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A few Friday one-liners
2007-11-09 07:22:00
The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles asked authors to explain how Jewish sources inspire them.In the same issue of the Jewish Journal, Rabbi David Wolpe asks the tricky question, "who is a Jew[ish writer]?"There were quite a few Jewish writing figures among the Forward 50 this year. Authors Shalom Auslander and Michael Chabon made the list, as did the Jewish Book Council's Carolyn Starman Hessel, Nextbook's Jonathan Rosen and Harper Collins CEO Jane Friedman. Over at JBooks.com, Michael Kress, an editor at BeliefNet.com, wrote a review of Rodger Kamenetz's new book, "The History of Last Night's Dream."On the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's Web site, there was this article about a new book in which author Thomas Keneally tells the story behind 'Schindler's List.'And lastly, the San Francisco Chronicle had a story about talk radio host Michael Krasny's new book, "Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life."
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Jews And Power
2007-11-07 06:50:00
When asked about spirituality, many people like to say they don?t believe in any sort of ?organized religion.? Ruth R. Wisse, however, understands why being organized is a good thing for the Jews . Her new book, ?Jews and Power ,? explores the history of the Jewish people?s relationship with political power, whether it be their own in the state of Israel or someone else?s in the Diaspora. She begins the discussion with the loss of Jewish sovereignty following the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. Wisse, a professor of Yiddish literature and comparative literature at Harvard University, notes that many historians dismissed the idea that Diaspora Jewry engaged in any meaningful political activity during the years of exile. ?Jewish political history was thought to have ended with the destruction of the Second Temple and started up again in the late nineteenth century. ?We didn?t make our own history, the goyim make it for us,? declares Yudka, one of t...

Book deal worth noting: Shapiro?s ?Devotion?
2007-11-05 08:09:00
Publishers Weekly reported today that Harpers preempted a new book by Dani Shapiro in which the author will ?explore and understand the anxiety that has governed her life, in the process grappling with questions of faith, meaning and identity.? Shapiro, the author of five novels and one memoir, ?Slow Motion,? grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home and attended yeshiva until seventh grade when she went to prep school. Afterward, she attended Sarah Lawrence College where she met her future mentor, Grace Paley. But, she didn?t stay at Sarah Lawrence long enough to graduate. In ?Slow Motion,? Shapiro talks about how she dropped out of college, became dependant on alcohol and drugs and had an affair with her best friend?s stepfather. At this low point in her life, tragedy strikes. Her parents are badly hurt in a car wreck and Shapiro must summon the strength to help them in any way she can. She returns home to New Jersey and, in the process of helping her parents, Shapiro begins her own rec...
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Friday open thread
2007-11-02 11:06:00
Here are a few items from around the Web: • An 86-year-old Holocaust survivor in Little Canada, Minnesota may be the first to begin podcasting about his experiences during the war. According to Minnesota Public Radio, Henry Oertelt, a criminal justice professor at St. Cloud State University, recorded hours of readings from his book, "An Unbroken Chain: My Journey Through the Nazi Holocaust." The staff at the St. Cloud State University radio station, KVSC, edited the recordings and added music. The podcasts can be found on the KVSC Web site. • The Forward's Joshua Cohen reviewed Philip Davis' "Bernard Malamud: A Writer's Life."• Rabbi Moshe D. Lichtman's "Eretz Yisrael in the Parashah" was reviewed in the Jerusalem Post. • Ha'Aretz had a piece about how Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mark Strand's work is being translated into Hebrew and compiled into a book. Well, actually Hebrew writer Uzi Weill has been randomly translating Strand for 15 years and publishi...
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Everyday Jews ...
