Evanier, David, (Red Love [hc, Scribner, 1991]) 978-0684191911 [pb, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1991] B06XCQQX5T [This novel is a direct, tragicomic reimagining of the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Renamed Solomon and Dolores Rubell in the book, the narrative drives forward like a post-facto investigation. A writer named Gerald Lerner places ads in Yiddish and adult magazines to hunt down and interview former Soviet spies. Evanier uses the mechanics of a historical mystery investigation to unpack the psychological motives behind American Jewish leftists who committed treason against the United States.
United States · Fiction author
David Evanier
David Evanier (born 1947 and resides in New York City) – [American novelist, biographer, and editor whose work frequently centers on New York culture, the post-war Jewish-American experience, and profiles of iconic twentieth-century cultural figures. Raised in New York City, Evanier developed an early obsession with writing and the arts. He moved to Vancouver, Canada, in the early 1970s to attend university and helped found the literary magazine “Event” at Douglas College in 1972. Upon returning to Manhattan, he served as a senior editor for the prestigious literary magazine The Paris Review and later worked as a writer and researcher for the Anti-Defamation League. Evanier’s fiction frequently leans into tragicomic satire, capturing Jewish post-war anxieties. His prominent novels include The One-Star Jew (1983), Red Love (1991)—a fictionalized deep dive into the Rosenberg espionage trial—and The Great Kisser (2007). His short fiction won the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction and has been featured in The Best American Short Stories anthology. Later in his career, Evanier became widely recognized for his exhaustively researched biographies of iconic, complex entertainers and figures. His most notable subjects include singer Bobby Darin (Roman Candle), traditional pop legend Tony Bennett (All the Things You Are), underdog crooner Jimmy Roselli (Making the Wiseguys Weep), filmmaker Woody Allen (Woody: The Biography), and public intellectual Norman Podhoretz (Norman Podhoretz: The Man Who Changed People’s Minds).
David Evanier’s work heavily touches on the themes of Jews, political crime, and the criminal underworld, though his execution leans more toward satirical tragedy, historical docufiction, and investigative biography rather than a traditional formulaic mystery thriller. He repeatedly uses real-world Jewish criminal activity, treason, and mob ties as the primary narrative engines for both his fiction and non-fiction. In his fiction, Evanier uses the ultimate political crime—cold war espionage—as a narrative framework:
Evanier, David, (Making the Wiseguys Weep: The Jimmy Roselli Story [hc, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998] 978-0374199272 [pb, Methuen, 2002] 978-0413740700 [In his biographical work, Evanier pivots directly into traditional true crime territories, focusing on Jewish figures entangled with organized crime. This biography focuses heavily on the Italian and Jewish mafia underworld of New York and New Jersey. Evanier explores how singer Jimmy Roselli navigated—and frequently clashed with—powerful mob syndicates. The book is rich with true-crime motifs, detailing extortion, underworld enforcement, and the dangerous overlap of show business and organized crime.
Evanier, David, (Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin (hc, Rodale Books, 2004) 978-1594860102 [pb, SUNY Pres, 2010] 978-1438434582 [Evanier digs into the life of singer Bobby Darin. The biography heavily outlines Darin’s intersections with the Copacabana crowd, Vegas wiseguys, and the shadow of the mob that dictated the entertainment industry at the time.
Evanier, David, (The Great Kisser [hc, Rager Media, 2007]) 978-0979209123 [Even when not writing explicitly about felonies, Evanier relies on the paranoia and investigative instincts of the thriller genre to drive his literary fiction, as for example when satirizing Jewish organizations. The protagonist works for a fictional activist organization called “Jewish Punchers”. His entire job mimics an intelligence analyst or detective—sorting massive files of data into two absolute categories: “Good for the Jews” or “Bad for the Jews”. Evanier uses this thriller-like obsession with threats, surveillance, and tribal protection to satirize post-war Jewish anxiety.
In sum, Evanier is obviously not a “whodunit” crime author. Rather, he uses espionage investigations, mob syndicates, and the anxiety of exposure as narrative drivers to analyze the Jewish experience. – Google/AI]