The Case Record

ALVIN HANDELMAN'S LATEST NOVEL, The Case Record, is full of smart, wonderful material. Handelman has created a touchingly nave character in Sam Peters, a newbie Caseworker at the Bushwick, Brooklyn, Department of Welfare. In addition to its fraught love story, the novel does the brave, important thing of homing in on white privilege. Though Sam Peters is Jewish, he still suffers from a heavy-duty savior complex. Do his first clients, the Garcia family, use this to get what they want? And does Celeste Garcia, smart and beautiful, really love this guy?

-Adam Prince, author of The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men