Hungry Generations — a novel by Daniel C. Melnick
In this novel, two men—one an eager, young Hollywood composer, the other an old and legendary émigré pianist, living with his family in Los Angeles' remarkable community of European expatriates—are drawn together by their mutual love of music, and are pulled apart by where that love leads them. Order through your local bookstore, Amazon.com, or the publisher iUniverse.com (ISBN 0-595-30803-1).
"The novel [is] quite wonderful and, in ways beyond the currently modish usage, magical...bringing to life with passion and wryness...that incredible Beverly Hills world [of European expatriates]."
—Thomas Flanagan, the late author of The Year of the French, The Tenants of Time, The End of the Hunt, and other works.
"A thoughtful and engaging novel about three musicians living in L.A. in the Seventies [and] a whole kith and kin of the generations of intellectual Jewish families who came to America around the Second World War...Melnick seems to have absorbed the tragedy of music which Adorno knew so well...For those who know and can lose themselves in serious music, the novel will be supremely satisfying."
—Times Literary Supplement, 21 May, 2004.
Hungry Generations—a description
Hungry Generations imagines the amazing world of émigré artists who fled from Nazi Europe and settled in Los Angeles before and during World War II.
In 1972, one of those expatriates, the legendary classical pianist Alexander Petrov, befriends a young composer Jack Weinstein, who has just begun work in the Hollywood studios. Their intense and delving discussions of music deepen their friendship.
Yet Jack finds himself disrupting the balances in Petrov's turbulent family. Petrov's daughter, Sarah, becomes the composer's troubled muse and lover, and the father becomes possessive and rages in opposition. The son, Joseph, is a virtuoso pianist himself, and resentments erupt between him and Petrov. Amid these conflicts, after a drunken New Year's Eve party at the Polo Lounge, Joseph makes a pass at Jack. Then Petrov's wife confesses to him her bitterness for her husband. In this powerful and tragi-comic drama, each generation struggles with its hunger for meaning and love in a disastrous time.
The cover painting for the novel is by JEANETTE ARAX MELNICK, an artist and the wife of the novel's author. Her paintings and ceramics express her love of Armenian textiles, of Matisse (whose "The Music Lesson" is the model for the cover art here, in a postmodern homage), and of the tradition of international folk art. Examples of her work can be seen by accessing the Links page, below. Contact the artist through the author's email address at hungry_generations@yahoo.com.
"Like a memorable piece of music," writes Sheila Schwartz, Pushcart winning author, "the novel and its characters will haunt you." And The Plain Dealer, May 31, 2004: "The friendship between Petrov and Jack is more than combustible; it marks a collision of cultures and worlds: Petrov's Europe, decimated by the Nazis, versus Jack's Hollywood."
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