Novel set in Northwest Philly an impressive debut

by JIMMY J. PACK JR.

There’s something exciting about reading a novel set in the area in which you live. The last Philly-set novel I read was Drop by Germantown native Mat Johnson. In Drop, Johnson contrasts a bleak Philly with a grass-is-always-greener-over-there view of London, England.

In a new novel by Elkins Park native Edward Schwarzchild, Philly is yet again a center for conflict. In Responsible Men, the debut novel for Schwarzchild, readers are invited into the world of a con-man whose past lies in the transformed neighborhood surrounding Fifth and Cheltenham, and though you can’t go back home again, you certainly can revisit the old ‘hood and learn a lot about yourself.

The protagonist of Responsible Men is Max Wolinsky, a man full of conflict that makes Schwarzchild’s novel an attention-grabber. Wolinsky has returned home to Philly for a Bar Mitzvah after exiling himself to Key West for a year. And while it’s important for a man to get his bearings straight after a divorce, Wolinsky left behind his son, Nathan, with a mother who’s more wrapped up in her new life with her new man — the former gardener for the Wolinskys.

And Max has not merely returned out of a sense of duty, for the sake of what is right, but he has also returned with the hopes of pulling off a high-stakes con of a wealthy Main Line family. The con will hopefully net Max a lot of money, which he plans to use partially to help his father, Caleb, take care of his Uncle Abe, the victim of a stroke.

But this con isn’t going to be easy, especially when Max is hounded by a former friend, Johnny Sklarman, to get in on the deal. Add to that another potential scam dreamed up by son Nathan’s orthodox Jewish Scoutmaster, Mervyn Spiller, and Max’s character quickly starts to get emotionally pulled in too many directions.

And while the characters and plot are incredibly compelling, it’s Schwarzchild’s prose that pulls you in, especially when he describes the streets of what used to be the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of East Oak Lane. Schwarzchild is so persuasive that you feel like a ghost walking the streets of a neighborhood no longer there. And while walking down those streets, Schwarzchild revisits Caleb’s past and the horrible events that have made him such an empty, sad individual.

One warning to readers: at certain points, especially at Nathan’s Bar Mitzvah, Schwarzchild fails to let those unfamiliar with Jewish traditions know what is going on. You might need a basic lesson in Jewish culture to know exactly what’s happening. This can be a turn-off for some readers.

Still Responsible Men is not written for a select few. It’s a novel of atonement, of acceptance and of overcoming the grief of getting older and wiser. Responsible Men is an impressive first novel, which will ensure that the New York Times list of best sellers will eventually see Schwarzchild climb the charts. (Responsible Men, by Edward Schwarzchild. Algonquin Books, $23.95.)