Jacob M. Appel is the author of the novels The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up and The Biology of Luck. His short fiction has appeared in over two hundred literary journals; a collection, Scouting for the Reaper, will be published this a fall. He practices medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. More at: www.jacobmappel.com
Spring 2014
Sudden Death: A Eulogy
My great-grandfather, Simon Litman, Latvian immigrant, secular Jew, inept businessman, gifted egg candler, doting father, cigar-smoker and pint-sized omnivore who (at least in family lore) could devour his own bodyweight in gribenes, holds the distinction of being the last of my forbears to drop dead.