Meiselman

Avner Landes's novel centers on Meiselman, a thirty-six-year-old who has spent his life following the rules. He is the second-in-command at a public library in a suburb of Chicago, where he runs events and programs. His inner life is a different matter, since his fantasies about his domineering boss have long since stopped obeying him.

The action unfolds over what looks like an unremarkable week in 2004, but Meiselman sees it as his chance to finally get the upper hand and undo years of minor indignities. He is determined to make this the week everything changes for him, whatever it takes.

His plans run into a set of obstacles. His wife has recently become religiously observant, his neighbor is a Holocaust survivor whose late-night gardening keeps him awake, and a former schoolmate, now a well-known author, is returning to the library to be celebrated. Each of them, in a different way, gets in the way of Meiselman's scheme.