Title: Feel Want, Taste Grief, Need Friends
Author: Ivan Prashker
Publisher: Inks and Bindings, LLC
ISBN: 979-8886153903
Pages: 286
Genre: Nonfiction / Short Stories
Reviewer: Alyssa Avina
Hollywood Book Reviews
Some moments in life can appear at first glance to be dull or uneventful, but as the years pass and a person looks back at those moments, what once was not worth mentioning has become a beloved memory or a defining moment that in hindsight could be the driving narrative behind any great story. Sometimes the most profound and moving moments in a person’s life can happen in the blink of an eye, and without warning.
In author Ivan Prashker’s Feel Want, Taste Grief, Need Friends, the author explores those little moments in his own life through a series of short stories detailing his own life experiences. The stories follow the author’s return from the Army during WWII, living in New York City in the Seminal 50s, and dealing with friendship, love, and loss while living their day-to-day lives.
The author does a fantastic job of taking a memoir and nonfiction book and writing it in a way which feels as enthralling and engaging as a fictional short story collection. The writing style lets each unique memory and experience from this period of their life feel authentic and immersive, with powerful imagery that brings the book to life on the pages. The sense of camaraderie and connection the author shared with many people he knew both before the war and in his unit after the war was a big part of many of the early stories of the book, and the way the author writes of these experiences through an almost fictional lens from a storytelling perspective was an inspired creative choice to keep the readers engaged.
Readers who enjoy nonfiction books, especially those that find ways of writing memoirs in a way that comes across as fictional short stories, will absolutely love this novel. The stories this book collects allow the reader to feel connected to the life of the author or the “protagonist,” with the stories embodying life experiences and lessons that will leave a lasting impression on the reader. One of the earliest stories is a conversation between two friends, each with their own loss that has affected them differently, as they find a way to connect through shared grief while acknowledging their differences and how they approach loss. This highlights how people from different walks of life can still find common ground. Between these lessons and the cultural impact of the overall narrative on the Jewish community, especially in New York City, this book is an inspired, engaging read that will be hard to put down. I highly recommend this book.