From Library Journal
The son of prosperous Jewish shopkeepers in Baltimore, Micky Lerner made a try at boxing and then settled down to running a bakery. He adores his wife, Emi, a concert violinist leading a separate life; she often tours abroad and is always practicing when at home, while Micky and their disconsolate teenage son, Ben, tiptoe around so as not to disturb her. Their lives are changed horribly when, during the racial tensions that arise after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Emi is shot and killed as she and Micky walk to their car. Micky goes off to Paris, Emi's home, to try to resolve his grief, leaving the bakery in the hands of his son. There he meets a baker and starts baking bread again. Though somewhat restored by this experience, he must still face continued black/white violence when he returns home. Speaking of hope, redemption, and reconciliation, the upbeat ending of this complex debut novel doesn't seem justified by the fatalism expressed throughout, but the storytelling is good. Recommended for all libraries.?Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, MDCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Michael Lowenthal
With admirable ambition, Hond uses these characters' lives to explore complex issues of racial and class conflict and the roots and consequences of urban violence....

From Kirkus Reviews
A debut novel that transforms the terror of working-class, inner-city race relations into an upbeat examination of love, loss, and father-son bonding. Set in Baltimore, Hond's appraisal of the cultural and economic barriers that isolate blacks and Jews recalls the bitter urban tragedies of Dreiser and Malamud. Mickey Lerner, a robust, sixtysomething Jewish bakery store owner, is alienated from his wife, Emi, a French-born concert violinist who no longer sees in him the integrity that once attracted her. Meanwhile, their 18-year-old underachieving son, Ben, spends most of his time smoking dope with Nelson Childs, the bakery's delivery boy, who just bought his first illegal handgun from a street-corner junkie. After a hundred pages of meandering flashbacks, often ending in alleys as dark as the decaying neighborhoods that Hond clearly loves, we learn that Mickey, at Ben's age, coulda-been-a-contenda as a boxer, but gave it up to run the store after his baker father died of a heart attack; that Mickey's last bout was against Nelson's father, who eventually abandoned his family; and that Mickey has harbored an earthy but unconsummated sexual attraction for Donna, Nelson's mother, ever since. The story takes off when Mickey and Emi are robbed on the street by a pair of masked black youths, one of whom panics and kills Emi. At first, the tragedy makes everything worse: Grief-stricken Mickey takes off for Paris in search of secrets in his wife's past, leaving Ben in charge of the bakery. And as a boss, Ben can't cope with Nelson, who buckles under the humiliating treatment he gets from bigoted customers and falls in with his criminal buddies. Fortunately, though, Hond wisely doesn't let his tale lurch to a violent climax but, instead, lets his characters find each other again as they uncover their hidden strengths. A bright Beaujolais of a book: fresh, optimistic, and sophisticated enough to satisfy on many levels. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
“An absorbing work . . . One puts down this novel with the feeling of having shared in the lives of some very real, quietly decent, people.”
–The Christian Science Monitor

“Hond illuminates the long-standing tribal tensions and accords between blacks and Jews, and in a fast-paced series of Dickensian plot twists, he shows the increasing interdependence of their griefs and hopes.”
–The New Yorker

“A likable, sweet-natured, compassionate first novel . . . an impressive debut, and Paul Hond is definitely a writer to watch.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“[A] wonderful first novel . . . It’s no overstatement to say that The Baker is a deeply moral book, and not just because it is willing to take on . . . critical social issues. It is, rather, because of that rare quality we find so often in Malamud: the all-encompassing compassion for the novel’s characters. We come to know these people . . . we mourn the distortions wrought by personal and social history. The novel’s compassion builds our own.”
–The Forward

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The baker is Mickey Lerner - family man, ex-boxer, Jewish merchant, a man of confused passions who exists in a community polarized by racial mistrust. One day, Mickey's life is changed by a shocking crime, forcing him to explore the mysteries of his marriage and the awkwardness of life with his eighteen-year-old son. Mickey must also face the racial tension surrounding him - a legacy of violence between blacks and whites that threatens both his family and his bakery. Above all, Mickey must confront himself: his feelings, his desires, and the memory of a tragic event from his past.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

The son of prosperous Jewish shopkeepers in Baltimore, Micky Lerner made a try at boxing and then settled down to running a bakery. He adores his wife, Emi, a concert violinist leading a separate life; she often tours abroad and is always practicing when at home, while Micky and their disconsolate teenage son, Ben, tiptoe around so as not to disturb her. Their lives are changed horribly when, during the racial tensions that arise after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Emi is shot and killed as she and Micky walk to their car. Micky goes off to Paris, Emi's home, to try to resolve his grief, leaving the bakery in the hands of his son. There he meets a baker and starts baking bread again. Though somewhat restored by this experience, he must still face continued black/white violence when he returns home. Speaking of hope, redemption, and reconciliation, the upbeat ending of this complex debut novel doesn't seem justified by the fatalism expressed throughout, but the storytelling is good. Recommended for all libraries.Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, MD

Neil Gordon

Prose as original and incisive as that of any other writer I know...Characters as multidimensional, unexpected, and real as only a born writer can produce. -- Neil Gordon

Kirkus Reviews

A debut novel that transforms the terror of working-class, inner-city race relations into an upbeat examination of love, loss, and father-son bonding. Set in Baltimore, Hond's appraisal of the cultural and economic barriers that isolate blacks and Jews recalls the bitter urban tragedies of Dreiser and Malamud. Mickey Lerner, a robust, sixtysomething Jewish bakery store owner, is alienated from his wife, Emi, a French-born concert violinist who no longer sees in him the integrity that once attracted her. Meanwhile, their 18-year-old underachieving son, Ben, spends most of his time smoking dope with Nelson Childs, the bakery's delivery boy, who just bought his first illegal handgun from a street-corner junkie. After a hundred pages of meandering flashbacks, often ending in alleys as dark as the decaying neighborhoods that Hond clearly loves, we learn that Mickey, at Ben's age, coulda-been-a-contenda as a boxer, but gave it up to run the store after his baker father died of a heart attack; that Mickey's last bout was against Nelson's father, who eventually abandoned his family; and that Mickey has harbored an earthy but unconsummated sexual attraction for Donna, Nelson's mother, ever since. The story takes off when Mickey and Emi are robbed on the street by a pair of masked black youths, one of whom panics and kills Emi. At first, the tragedy makes everything worse: Grief-stricken Mickey takes off for Paris in search of secrets in his wife's past, leaving Ben in charge of the bakery. And as a boss, Ben can't cope with Nelson, who buckles under the humiliating treatment he gets from bigoted customers and falls in with his criminal buddies. Fortunately, though, Hond wisely doesn't lethis tale lurch to a violent climax but, instead, lets his characters find each other again as they uncover their hidden strengths. A bright Beaujolais of a book: fresh, optimistic, and sophisticated enough to satisfy on many levels.

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