The five compelling tales comprising Lolita at Leonard’s of Great Neck and Other Stories from the Before Times take you on an immersive journey from 1974 to the 2000s. Eighteen-year-old Anna, a Jewish college student, meets a German businessman at a Greek diner on Queens Boulevard. Claire Seltzer of Great Neck has the honeymoon from hell in Paris. Rebecca, a spunky eighth grader, is in love with Mr. Miller, her math teacher. Sarah Reinhardt, the wife of a celebrity doctor living in Central Park West, finds herself in a complicated love triangle. Rachel Rosensweig awakens one morning to find that her husband of thirty years, a Columbia professor, has become a dangerous radical.
The characters of this unforgettable collection inhabit the golden era of the postwar, pre-pandemic world. Age-old power struggles — between lovers, between friends, between parents and children— are illuminated and analyzed. Heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious, their stories disclose and document what it meant to be American, Jewish, and female. Rich with cultural touchstones and reference points, they are suffused with self-awareness, longing, and sensual awareness.
![](/themes/custom/jbc_theme/images/logo.png)
Fiction
Lolita at Leonard’s of Great Neck: and Other Stories from the Before Times
- From the Publisher
September 1, 2023
Discussion Questions
![](/sites/default/files/images/book_covers_donate.png)
Jewish literature inspires, enriches, and educates the community.
Help support the Jewish Book Council.