I can go back and start the repairs.
3. Did anything change drastically from your first draft to the final version?
ML: Yes, but it’s subtle. The basic outlines of the story never changed, but comments from two readers—a friend and a publisher who turned the book down—forced me to address certain weaknesses in the story. It works much better as a result. (I can’t say more without giving away the plot.)
4. What do you hope is the take-away for readers?
ML: There’s no short answer for this. Even though the book is short, everything in it is complicated. I wanted the narrator to be a mature, intelligent, decent person–someone whose company the reader would enjoy. He turned out to be a good man, but more depressed than I’d planned.
Also, we learn many things about the narrator’s father, but much remains uncertain. To me, this feels like reality: because so much of our parents’ inner lives remains forever mysterious to us.
There’s more–about parenthood, and work, and inconvenient desires–but you get the idea. Nothing is simple, at least not in my world.
You can purchase Eulogy at this link. And you can learn more about his other books on his website.
But before you go…Tell us in the comments if you’ve ever delivered a eulogy and who it was for.