The Orthodoxy of Arrogance: Revised Edition
The Orthodoxy of Arrogance is a fictional account of historical events and the subsequent personal and familial conflicts they can create. The main character, Mordichai Lebenschitz, is a moyl from Dachau, Germany. As the Nazi regime rises, he changes his name to the more German Moritz. He is pompous, self-centered, and oblivious to the world and its proposed effects on him. He is charming, manipulative and self-indulgent. He and his wife Hannah elude the Nazis from 1941-1944 in the city of Dachau. My novel suggests possible scenarios of events in history. It weaves them with personal, familial, and societal conflicts they affect. It borders on the least likely outcomes of historical events. They are often endured by arrogant and self-indulgent attitudes. The Orthodoxy of Arrogance is the story of sheer will. It is a fictional account of one believing in oneself to the point of selfishness. It is the conflict of ego and how it can work to disrupt human emotions.
The Story Behind This Book
This novel began with a shave and a few hairs cut. From the opening scene in an old barber shop, a journey of two characters of self-assurance was born. The "little of the sides" is taken from an incident in an old barber shop I observed. I was tired of reading, and seeing documentaries, grim depressing reels of the Holocaust. I wanted to portray the triumphs of the Jews, both factual and fictional. It grew into a story about a family living through the 1970s in mid-western America. A portion of the working manuscript for this novel was submitted for Minneapolis's Loft Literary Center's Mentor program. It was chosen out of forty works of fiction as a finalist for their 2011-12 series