Martin Drapkin’s latest novel, Poor Tom, is about a widowed Jewish father, Herbert Dickman, and his son, Julius. Herbert is a renowned classical actor who has just retired from the theater after playing King Lear, the big role he’s waited all his life to do. But he feels that he failed at portraying Lear, and starts to rapidly decline, physically and mentally. He even goes a bit mad, like Lear. Julius is concerned and wants to help, but is not sure what to do. Plus, he has his own problems: no real career, a shrewish girlfriend, a stutter, claustrophobia, insomnia, and debilitating panic attacks.
“Drapkin’s story weaves a fine portrait of Jewish life and culture,” according to Midwestern Book Review. “Replete with wry social inspection and psychological complexity, Poor Tom is a top recommendation for readers of Jewish literature looking for excellent contemporary Jewish thinking—the latter via a romp through the hopes and dreams of a chronic worrywart who longs to play a different role in life.”
Drapkin grew up Jewish in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and his novel is replete with remembered elements: bar and bat mitzvahs, a remembered Passover Seder with family tensions, scenes in a Jewish deli and the great food items there, good menschkeit, and monthly Sunday morning bagels and lox brunches in which Julius and Herbert enjoy their favorite Marx Brothers films. There are many Yiddish words and phrases.
For Shakespeare aficionados, there’s also a lot to like in the novel, as Julius ponders the characters and meanings of not only King Lear but others of the tragedies.
Drapkin is the author of three previous works of fiction: Now and at the Hour, Ten Nobodies (and their somebodies) and The Cat Tender. He and his wife, Erica, live in Cross Plains, Wisconsin.
Poor Tom is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and HenschelHaus Books.