Author
Bob Gilbert grew up in Jackson Township, New Jersey. He attended American University and later moved to Minneapolis where he worked as a community newspaper reporter and a waiter. His passions include backpacking and the study of old books. Currently, he splits his time between Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis where he is completing his fourth novel
Bob Gilbert grew up in Jackson Township, New Jersey. He attended American University and later moved to Minneapolis where he worked as a community newspaper reporter and a waiter. His passions include backpacking and the study of old books. Currently, he splits his time between Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis where he is completing his fourth novel
Gilbert’s debut novel is a delightfully fresh version of the noir tradition, offering the reader a contemporary “Casablanca” in Washington D.C. The book’s narrator, Renaissance man Joe Green, has plenty to say about love, politics and the male psyche in this page-turning romantic suspense. Joe runs a bookstore and a bistro, and painfully navigates a modern divorce while the Senate Intelligence Committee investigates his relationship with Cosmo, a protégé, who has recently been paroled after serving five years in prison for the ambiguous killing of a local black youth. Green, a proud Jersey boy, can all at once relax by watching his tortoises, handout liberal advice to his three teenagers, and pack serious heat. He is a twenty-first century American male if ever there was one
This is a comedic Minnesota ghost story. It’s narrator, Ivan Kalinsky, is a dead Russian Communist from the Bolshevik class of 1917. When Stalin started purging Jews from the Communist Party ranks in the 1930’s, Kalinsky escaped to Northern Minnesota where he lived out his long life as a union organizer for the steel workers. Now dead and about to ascend to heaven and his long lost Communist friends when two pesky Hasidic ghosts, Himmelman and Singer blackmail him into helping heal and redirect, Joshua Bronstein, who though a damaged soul is a candidate for the Lamed Vav, one of the thirty-six hidden righteous men from who themessiah will be chosen when God decides it is time. It becomes Kalinsky’s job to shepherd Bronstein out of his north woods wilderness and retie him to his faith
This prequel to Bob Gilbert’s first novel "Mintwood Place," is a coming of age story set in the 1970s. It features the young Joe Green, who we already know as a divorced father of three, involved in the political skullduggery of Washington, D.C. Now we meet young Joe, a senior at American University, who gets himself in trouble and flees the city two steps ahead of the law. His escape takes him to Sonoma County, California, where he goes into hiding. During his lonesome months of exile, he expands his imagination with the study of such books as Homer’s "The Odyssey," and "The I Ching," of Confucius. He also becomes a successful marijuana grower. After two years, he returns to D.C. with money and a gnostic sense that stands in opposition to the emerging politics of the Reagan era. "Green Goes Forth" is Bob Gilbert’s third novel
Bob Gilbert’s fourth novel, “A Firm State of Heart” takes place in Washington, D.C. Its protagonist, Minneapolis writer Samuel Meckler is crafting a long poem that’s trying to rise above the chaos of the Trump presidency. Meckler supports himself by working as a waiter at Tadich Grill, an upscale Washington restaurant located on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the US Capitol. His interaction with congressmen, senators, foreign diplomats, tourists and media personalities give him an eyewitness understanding of American politics. His social life takes him into DC cultural salons, ghetto trap houses, and Capitol Hill watering holes. His affair with a famous broadcaster coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic recession, and the death of George Floyd in his hometown. Ultimately, “A Firm State of Heart” is about an idealist trying to formulate a new American narrative in a digital age rife with cynicism and rage.