The Man Confused by God is the story of Bennet Mermel. Stylistically similar to Strength In What Remains, Tuesdays With Morrie and The Soloist, The Man Confused by God fills a void that other Holocaust memoirs have left unfilled.
Bennet Mermel was born in a tiny village deep in the Carpathian Mountains and the unexpected survivor (by his own account) of Buchenwald, Ohrdruff, Crawinkle, and three other smaller infamous camps. He studied opera in post-war Munich before leaving his nightmares behind and joining his brothers Steve and Kalvin (whose life he once saved) in America. From the chaos and claustrophobia of New York, Bennet and Steve, on an idea born from Kalvin, set out to build a business in the early days of Los Angeles’ garment industry.
Once in LA, all three brothers work diligently to forget the past creating a future like they’d never known. With little money the brothers restart their lives. Bennet marries but divorces. Within a year of the divorce, Bennet’s three children move in with him and he is left to raise them, long before it is common, in one of the great demographic shifts of the mid-twentieth century. And so a successful clothing executive with a son and two daughters might have been the life story of Bennet Mermel. But then comes the tragic death of his brother, Kalvin, who world-weary on the streets of Los Angeles, succumbs to a fractured heart.
The shock of losing Kalvin transforms Bennet’s life, with one remarkable memento retrieved from the scene more than thirty years ago that lives on in the trunk of Bennet’s car. It is this transformation and the ongoing influences Bennet has on those around him which forms the unfinished tale of his mesmerizing life.
Based on a previously unpublished life story penned by Bennet Mermel, The Man Confused by God is told with the voice of Rosalie Cushman, his friend, confidant, and memoirist. Through Rosalie’s eyes, wit and her ability to ask courageous questions, the reader discovers a deeper meaning yet pocked with confusion. How is Bennet to square all that he has witnessed, with a previously held religious system that no longer applies, not only to Bennet’s life, and not only to the lives of other survivors, but to some of the enduring questions of the past century, transcending religions and generations?
The Man Confused by God should find a wide audience among readers interested in the major events of the Twentieth Century where life-changing events propel self-examination into life’s deepest questions, including redefining life, liberty, and spiritual understanding and expression.
Categories include the Holocaust, human nature, memoirs, religion, music, business, and true stories filled with tragedy, despair, tenacity, and ultimately hope while soldiering on in the face of ongoing spiritual angst.
