The Netanyahus

The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family is a 2021 novel by Joshua Cohen. It was awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.^[1]

The book centers on a fictionalized account of Harold Bloom's encounter with Benzion Netanyahu and his family, including his son, Benjamin Netanyahu, at an upstate New York college in the late 1950s, blending history, fiction, and humor.

The novel's protagonist, Ruben Blum, is a historian at the fictional Corbin College in the fictional town of Corbindale, New York in the late 1950s. He is the first and only Jewish person at Corbin.

He finds himself perpetually navigating microaggressions of his department chair, Dr. Morse. One of the humiliating incidents involves making Blum portray Santa Claus at the college's Christmas party because “it’ll free up the people who actually celebrate the holiday to enjoy themselves.”

Because he is Jewish, Dr. Morse involuntarily appoints Blum to the hiring committee for a Jewish historian by the name of Benzion Netanyahu. The hiring committee assignment takes an unexpected twist when Benzion arrives for lunch at Blum's residence, not alone but with the unannounced company of his audacious wife and three feral children (Yonatan, Benjamin, and Iddo). The Netanyahus' visit shakes up Ruben's life, leaving him to navigate a whirlwind of events beyond his control.^[2][3]

Cohen recorded an audiobook version with Pushkin Industries, which features voice work from David Duchovny.^[4]

In einer positiven Rezension für die „New York Times Book Review“ bezeichnete Taffy Brodesser-Akner den Roman als „ein ärgerliches, frustrierendes, prätentiöses Werk – und zugleich fesselnd, entzückend, urkomisch, atemberaubend und den besten und relevantesten Roman, den ich seit Ewigkeiten gelesen habe“. ^{[ 3 ]} David Isaacs lobte Cohens Witz auf Satzebene, stellte aber dessen Fähigkeit, Tiefe zu vermitteln, infrage und beschrieb den Roman in der „Literary Review“ als „gelehrt, gelegentlich urkomisch und letztendlich völlig entfesselt“. ^{[ 5 ]}

„Die Netanjahus“ gewannen 2022 den Pulitzer-Preis für Belletristik . ^{[ 6 ]} In der Begründung für den Pulitzer-Preis wurde der Roman als „ein bissiger, sprachlich brillanter historischer Roman über die Ambivalenzen der jüdisch-amerikanischen Erfahrung“ beschrieben, der Ideen und Konflikte präsentiert, die ebenso brisant sind wie seine raffiniert konstruierte Handlung. ^{[ 7 ]} Er gewann außerdem 2021 den National Jewish Book Award für Belletristik. ^{[ 8 ]}