Iguana Books

294 pages, $19.99

Review by Jody Hobbs Hesler

Have you ever been a token at your workplace? The only woman? The only Jew / Asian / Hispanic / African-American? What if you are two of these things – a powerhouse of a double-token for your firm? And what if you are good at your job, but the junior colleague whose dead weight you always have to carry winds up being promoted ahead of you? Welcome to Joely Zeller’s world, as wrought in Naomi Elana Zener’s debut novel, Deathbed Dimes, and watch what she does – Stanford Law School grad, Jewish woman double-token for her New York City law firm – when her ignoramus of a junior associate becomes partner instead of her.

For Joely, this horrible workday happens the morning after her fiancé ditches her, having realized late in the game that he is gay. His self-discovery is so beyond Joely’s expectations that when she comes home to an eerily empty apartment, her first reaction is, “Obviously Yan had been abducted.” Continue reading →