Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York, 1978
General Publishing, Don Mills, 1978
Paperback: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York, 1978
Paperback: General Publishing, Don Mills, 1978
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Jacket design by John Alcorn
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Izzy Manheim, secretly voted “least likely to succeed” by his college classmates in Toronto, has improbably gone on to Africa to become one of the world’s richest men by dealing in glue. But he yearns for his college days, recalling them through his well-thumbed yearbook. He returns and buys the most monstrous house in Toronto, in which to stage a class reunion. What a marvellous party! . . . and what a horrible shock it is when they discover that not a single former classmate has any memory of Izzy at all – not even his one-time fiancée.
Is Izzy Izzy? And if so, who are you? “No one leaves until we get to the bottom of this!” And with a hilarious, dazzling, mystifying climax, get to the bottom of it, they do.
REVIEWS for IZZY MANHEIM’S REUNION:
“Only a masterful entertainer can mock the expectations of his audience and keep them amused. Such an entertainer is Martin Myers with his attractively teasing and fantastic novel Izzy Manheim’s Reunion… Delightful use of language… High-spirited humour which demands no more than it be enjoyed.” – London Free Press
“… a master of Illusion. This original novel is outrageous and a freshly minted joke.” – Publishers Weekly
“… a diabolical plot… inventive.” – Toronto Globe and Mail
“There is something wonderful in this portrayal of a controlling consciousness so strong that it can present the horrible and the strange and yet produce only delight.” – Toronto Star
“The most outrageous, uproarious and hilarious book I’ve read in years…A beautiful book that will leave you spellbound… a way with words that can leave you roaring with laughter but with a voice deep down inside you saying, ‘I’m laughing, but is this funny or tragic?'” – Hamilton Spectator
“If Kafka had written ALICE IN WONDERLAND in 1978… it would have been called IZZY MANHEIM’S REUNION… Myers’ new book could be reviewed in one all-encompassing word: WOW!” – National Jewish Post and Opinion
“A mystery with not one but eight lovely solutions…Very funny…Under all the foolishness there is a nightmare of alienation and unreality… a core of tragic disengagement.” – Detroit News
“A magic carpet of a book… exhilarating reading… genuinely funny…The story he tells is exciting and compelling… wondrous writing… brilliant finale… A world of infinite possibility, transcending the narrow consistencies of genre and tone that Myers renders so imaginatively…A fine writer who has the feel of a major novelist.” – Canadian Literature
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