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Title: Stand Up and Cheer!
Review: This is a quite remarkable first novel. Chaim Bertman tells the tale of a young man who desperately wants to write a novel, and changes cities (and women) in his quest. In telling his tale Bertman uses the magic of words to powerfully evoke scenes, cities and people--and the travail of the would-be novelist as pure "observer." At one point tourists are called "pirates with cameras." Bertman creates for us a "pirate with a pencil" we care about. But Bertman himself is no pirate, and he takes the reader on a very worthwhile voyage--one which ends with the possibility of redemption. Take the trip.
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