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Elisa Albert's discussion of "The Book of Dahlia," her first novel, could have easily devolved into a depressing conversation about the book's protagonist, a woman who defines the term anti-heroine.

Instead, the hour-long chat at United Synagogue of Hoboken was an insider's view into Dahlia Finger, a fictionalized amalgam of traits Albert has come across in her travels. Finger is a somewhat insufferable 29-year-old, one happy to be a layout, stoned on her couch.

"If we only empathize with good people, people we like, then empathy isn't that great a feat," Albert told about three dozen people gathered at the Feb. 22 Philip and Claire Meistrich Speaker Program. "If we can empathize with someone we don't like, that's an accomplishment."

Albert's description of her book is apt, as the tale tracks the journey of an unemployed, sometimes kind, often depressed woman as she deals with the diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumor. The characters are not of the easy-to-like variety: divorced parents who don't think kindly of each other and a brother, Rabbi Dan, who is the worst "big brother since Cain."

The first novel from Albert was only a matter of time. The 30-year-old teaches creative writing at Columbia University in New York City. She's also previously published a collection of short stories. The Brooklyn resident is already working on ideas for her second novel, though she admittedly can't say whether it will be a happier plot than her first.

"There's no such thing as a happy idea or an unhappy idea," Albert said. "It's all about the execution."

Still, much of "The Book of Dahlia" is rooted in the struggles Albert has experienced in her life. She was raised in Los Angeles, like Dahlia, and attended Brandeis University. Perhaps most telling, the book is dedicated to David, an older brother who died of a brain tumor 11 years ago at the age of 29, the same age Dahlia is diagnosed.

"I was looking for a way to approach that experience," Albert said.

Albert also peers into sensitive topics to Jewish readers, such as the emotional baggage of Israeli immigrant children living in the United States and the modern reality of growing up with acrimoniously divorced parents.

Her written voice teeters between the solemn and the irreverent, a fact punctuated as she read a chapter to those gathered at USH. The audience chuckled at Dahlia's unflinchingly honest descriptions, but said little as her narrative dipped into colloquial cusses seldom heard in the social hall.

"It's a sophisticated crowd, so I'm not worried," said Razel Solow, a USH congregant and one of the organizers of the speaker program.

For her part, Albert enjoyed answering questions from the simplistic to the philosophical. The latter was highlighted when Rabbi Robert Scheinberg questioned whether Dahlia was redemptive or redeemable. Albert answered that Dahlia's resonance is her humanity, even if it is rooted in a personal negativity that makes her unlikeable to many.

"We're all redeemable," Albert said.

Solow thought Albert was a good speaker for the continuing series on Jewish authors. The book focuses heavily on Dahlia's identity and the conflicted identity of her parents, an American Jew who married an Israeli Jew. It also features a curious structure that pits Dahlia's struggle against the recommendations of a fictional self-help book that offers hollow platitudes including "all living beings cease to live eventually."

"I haven't read the book yet," said Vicki Ploscowe of Tinton Falls, who was at the event with a friend from Hudson County. "I intend to read a signed copy."