The Book of Lazarus

the long version

"The Book of Lazarus is as much a novel about the O'Banion family as it is a scrapbook of the dead - murder victims to be exact. The death of Mitchell O'Banion, a.k.a. Mitchell Finkelstein, a former political terrorist with family ties to organized crime, brings together a bizarre lot of ex-anarchists whose paths have criss-crossed from the heady days of the sixties to the present. In the middle of it all is Emma O'Banion, who has not seen her father, Mitchell, for years. As she uncovers the story of his life, death, and the vast fortune he has left behind, a frightening family history unfolds. Here is the core of Richard Grossman's challenging new novel. Surrounding that core, however, is another world - one in which Grossman creates visual and formal challenges for his readers as he unearths the stories of the dead and the insane. Filled with poetry and aphorisms as well as photographs and hand-written notes from the grave, The Book of Lazarus creates a new American novel."--BOOK JACKET.