What is Janice Eidus reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Janice Eidus, author of The Last Jewish Virgin.

Her entry begins:

I just finished the novel, I Am Not Sidney Poitier, by Percival Everett. He’s very prolific, and I’m eager to read a lot more of his work. (I’ve also read Glyph, his novel about an infant with an IQ of 475.)

I Am Not Sidney Poitier is the tale of a young African American man with the intriguing name, “Not Sidney Poitier,” who looks exactly like the handsome actor, Sidney Poitier, and who may or may not be the actor’s love child.

Not Sidney Poitier’s mother dies when he’s eleven, and due to an extremely unusual and intriguing set of circumstances, he becomes very wealthy and is quasi-raised by media mogul Ted Turner, who’s presented as a lovable, surely bipolar, multi-millionaire “uncle.”

As a boy, Not Sidney Poitier consistently confronts...[read on]

Among the early praise for The Last Jewish Virgin:

"Eidus uses the contemporary idea of "vampire" as a way to explore issues of sexuality, mythology and family. Or maybe the author is just having some fun. Either way, The Last Jewish Virgin is quite beyond the sum of its parts."
—India Wilson, January Magazine

"Mazel Tov! It's Twilight ... with a sense of humor, a brain, and a feminist subtext ... I tell you, the Undead have been waiting a long time for Janice Eidus."
—Marion Winik, NPR commentator, Advice Columnist, Ladies' Home Journal, author of First Came Love

"Nobody writes about Jewish cultural life quite as funnily and piercingly as Janice Eidus."
—Mindy Lewis, editor, Dirt: The Quirks, Habits, and Passions of Keeping House

"Janice Eidus reinvents the classic vampire legend in The Last Jewish Virgin: A Novel of Fate (Red Hen Press). Set in contemporary New York City, Lilith Zaremba, a young fashion student who is the last Jewish virgin, rebels against her feminist Jewish mother as she tries to find her own way. Eidus writes with humor, originality and understanding of urban Jewish life. The winner of two O.Henry prizes, she lives in Brooklyn and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico."
—The Jewish Week

Read an excerpt of The Last Jewish Virgin, and learn more about the book and author at Janice Eidus's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Jewish Virgin.

Writers Read: Janice Eidus.

--Marshal Zeringue