Jeffrey M. Feingold’s story collection, The Black Hole Pastrami, is a delicious offering of interwoven stories, seasoned with surrealism, humor, a bit of regret, a lot of heart. One great benefit of this collection of very short stories is that once you have turned its every page, you have time to read it again, the second time lingering over your favorites. For me, one of those is the surprisingly poignant story of the child who loses control of the family car in imaginary single-minded, ardent pursuit of Nazis, the length of his legs an unfortunate mismatch to his determination to vanquish the foe and win World War II. Each story has its own turning point, while the collection as a whole is like a Maypole of interconnectedness: relationships and images that reach through several narratives to continually connect and reconnect to remind us that this could as easily be called a novel."

      -Jan Maher, award-winning author of Earth As It Is, The Persistence of Memory, and Heaven, Indiana

Feingold’s stories are written in the first person and emotionally have the feel of autobiography. The release captured at the close of 'The Black Hole Pastrami is profoundly moving: 'The black hole cracked open; light streamed out. For the first time, I forgave myself. For not saving them. For failing at the impossible.'

The author is also expert at describing shifting personal perspectives; one regards the aunt who embarrasses her teenage nephew by stealing sugar differently when it’s explained that she lived through rationing during the Depression and World War II.

Although Feingold’s stories can be darkly poignant, they can also make readers laugh out loud, as when the patient with the tissue graft in “Seventh Sense” announces: “I taste dead people.” The collected tales are also intriguing due to the echoes that link them. Further references to The Sixth Sense star Bruce Willis crop up in other stories, as do mentions of the black pastrami, making for delightful moments.

Feingold has a pleasantly unconventional descriptive style, unusually capturing events such as sitting in the dentist’s chair: “my mouth as wide open as an angry hippopotamus, as he poked with cold pointy instruments" ... a textured, imaginative debut collection.Inventive and emotionally observant writing.

         - Kirkus Reviews

Jeffrey M. Feingold writes with tremendous charm and has a gentle, affectionate attitude towards his characters and their situations in THE BLACK HOLE PASTRAMI, a collection of stories that are quick and comforting reads. There’s an echo of Jean Shepherd’s work here, a humorous and slightly fictionalized recounting of an affectionately-recalled if not perfect childhood and life—instead of a Red Rider BB gun, a young boy carries around a pillow case full of explosives with which to battle Nazis.

         - IndieReader

The stories of Jeffrey M. Feingold’s The Black Hole Pastrami are written with an uncommonly deft touch. Feingold knows just when to nudge readers with a metaphorical elbow and when to swing the figurative hammer. These stories are brief but not underdeveloped. Complex but not complicated. Sensitive but not sentimental. Literary but not conventional. Ironic but not sarcastic. Humorous but not jokey. Secretive but not obscure. Character-driven but not plot-impaired. Unpredictable but not random. Feingold pulls off his storytelling balancing act like a tightrope walker who lets us delight in the ultimate performance while barely noticing the years of practice.

         - John Sheirer, author of Stumbling Through Adulthood: Linked Stories

Five star review

     - Readers' Favorite

At once a love letter to family and an examination of the tension between carefree and careless youth and regretful middle age, this charming collection of stories is full of heart and humour and speaks not only of the lives of its characters but the lives of Eastern European immigrants in America and their children, what their new country made possible in their lives and what it delimited. Each story opens a window into a defining moment in a character's life, and together these moments make up a picture of American lives and immigrant traditions.

      - Christian Livermore, author of We Are Not OK