Shalom Auslander is not for the faint of heart or easily offended. His writing is angry, bitter, hilarious, some might even call it blasphemous. It will make you squirm. It’s uncomfortable and itchy and may induce squirming, which is what makes it so fantastic.

If you’re not familiar with Auslander’s short story collection Beware of God or his memoir Foreskin’s Lament, I feel a little sorry for you. You’re missing out. You can remedy that immediately by reading Auslander’s Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay for his latest novel Hope: A Tragedy. If you can hang with that essay you might be the kind of reader who can handle Auslander’s longer work.

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