MOST FAMOUS SHORT FILM OF ALL TIME

Lieberman presents a literary novel about a man in crisis.

It’s the 2010s, and Lev Ockenshaw is a 29-year-old transgender man living in Boston and working at a company that makes security cameras. He’s not too excited about the job; what garners his interest instead is Chad Goeing, a man who died in 1900 and left behind an unpublished work called The Nature of Time. His official cause of death is unknown, which prompts Lev to do some investigating—and obsessing. Then Chad appears to Lev as a ghost. This is, however, not the only thing on Lev’s mind; he has a tumultuous friendship with a trans man named Stanley. For the most part, the two get along swimmingly until an incident involving a 1998 Ford Taurus. Back at Lev’s job, he receives a cryptic email about the company that reads, in part: “You are all being investigated now to account for your crimes.” Lev tries to bring this to the attention of his boss, but the response is tepid at best. Lucky for Lev, as he tries to unravel various mysteries, he also forms a bond with his co-worker Aparna. At one point, Lev, Stanley, and Aparna wind up swapping stories around a campfire in an homage of sorts to the 1990 Nickelodeon TV show Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Interspersed throughout these and other events are many heady conversations and observations involving a wide range of topics, including the philosophy of René Descartes, the Talmud, and the talking toy Teddy Ruxpin. There’s a portion considering “Rumpelstiltskin” as “a story that assumes cisgender people’s fear of transgender people,” for example, and frequent references to Abraham Zapruder’s film of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination (to which the title refers). Lev’s saga unfolds in a conversational manner, and as absurd as the hero’s adventures may seem at times, Lieberman uses them to form real connections with readers. For example, although Lev’s spat with Stanley is silly, Stanley’s absence for portions of the book has emotional impact, as when Lev says simply, “I wish I could call Stanley.” But the story, for all of its philosophical discussion, is not without its humor. At one point, for example, wild turkeys congregate behind Lev’s car not long before Thanksgiving, and he comments on how they seem to say, “We are not afraid of your car…nor your holiday. We are free.” However, most of the plot is resolved before the novel’s conclusion, which results in a meandering later section. Late in the game, Lev gets a new job, but this new position, along with the process of getting it, is largely inconsequential. Likewise, earlier portions, involving Lev’s quest to discover how Chad Goeing died, can drag, as there’s not much to make the reader care about how the writer died other than Lev’s insistence on finding out the truth. Yet, throughout it all, Lev proves to be a memorable protagonist—and one with a great deal on his mind.

A winding, offbeat, and sometimes-affecting journey.