Fic­tion

The Prophet of Tenth Street: A Novel

Tsipi Keller

By – June 21, 2012

Mar­cus Weiss, age fifty-two, is deeply engaged in writ­ing his first nov­el as well as a dic­tio­nary, and keep­ing numer­ous jour­nals. He is in a lov­ing, but evolv­ing rela­tion­ship. He is first a Jew, with all the his­to­ry and com­pli­ca­tions that implies. He has kept track of his life by remem­ber­ing what came first and what hap­pened lat­er.” Stu­dent life in Paris, a mar­riage, a busi­ness, par­ent­hood, divorce, and now retire­ment pro­pel and nour­ish his cur­rent lit­er­ary jour­ney. He is dis­ci­plined, self-indul­gent, and often pompous. He lec­tures his few friends and chides them for not read­ing enough, not enrich­ing their intel­lects. When his friend sug­gests that he spend less time writ­ing his dai­ly jour­nals and live life more, Mar­cus assures him that he lives it dou­bly. When I live it and when I write it.” His lover, Gina, names him The Prophet of Tenth Street because he can’t bear the idea that oth­ers, friends in par­tic­u­lar, are not like him.”

Tsipi Keller has tak­en us into a writer’s very being. It is hard work and all-con­sum­ing. While at times we may be impa­tient with Mar­cus the social per­son, we always admire his dri­ve. We cheer when he is joy­ous upon fin­ish­ing the sec­ond draft of his nov­el, so pleased with the progress of his craft. He says, From revi­sion to revi­sion you actu­al­ly see how your book evolves, how it is trans­formed. And the same hap­pens to you, you become trans­formed.” Yes, writ­ing trans­forms him, but real, life-chang­ing expe­ri­ences do as well. We even get to feel kinder toward Mar­cus. This is a provoca­tive sto­ry that stays with the reader.

Pen­ny Metsch, MLS, for­mer­ly a school librar­i­an on Long Island and in New York City, now focus­es on ear­ly lit­er­a­cy pro­grams in Hobo­ken, NJ.

Discussion Questions

1. It has been not­ed (in a review) that The Prophet of Tenth Street could serve as a basis for a Woody Allen movie: intro­spec­tive char­ac­ters, a New York are­na, Jews and gen­tiles, occa­sion­al quotes of select­ed excerpts from the lit­er­ary can­non…” – Do you agree with the review­er? Does the author pro­vide enough visu­al details? Does she suc­ceed in bring­ing the char­ac­ters, and the city, to life?

2. Flaubert has famous­ly said: Madame Bovary c’est moi” (“ is me”). In this nov­el, the author, Tsipi Keller, is a woman, while the pro­tag­o­nist, Mar­cus Weiss, is a man. In your view, is the depic­tion of Mar­cus Weiss authen­tic? Believable?

3. Does the flow of Mar­cus’s pre­oc­cu­pa­tions and thoughts remind you of the check and flow of your own con­scious­ness or awareness?

4. Mar­cus obvi­ous­ly under­stands a lot about his life, and about liv­ing in gen­er­al. But how under­stand­ing is he of oth­er peo­ple? Does he tru­ly know those around him?

5. In gen­er­al, is Mar­cus a per­son­al­i­ty you would enjoy being close friends with? Or would you avoid such a per­son at all costs?

6. At times Mar­cus is quite absorbed with issues and mem­o­ries that are part of his iden­ti­ty as a Jew­ish per­son whose par­ents fled Ger­many in 1934, car­ry­ing Mar­cus, their new­born baby, in a satchel. How, if at all, do you think this iden­ti­ty and his­to­ry is rel­e­vant or relat­ed to Mar­cus’s obses­sion with books? How has it affect­ed the tra­jec­to­ry of his life and his devel­op­ment as a human being?

7. No one would argue that Mar­cus Weiss isn’t self-involved. But is he mere­ly a self­ish nar­cis­sist, or do his pre­oc­cu­pa­tions redeem him as a social being and serve soci­ety in some way?

8. To what extent and in what ways do you take Mar­cus to be a prophet” or to what extent and in what ways do you take prophet” in the title to be ironic?

9. How would you feel about being involved in a roman­tic rela­tion­ship with a per­son such as Mar­cus? Or with Gina, his girlfriend?

10. There is a large age dif­fer­ence between Mar­cus and Stephen Daedalus, the main char­ac­ter in James Joyce’s A Por­trait of the Artist as a Young Man. But what sim­i­lar­i­ties and/​or dif­fer­ences do you find between these two men and the ways in which they are portrayed?