Righting Wrongs in The Long Shalom
Written by Zachary Rosenberg
This book started as a dream. When I first saw the call for pulp style stories, I sent in my pitch, never expecting anything but a pass. A few nights later, visiting New York for my cousin’s wedding with a travel-inflicted migraine, my phone buzzed. I told myself I’d give one last look and then sleep. And there was a message from Waylon Jordan, telling me how excited he was for the idea, with one question: “How soon can you write this?” There wasn’t any sleeping for a bit after that.
When I grew up reading old-school pulp, whether fantasy, horror, or detective fiction, it all seemed to have something in common: its complete contempt for me as a person. It’s hard to love all this as a Jewish writer sometimes. From Robert E. Howard to Raymond Chandler, the absolute dislike of Jewish people was right there on the page. We were greedy, if not outright diabolical. We were venal and weak, every negative stereotype rolled up for our reading pleasure. People say it’s hard to love stories that don’t really love you back, but what about when those stories just hate you?
Horror isn’t exactly a stranger to antisemitism. Since the days of yore, Jewish caricatures permeated modern conceptions of witches, vampires, and more. When I started writing Jewish horror, it was a major goal to write our folklore and history, with strong characters who didn’t conform to those old stereotypes.
When I first saw the call at Off-Limits Press for pulp stories, it sparked that inspiration in my head. I had time to consider what I wanted to do, deciding in the end on detective fiction. I loved detective and mystery stories, from Dashiel Hammett to Raymond Chandler to Isaiah Coleridge in modern day. I love writing Jewish horror. It seemed obvious the one idea was to write one hell of a Jewish detective horror story. I had the idea of maybe tapping into a Roaring Twenties Jewish horror one day, and this seemed a great opportunity to do so.
But it wasn’t enough to write ‘only’ a Jewish horror story. Pulp was pretty equal opportunity in who it offended. Asian people were portrayed as vile orientalists seeking the overthrow of the western world, oversexualized dragon ladies, and wicked crime lords. Black people spoke in pidgin-English and were described in often exceedingly vile terms. Gay people were coded as feminine or their sexuality would be a part of their villainy. This book had to be one that some old pulp readers would despise. Take the people whose “otherness” would make them despised in those bygone eras, and give them power and agency. Make them the heroes.
The next question was how to make it ‘horror.’ Authors like P. Djeli Clark and Laird Barron were foremost in my mind when it came to inspiration: both of them wrote cosmic horror and vast conspiracies from evil forces. Clark’s Ring Shout was a world of people fighting back against monstrous forces of racism, while Barron presented evil beings who had infiltrated the highest echelons of human society in The Croning.
As a title, The Long Shalom came to be after a chance glance at Eliot Gould’s The Long Goodbye. Looking at Eliot Gould there, I knew I had the burgeoning ideas for my detective. Looking back to characters like Mike Hammer, Sam Spade, and the older version of Philip Marlowe, I had ideas. A man with a dark past, a down-on-his-luck detective with a hidden side of decency. Smooth-talking, sarcastic, a heck of a fighter.
And Jewish. A man who could represent the best and worst of the Jewish people of the era. A hero, but also a man who’d worked with the burgeoning force of the Jewish mob under the infamous Arnold Rothstein. Alan Aldenberg was born. And he wasn’t enough.
Erika Nakamura came next. Asian and Jewish, to show that Jewish people are diverse. Confident, moral, but intelligent and even manipulative for a good cause. What I hope is my answer to the offensive ‘dragon lady’ stereotype. Roger McAllister and Lenore Zielinski both followed. Roger is a kindhearted soldier, a husband, and father who’s probably the most moral voice in the book.
And Lenore? I thought it imperative I have a trans person in this story. Antisemitism has risen. Hate crimes against Asian people reached new highs during the COVID pandemic. Transphobia remains a horrific evil that is growing worse. I wanted to portray a trans person who was strong, beautiful, whose identity is accepted and valid, never questioned by those around her. And a damn fight shot.
The Long Shalom isn’t shy about showcasing the corruption at the heart of multiple institutions. I hoped to include enough intrigue and actions to keep people invested throughout, along with characters readers can keep cheering for. People who are imperfect, but doing their absolute best with what they have as Jewish folklore comes alive before their eyes and they make tough choices ahead.
This is a book written from the heart, for every Jewish kid out there who ever wanted to see themselves as the hard-boiled heroes. I hope everyone enjoys it!