2007-11-01 17:12:00
The latest installment in the New Yiddish Library Series is Yehoshue Perle's "Everyday Jews : Scenes from a Vanished Life."It's a book that was first appeared in Poland in 1935. Originally published in Yiddish, this is the first time it has been translated into English. Here's the blurb: "When Everyday Jews was first published in Poland in 1935, the Jewish Left was scandalized by the sex scenes, and I. B. Singer complained that the novel was too bleak to be psychologically credible. Yet within two years Perle?s novel was heralded as a modern Yiddish masterpiece. Offering a unique blend of raw sexuality and romantic love, thwarted desire and spiritual longing, Everyday Jews is now considered Perle?s consummate achievement.The voice of Mendl, the novel's 12-year-old narrator, is precisely captured by this artfully simple translation. Mendl's impoverished and dysfunctional family struggles to survive in a nameless Polish provincial town. In his unsettled world, most ordinary peopl...

National Jewish Book Month is here
2007-11-01 05:33:00
National Jewish Book Mont h begins today and if you live anywhere close to civilization there's probably a Jewish book festival starting near your home soon. Here in Atlanta, the Jewish book festival begins Nov. 3 with an opening night keynote address from Alan Dershowitz. You can find a complete schedule on the Atlanta JCC's Web site. The lineup for Atlanta Jewish book festival always includes a wide array of authors. A few of the writers mentioned on this blog will be coming to town, including Nathan Englander (pictured left), Dalia Sofer and Peter Charles Melman. The closing night speakers will be President Clinton's Middle East envoy Dennis Ross and Emory University Professor Ken Stein. They will be discussing Ross' new book, "Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World."
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Top Ten Jewish bestsellers on Amazon
2007-10-31 05:30:00
I wanted to report on the bestselling Jewish books on Amazon .com but I ran into a slight problem: how do you define a ?Jewish? book. If you begin by searching for the word ?Jewish? under Amazon?s Books category, you get a whole lot of results that have some reference to the word ?Jewish? but the books themselves do not discuss Jewish topics or target a Jewish audience. So, I dug a little deeper in the Books section and discovered that Amazon has several Jewish sub-categories of larger categories, such as Biography and Memoirs. If you look under World Literature, there are sub-categories for Jewish and for Yiddish. We really must be the People of the Book to get two. Of course, there?s also the Judaism sub-category listed in Amazon?s Religion and Spirituality section. While these searches produced better results, I still never saw a single Philip Roth or Michael Chabon novel. Surely, I thought, these Jewish-themed books would be among the bestsellers in some category. Alas, I could n...
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Did NY Times invent a scandal at Commentary?
2007-10-30 09:08:00
There?s been some strong reaction to a New York Times article published last week on the so-called ?neo-nepotism? at Commentary magazine. For those of you who don?t know, John Podhoretz will become Commentary?s new editor on January 1, 2009. His father, Norman Podhoretz, held the same position for 35 years, retiring in 1995. First off, it takes some chutzpah for the Times to write about another publication engaging in nepotism. Last I checked, the Sulzberger family remains in control of the Gray Lady and they have been for quite a few generations. Also, John Podhoretz, 46, has done a lot to establish his own credentials in journalism and arts criticism. He started two magazines, including the Weekly Standard, and he?s held executive positions at a number of other publications, including the New York Post. Even without the famous father, I think his résumé would be strong enough to warrant an interview with Commentary. Nevertheless, Patricia Cohen?s article in the Times implies that ...
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Michael Chabon: 'I'm looking for a little adventure'
2007-10-29 09:53:00
For those of you who've been wondering why Michael Chabon ? a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who used to be considered serious and literary ? would delve into adventure tales, comic books and pulp fiction, he offers an explanation in the afterword to his new book, "Gentlemen of the Road." The (London) Telegraph republished the piece on their Web site over the weekend. The new book, which first appeared in serialized installments in the New York Times Magazine, is a swashbuckling tale of two 10th century soldiers of fortune. Chabon's original, working title for the book was "Jews With Swords." You're right to think that sounds whimsical. But, Chabon says he did not decide to write adventure stories on a whim. "I know it still seems incongruous, first of all, for me or a writer of my literary training, generation and pretensions to be writing stories featuring anybody with swords. As recently as 10 years ago, I had published two novels, and perhaps as many as 20 short stories, and ...
