A review by strasda8
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander

4.0

I don’t believe this book would have ever made it onto my radar if it hadn’t been a personal recommendation from Jonny Diamond, editor-in-chief over at Literary Hub. The excitement of a personalized “quarantine book recommendation” was enough motivation to track a copy down and give it a shot. Two biggest takeaways; Nathan Englander is a legitimate talent, and Argentina’s Dirty War (1976-83) was significantly more devastating than I had realized.

The premise of the novel is pretty simple, Kaddish and Lillian Poznan are living in Buenos Aires in the 1970’s. Their son becomes a target of the junta and ends up one of the 30,000 “Disappeared” during the Dirty War. Englander does an amazing job bringing this time period to life. Whether it be the Poznan apartment, a graveyard in the middle of the night, or a jam-packed government building – the settings are all fully realized – as is the sense of dread that pervades as more and more Argentinians go missing under the reign of the freshly installed military government.

[b:The Ministry of Special Cases|1589797|The Ministry of Special Cases|Nathan Englander|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388183728l/1589797._SY75_.jpg|30211] is not an always an easy read. It is full of dread and despair but never becomes too dark. Englander injects it with enough humor (the dialogue between Kaddish and Dr. Mazursky is particularly excellent) and plenty of life. Even at their absolute worsts, Kaddish and Lillian are compulsively readable. My heart felt for them, their missing son, and really Argentina in general. A fascinating read, especially if you lack any depth of knowledge of Argentina during that time period.