The Coat That Covers Him and Other Short Stories by Michael Hoffman Search Amazon for other books by or about Michael Hoffman. Rating: Reviewed by: Sheldon Waxman

Michael Hoffman is an excellent, dramatic, fluent, insightful and literate writer. He is also a world traveler, and he sets his scenes interestingly in many worldwide cities. It looks as if he has finally settled in Japan where he makes a living writing and interpreting Japanese for English newspapers. He is a trained, professional writer. I have found that many authors so trained attempt too much literacy and become showoffs-all to the detriment of the story. Hoffman is minimal in this aspect but he does assume that all readers understand French. The Japanese is translated but the French is not. Happily, they are short phrases that can be glossed over.

The book starts out with six short stories. They are enigmatic and difficult to understand (weird, bizarre, Kafkaesque) but the beautiful language overcomes this. It is poetic in style. I don't understand, however, why these short stories were put in the book. The later novel is the title showpiece. At the very least they should have been put at the end.

The novel is about a mixed up guy, Sidney Levin. He flounders throughout in a semi-insane mode. He's married to Natalie in America with whom he had a son, who eventually commits suicide for lack of Sid's attention and the revelation to him of Sid's awful behavior. However, Sid feels his heart is with Keiko in Japan. He lost her many years before to his friend and rival, Jon. Jon dies and Sid renews his romance his romance with Keiko. He's a bad father anyway so it doesn't give him much pause. The story then goes back and forth between Natalie and Keiko because Sid can't decide which one is better for him.

Keiko's teenage daughter, Mariko, is overly imaginative. She thinks in a previous life she was Charlotte Corday, Marat's murderer. She is provocative with Sidney and it appears early on she wants Sid's semen. Screwed up guy that he is, Sid engages in an affair with her. Unfortunately, IMHO, it would have been nice to have some sex descriptions.

Mariko becomes pregnant and the scene shifts to Montreal where Sid's brother, Leonard, lives. Brian, Jon's brother, lives there too. The story somewhat bogs down after that. Brian platonically, as Mariko's "uncle", boards her and her child for four years, during which time Mariko and her daughter (Charlotte) are banished from Sid's presence, as he lives his life with Natalie. There is a reunion and the story ends.

All in all, it is a good but long read. In my honest opinion, it could have been chopped, and it is a little too descriptive with a tangled and lengthy storyline. I happen to be "story driven", and am biased against overly done character driven stories. Hoffman's use of language and dialogue, however, are worth it.