Captives is a unusual story, tense from the beginning as Daniel starts trying to understand his desire to play the assassin and quickly captures the reader with the variety of events that unfold.
Reviewed by Sheri Harper
Captives
by Tod Hasik-Lowy
Spiegel & Grau
ISBN: 978-0-385-52773-6,
The power behind Tod Hasik-Lowy’s book Captive lies in its ability to capture the disgruntlement with life that comes with middle age. Hero Daniel is so wrapped up in his writing career that he’s allowed much of the everyday reality of life to fade into the background and his friends and family are reacting unfavorably in response. Daniel recognizes the problem but finds that the true problem starts deep within himself in the question of what role does God play in his life.
There are no easy answers for Daniel as he faces up to his own realizations about where he is in his life. His mind is consumed by his script about vigilante activities against the leaders of the community that he feels are responsible for the betrayals of the world so much that he completely identifies with his own characters. At the same time, he’s beginning to realize how much he’s betrayed his wife, his son and his one or two friends.
One of the most powerful parts of the story involves a trip to Israel. In this section of the book, Tod Hasik-Lowy captures the experience of dislocation and time change so well that it is humorous. Daniel has a much different experience from most tourists when his private guide decides to help him with his story plot and to see the real Israel.
I found the complex examination of Daniel’s inner struggle with what his relationship to his writing and God meant to him fascinating because it shows what few people have to deal with in life – the need to walk an inner world and outer world, at one point striving to change the world and at the same time betraying his own private world. It’s not an easy path, and Tod Hasik-Lowy doesn’t make the ending perfect. Instead he allows Daniel to be true to character and to face up to the mistakes he’s made in life.
Other characters in the story aren’t as complex. His agent stands out as a humorous but kind man. His struggle with the new local rabbi makes the reader sympathesize with any rabbi in the world although this particular rabbi is as much trouble for Daniel as Daniel is to him.
Captives is a unusual story, tense from the beginning as Daniel starts trying to understand his desire to play the assassin and quickly captures the reader with the variety of events that unfold. The style is equally unusual and because of it the reader can relate to Daniel who is less than perfect, yet whose desire to change the world captivates.
About the reviewer: Sheri Fresonke Harper is a poet and writer. She's been published in many small journals and is working on her second science fiction novel. See www.sfharper.com
Captives is a unusual story, tense from the beginning as Daniel starts trying to understand his desire to play the assassin and quickly captures the reader with the variety of events that unfold. 
