Native Five Towner, writes sequel to ‘Mr. Wizard'

Five Towns native Jeff Wallach published “Mr. Wizard,” a fiction novel which encompasses many places that may be familiar to Five Towners, in 2020, and will publish its sequel, “Everyone Here is From Somewhere Else” noting Long Island locales, in March.

Wallach grew up in North Woodmere in the 1960s, where his experiences contributed to many of the places and people he wrote about in “Mr. Wizard” and “Everyone Here.”

“As novelist we steal details from our own lives and from the lives of people that we know,” Wallach said. He began writing as a seventh-grader at Woodmere Middle School and has since published four nonfiction books, and one fiction novel.

“Mr. Wizard” tells a story about two brothers, Phillip and Spencer Elliot, who grow up in Hewlett believing that their father was a Jewish victim of the Vietnam war. The brothers learn from a cryptic comment from their mother, who has dementia, that their father wasn’t who they thought, so they go on a search for answers about their family history. “I look at it as sort of a DNA treasure hunt,” Wallach said.

After publishing the prequel, Wallach began writing, “In a Workman Like Manner,” a mystery novel, that he had on the back burner for a few years, which, “was not proceeding particularly well,” he said.

That book was not as fun to write as “Mr. Wizard” — of which the writing, editing, and publishing process took two years overall, Wallach said, and although it was much different than the final product, the first draft was completed in nearly six months. “It was pretty quick! That was the fastest and most enjoyable writing experience of my career — even after having done this for three and a half decades,” he said.

While Wallach faced difficulties with the new book, he found that he “had some more to say about the brothers,” Wallach said. “I just realized that I wasn’t done with these characters.”

So, he put off his mystery novel project again and began writing a sequel to “Mr. Wizard,” which he wrote even quicker than the prequel. “You can’t really know people without knowing where they came from, and even what experiences their parents had,” Wallach said. “‘Everyone Here’ explores the back stories of crucial characters and reveals how their pasts influence the lives of their children even decades later.”

The chapters in the sequel, alternate between building the story of the brothers in the present and flashbacks with other major characters, to fill in missing story pieces and build upon a broader timeline.

“We learn more about the mother her relationship before the boys were even born,” Wallach said. “If the first book solves the mystery, the second book solved some other mysteries that weren’t presented in the first book.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed this book — at least as much as “Mr. Wizard,” Wallach’s friend and “Everyone Here” early reader Kieran Devine said. “I find Jeff’s wit and sense of humor laugh-out-loud funny.”

Dan Pope, editor and “book doctor” of both novels compares Wallach’s writing to work by American novelist Richard Russo, as both writers explore philosophies of life, and the way people live and relate to each other in their writing.

Pope described the sequel as “a happy book” which “explores men’s lives and the complicated emotions that men have”. Wallach added: “It’s really nice to read a novel that goes that deeply into characters who have such a bond with each other through family.”

Link to purchase “Everyone Here is From Somewhere Else”