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Four things I should have blogged about this week
2007-10-26 08:19:00
First, I want to note the passing of Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich, a Jewish religious philosopher who died Sunday at his home in Riehen, a suburb of Basel. He was called a European bridge-builder between Christians and Jews. Second, there was a story from Reuters that says Yiddish is eying a comeback. From what the article says, there may be anywhere from two to four million people who speak Yiddish today. Third, Philip Roth?s 2006 novel ?Everyman? has been set to music. Last Tuesday night, there was a performance at Zankel Hall with the author in attendance. According to this article in the New York Times, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (whom I loved in "Capote") read aloud from the book. Fourth, while we're on the topic of Philip Roth, the Forward ran a review of his new book, "Exit Ghost." The review was written by Mark Shechner, a professor of English at the University of Buffalo and author of ?Up Society?s Ass, Copper: Rereading Philip Roth.?
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Tell the full story of Irène Némirovsky
2007-10-24 10:19:00
The story behind Irène Némirovsky?s new novel is almost as intriguing as the novel itself. And yet, several of the reviews and articles I?ve read fail to mention a few important facts about this Holocaust victim?s legacy. Némirovsky had been an accomplished writer in pre-World War II Europe. She died in Auschwitz in 1942 but left behind several unpublished works that were not discovered until recently when her daughter came across them in an old suitcase. The author?s first posthumously published work, ?Suite Française,? came out in 2004 and described life in Nazi-occupied Paris. The book became a surprise bestseller in France. Another recently discovered book, ?Fire in the Blood,? was published last month by Knopf. Some articles about the book, like this one by Carol Memmott in USA Today, refer to the novelist as ?the Jewish, Russian-born Némirovsky.? Similarly, a review I found on the Charlotte Observer?s Web site summed up Némirovsky?s life this way: ?The French Jewish writer, ...
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Rodger Kamenetz: About last night
2007-10-23 06:22:00
Rodger Kamenetz, author of ?The Jew in the Lotus,? and ?Stalking Elijah,? has a new book out that, according to Time magazine, veers from his roots as a writer deeply interested in Jewish mystical practice. The new book, ?The History of Last Night 's Dream,? delves into the topic of dream interpretation. Kamenetz studied with a teacher in Vermont named Marc Bregman, who advocates using feelings as a guide to learning more about a dream?s potential. Sounds a bit new age-ish? You bet. I?ll admit I was very skeptical of Kamenetz?s new venture when I began reading about it. But, the more I read, the more I became intrigued. Here?s what he told Time about how dreams can affect your waking life: ?We've found that if you change the way you behave in a dream, you can change the way you behave awake, making better choices as you begin to recreate the kind of relationships that evolve in your dreams. In my case, one aspect was learning how to be a student. I've been teaching for 27 years, a...
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Abraham Lincoln and the Jews
2007-10-22 06:32:00
This is one of those stories that just makes you stand in awe of Google. The search engine giant recently published a digital version of a long out-of-print book, ?Abraham Lincoln and the Jews .? Published in 1909, the history tome was digitized last year but it only recently received some publicity on the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News blog as well as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's Web site. The imprint on the third page indicates that the original copy came from the Harvard College Library. It was written by Isaac Markens, the author of an 1888 book, ?The Hebrews of America.? According to his Wikipedia entry, Markens lived from 1846 to 1928 and wrote for the New York Commercial Advertiser and the Mail and Express. The reason historians of Jewish life in America would be interested in the recently digitized book is because, as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency states, it appears to be ?the fullest account of Lincoln?s dealings with the Jews before and during the Civ...
