Other books:
In Search of Wholeness
The Light from Dead Stars
Our Haven and Our Strength
Sefer Ha'ikarim
The Sword of Goliath
Travels on the Private Zodiac
Travels on the Road Not Taken
The Truth about Marvin Kalish
Readers will follow Saul Jacobson as he treks across Western Canada with a sullen teenaged hitchhiker in tow. Part macabre crime tale, part coming-of-age chronicle, Heads You Lose is also a very humorous road story that celebrates the redemptive power of friendship. Highly recommended both for fans of Biblical decapitation tales and for readers interested in the way love can bloom in the least likely soil.
Advance Comments about Heads You Lose
I very much enjoyed this unusual, slightly twisted book, which may contain every decapitation story in the Hebrew Bible, and then some. The book deals with the classic issues of injustice, cruel outrage, guilt, redemption, sweet revenge obtained, and justice received. It gets pretty exciting (and funny) along the way. Saul, a middle aged professor of Bible studies, takes off on a road trip across Canada to get away from it all after his brother hangs himself, his wife leaves him for the gardener's brother, his parents slip into dementia, and he loses his job without warning when the college drops Bible studies from its curricula. Along the way Saul picks up a 19 year old hitchhiker whose mother drowned herself after years of terrible abuse by his father. They both are carrying a lot of baggage they need to work through, and as you might expect, it all gets tied up into nice little, satisfying, but surprising, packages by the end. The only problem I had with the book is that the next book I read was Harold S. Kushner's new book, "Living a Life that Matters," and it has a whole chapter bashing "the seductive pleasure of getting even," which made me feel kind of guilty at having enjoyed "Heads You Lose" so much.—amazon.com reader review
This book, as well as others I have read by Martin Cohen, are real page turners. It’s great to find a book even the phone ringing won’t interrupt!!!!
—amazon.com reader review
What a wonderful book! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m passing it along to all my friends. Thanks you for writing it!