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Heart, You Bully, You Punk.
Cohen, Leah Hager (author).
May 2003. 214p. Viking, hardcover, $23.95 (0-670-03167-4).
REVIEW.
First published April 1, 2003 (Booklist).
In her second novel, Cohen offers a bittersweet love story involving a 31-year-old math teacher at a Brooklyn private school, her star pupil, and the student’s father. Ann James, the star student, breaks both heels when she slips (or jumps?) from the top of the bleachers. Her injuries render her immobile for a time; to help her keep up in math, Ann’s teacher, Esker, volunteers to tutor her at home. After meeting Ann’s father, Wally, Esker begins, despite herself, to fall in love with him. The feeling is mutual for Wally, a long separated but not divorced restaurateur. Ann, herself nursing a crush on Esker, is delighted. But a variety of forces seems destined to sabotage the relationship, not the least of which is the profound heartbreak Esker once suffered, which has made her wary of attachments. Cohen’s novel moves quietly along, revealing the past hurts that motivate the behavior of each of her characters in subtle and unexpected ways. In spare prose, Cohen demonstrates that there can be beauty even in sadness. — Beth Leistensnider
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