Hantover, Jeffrey (Jeffrey Philip Hantover)

PERSONAL:

Born in Kansas City, MO; married Mee-Seen Loong; children: one daughter. Education: Harvard University, B.A., attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government; University of Chicago, M.S. E., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—NY. Agent—Marly Rusoff & Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 524, Bronxville, NY 10708. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer; previously taught at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN; served as director of the National Social Service Agency, New York, NY; worked in labor rights compliance for Gap, Inc., in Asia and the United States.

WRITINGS:

Sex Role, Sexuality, and Social Status: The Early Years of the Boy Scouts of America (microform), 1976.

Boston, original photography by Gilbert King, Sterling (New York, NY), 2008.

The Jewel Trader of Pegu (novel), William Morrow (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor to An Ocean Apart: Contemporary Vietnamese Art from the United States and Vietnam, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, 1995.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jeffrey Hantover was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Earning a bachelor of arts degree from Harvard University, he went on to study at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and earned a master of the sociology of education degree and a doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Chicago. He served on the sociology faculty at Vanderbilt University, and became the executive director of the National Social Service Agency in New York City, the largest social service accrediting organization in North America. Hantover also worked for the Gap, Inc., both in Asia and the United States, where he was a senior manager in both labor rights compliance and the department responsible for social responsibility. He has served as a consultant to various corporations and nonprofit organizations. In 1989, Hantover traveled to Hong Kong, and for more than a decade he wrote about the culture and art of the area and across Asia, including street food, architecture, the making of a biographical movie about martial arts film icon Bruce Lee, and up-and-coming art. He brought edgy Vietnamese art, which was just emerging during that time period, to the West and the rest of the world, and he wrote the catalog for the first major exhibition of Vietnamese art outside of Vietnam. Over the course of his career, Hantover has written several books and catalogues, including Sex Role, Sexuality, and Social Status: The Early Years of the Boy Scouts of America; Boston; and his debut novel, The Jewel Trader of Pegu. He also contributed to the volume An Ocean Apart: Contemporary Vietnamese Art from the United States and Vietnam.

The Jewel Trader of Pegu is an exotic novel, combining a love story, travel guide, and a deeply philosophical discourse on both faith and humanity. An epistolary novel set in 1598, it is told in a series of letters sent home by a Jewish jewel trader named Abraham, who has traveled from his home in Venice, Italy, to Pegu (now Bago), Burma. A sense of freedom is evident in Abraham's writings—for the first time he is not required to live in a ghetto. He also enjoys the novelty and simple pleasure of being able to take a walk wherever and whenever he wishes, a true luxury. However, he soon learns that in Pegu, it is expected of strangers to perform a certain act on behalf of young brides, so that their marriages will be lucky. This act is forbidden by Jewish law, and Abraham suddenly finds himself isolated once more, in a part of the world that is suddenly experiencing an increasing unrest. He also meets Mya, a young woman that Abraham is supposed to help with making her upcoming marriage "lucky." Yet Abraham develops feelings for her, an added pressure to their situation as the potential relationship could make them outcasts. Abraham recounts these events in his letters home, which are apparently unanswered.

Critics received The Jewel Trader of Pegu with positive reviews, acknowledging that though Hantover is a subtle writer, both his style and structure are strong. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly remarked that in the book, Hantover "evokes the lush setting and gives clear voice to Abraham's doubts, fears and passions." Sarah Johnson, in a review for Booklist, postulated that readers will be "swept away by Hantover's lavish descriptions of an exotic, lost Asian kingdom; [and] the gentle love story." A contributor to the Running with Books Web site declared that The Jewel Trader of Pegu "is a great story of a man who finds freedom and love in an unexpected place." Barbara Lingens, a contributor to the BookLoons Web site, commented that "it is quite an achievement for a first-time [fiction] author to induct [readers] in two such different worlds as that of sixteenth-century Venice and Burma. But that … Hantover does."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2007, Sarah Johnson, review of The Jewel Trader of Pegu, p. 19.

Publishers Weekly, November 5, 2007, review of The Jewel Trader of Pegu, p. 44.

Smithsonian, May 1, 1996, review of An Ocean Apart: Contemporary Vietnamese Art from the United States and Vietnam, p. 154.

St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, FL), January 13, 2008, "Making an Enlightening Journey East," review of The Jewel Trader of Pegu, p. 11.

ONLINE

BookLoons,http://www.bookloons.com/ (August 20, 2008), Barbara Lingens, review of The Jewel Trader of Pegu.

Curled Up with a Good Book,http://www.curledup.com/ (August 20, 2008), Michael Leonard, review of The Jewel Trader of Pegu.

Genre Go Round Reviews Web log,http://genregoroundreviews.blogspot.com/ (November 17, 2007), Harriet Klausner, review of The Jewel Trader of Pegu.

Jeffrey Hantover Home Page,http://www.jeffreyhantover.com (August 20, 2008).

Jew Wishes Web log,http://jewwishes.wordpress.com/ (February 20, 2008), review of The Jewel Trader of Pegu.

Romance Reader at Heart Web site,http://romancereaderatheart.com/ (August 20, 2008), Nancy Davis, review of The Jewel Trader of Pegu.

Running with Books Web log,http://runningwithbooks.blogspot.com/ (March 13, 2008), review of The Jewel Trader of Pegu.

Rusoff Agency Web site,http://www.rusoffagency.com/ (August 20, 2008), author profile.