National Network for Equitable Library Service

The interrelated stories of this pseudo-memoir introduce readers to Barbara Klein Muskrat, a successful author of fiction and freelance book reviewer. Spanning some thirty years in her personal and professional life, Barbara irreverently acquaints readers with her challenges related to her schizophrenic literary career, divided between writing fiction and reviewing it. The result is an outrageous satirical romp that calls to mind Philip Roth and Dorothy Parker.As Nathan Zuckerman faithfully serves as alterego to Philip Roth in his Nathan Zuckerman books, Barbara Klein-Muskrat weaves fictional tales, at times borrowing the colouring and location of memoir. Like Dorothy Parker shouted at the top of her voice, Barabra Klein Muskrat is endowed with a zany, exaggerated theatricality. And yet Barbara Klein-Muskrat remains a unique summation of her own idiosyncrasies, which include fierce loyalty to family and friends, a relentlessly frustrating gullibility, and a stubborn determination to defend at all costs her wacky and unfashionable ethnic and patriotic proclivities.