BECOMING EMILY NOVAK

In Stein’s slice-of-life novel, a young woman watches her family grow apart over the years.

In the 1980s, 13-year-old Emily Novak lives with her mother, father, and younger brother, Zack. She and her sibling attend a Hebrew school in Oaktown, Connecticut, and attend synagogue on the weekends. Although Emily was once close with her maternal cousins, her mother and aunt had a falling out and now she no longer sees them. This, coupled with the fact that both her maternal grandparents have died, is Emily’s first real experience with the notion that families can break apart. As she and her brother grow older, even they start getting into their own interests; Emily enjoys photography and eventually joins the yearbook committee at school, and her brother starts sneaking out with his friends and getting in trouble. After Zack is brought home by a police officer and let off with a warning for drinking and drug possession, Emily notes that “parents’ trust in her brother had crumpled like a wad of aluminum foil.” As Emily grows older, her relationships with her parents and Zach grow increasingly awkward and distant, but a family crisis manages to bring them together again. Over the course of this novel, Stein ambitiously writes about developments among members of a single clan over the course of decades and how their relationships grow, fracture, and heal. The novel is occasionally difficult to follow, as there are only hints as to when each major scene is set. Specific years are mentioned occasionally, as are signifiers, such as the mother using a paper calendar and Emily using a rotary phone, but readers may wish that the author simply provided dates in chapter headings. The work is told from Emily’s perspective, but her attention is so often on her brother that readers may find that her own story feels underdeveloped. Still, the struggles of the family as a whole remain compelling throughout.

An unevenly executed but often engaging family saga.