Fic­tion

The Believ­ers

Zoë Heller

By – January 5, 2012

Zoë Heller’s third nov­el describes the career, mar­riage, and fam­i­ly life of Joel Litvi­noff, a 60’s activist who has become a famous rad­i­cal lawyer. When Joel is inca­pac­i­tat­ed by a stroke, a secret about his life is dis­cov­ered. Audrey, Joel’s wife for forty years, has devot­ed her­self to him but now must face real­i­ty and fig­ure out her next move. Mean­while, the couple’s three chil­dren are find­ing them­selves as well. Rosa, the old­est, has sim­i­lar prin­ci­pals to her par­ents, includ­ing a dis­taste for reli­gion, but now she is search­ing for some­thing more from her own Jew­ish­ness. Kar­la is unable to admit that her mar­riage is flawed until she gets a glimpse of hap­pi­ness else­where. Adopt­ed son Lenny is immersed in drug abuse and depen­den­cy on his moth­er. This is a quick read about inter­est­ing char­ac­ters who will seem famil­iar to any­one who has read about or lived through that era.

Miri­am Brad­man Abra­hams, mom, grand­mom, avid read­er, some­time writer, born in Havana, raised in Brook­lyn, resid­ing in Long Beach on Long Island. Long­time for­mer One Region One Book chair and JBC liai­son for Nas­sau Hadas­sah, cur­rent­ly pre­sent­ing Inci­dent at San Miguel with author AJ Sidran­sky who wrote the his­tor­i­cal fic­tion based on her Cuban Jew­ish refugee family’s expe­ri­ences dur­ing the rev­o­lu­tion. Flu­ent in Span­ish and Hebrew, cer­ti­fied hatha yoga instructor.

Discussion Questions

Cour­tesy of HarperCollins

1. Why does Joel Litvi­noff pro­pose mar­riage to Audrey Howard after their first date, and what does his doing so sug­gest about his char­ac­ter? How typ­i­cal (or atyp­i­cal) is their rela­tion­ship for a cou­ple mar­ried some forty years?

2. In what ways does Audrey feel both more and less pow­er­ful in the after­math of her hus­band’s stroke? How does her behav­ior toward Joel’s col­leagues at the hos­pi­tal com­pare to her behav­ior toward her children?

3. How does Rosa feel about her involve­ment with the girls in East Harlem’s Girl Pow­er? To what extent is she an advo­cate for them? Does her aware­ness of race and class dif­fer­ences between her and the girls affect her professionalism?

4. How does Kar­la and Mike’s inabil­i­ty to con­ceive a child after sev­er­al years of try­ing affect their mar­riage? What accounts for their dis­parate feel­ings about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of adopt­ing a child?

5. Why is Kar­la open to a friend­ship with Khaled after he insults her by ask­ing direct­ly about her diet­ing? To what extent does Khaled’s indul­gent, unself­con­scious atti­tude toward food enhance his appeal in Kar­la’s eyes?

6. How seri­ous is Rosa about becom­ing an obser­vant Jew? What threat­ens the pos­si­bil­i­ty of her com­plete conversion?

7. What does Berenice Mason’s desire to get to know the Litvi­noffs sug­gest about the nature of her inten­tions? Which sis­ter has bet­ter insight into Berenice’s motives — Kar­la or Rosa?

8. How does the back­drop of the 9/11 attacks on New York City col­or the fic­tion­al land­scape of The Believ­ers? To what extent do you per­ceive a gen­er­al­ized anx­i­ety in the world inhab­it­ed by the char­ac­ters of this novel?

9. What role does Lenny’s trip to Bucks Coun­ty with Jean play in his devel­op­ment and reha­bil­i­ta­tion? Why isn’t Audrey more sup­port­ive of his trans­for­ma­tion, and of Jean’s role in it?

10. What does the scene at the end of the nov­el sug­gest about Kar­la’s future? Why do you think the author chose to close with this char­ac­ter, at this moment of her life? How did this clos­ing scene affect your appre­ci­a­tion of The Believ­ers?