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Misheberach for Norman Mailer
2007-10-18 05:34:00
This morning, it would be appropriate to say a misheberach (prayer for a sick person) for Norman Mailer who, as of this writing, is recovering from surgery to remove scar tissue from one of his lungs.According to the Boston Globe, Mailer is recovering at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. He had some related health problems in September when breathing difficulties forced him to cancel several public appearances.It's been an eventful week for this literary icon. His latest book, "On God: An Uncommon Conversation," was published on Tuesday. In the new tome, Mailer apparently expounds on his belief in God. According to this article in the N.Y. Jewish Week, the book is "an edited transcript of a discussion between Mailer?s [literary executor, Michael Lennon], 65, and his friend, neighbor and muse, the 84-year-old Mailer. The topic is God, and Mailer ? once an atheist ? comes out a professed believer.Here's wishing you well, Norman.
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Did NY Times ignore conflict on 'Foreskin' article?
2007-10-17 06:55:00
The buzz this week is about the October 1 New York Times article written by Charles McGrath about Shalom Auslander's new book, "Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir." I previously blogged about the article because I thought it was utterly contrived Here's the setup: Auslander, a former Orthodox Jew who is bitter and angry and wrote a book about it, takes his first trip back to Monsey on the second day of Rosh Hashana. He drives around the Orthodox enclave just to see what sort of reaction he might get. Oh yeah, he also talks about the new book. It turns out the article may have had other problems. Last week, mediabistro.com's Galleycat blog had an item titled, "It Really IS A Small World, After All" in which it was revealed that McGrath "never mentioned Riverhead, the publisher of Foreskin's Lament, which means that he never mentions the fact that the imprint's executive editor, Sarah McGrath, is his daughter."Galleycat goes on to say: "[It's not that] I'm suggesting Auslander's me...
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Review of Michael Simon's 'The Last Jew Standing'
2007-10-16 10:17:00
There?s a lot to like about Michael Simon?s new novel, ?The Last Jew Standing .? The book follows the travails of Dan Reles, a Jewish homicide detective at the Austin Police Department. He?s got a promising career, a new house, a beautiful wife and young son. One night, Dan?s long-lost father ? whom Dan has not spoken with or heard from in 15 years ? shows up on his doorstep with a Russian prostitute in tow. What?s more, the elder Reles may be connected to a New York murder. This latter bit of knowledge forces the young detective into a delicate balancing act: he?s got to decide whether to arrest his father for murder or to believe him when he declares his innocence. If Dan Reles waits too long and his father turns out to be guilty, it would make the detective an accessory to the crime. As a law enforcement officer, he?s supposed to report everything he knows immediately or he could be charged with aiding and abetting a criminal. Do you think he?s nervous when a local FBI agent st...
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Best of the Web: A Monday Roundup
2007-10-15 11:15:00
The New York Post had a review of Michael Chabon's new book, "Gentleman of the Road." As the Post notes, the book was originally published in serial form in the New York Times Magazine. Its original title? "Jews with Swords." Thankfully, Chabon decided to change it. On the other side of the Hudson, The Record published a story last week about Ben Yehuda Press, an "obscure but growing publishing company run from a home in Teaneck." The company counts Lawrence Bush as well as Rabbis Avi Weiss and Shefa Gold among its stable of writers. Here's an excerpt from the article: "When a Teaneck couple opened their own publishing business several years ago, they started small.Larry and Eve Yudelson, who founded Ben Yehuda Press, printed limited numbers of their Jewish-themed books and offered nominal advances to their authors.Distribution was also limited, with most of the books sold online or in a small assortment of bookstores.'By printing a limited number of copies we didn't have that i...
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Odds and Ends: Malamud, Clayton and Auslander
2007-10-12 12:33:00
I picked out a few things worthy of your valuable reading time. First, in the New York Sun, Ruth Franklin, a senior editor at the New Republic, reviews Philip Davis' "Bernard Mala mud: A Writer's Life." Here is an excerpt: Acknowledging that his book must be primarily "a literary life, as the life of Malamud indeed was," he argues that Malamud was in fact a great writer who, through his endless striving for plainness of style, came closer "to the bone of human feeling," in Alfred Kazin's phrase, then any other writer. And he takes Malamud's lack of a publicly engaged personal life as an opportunity to investigate the eternal question of whether the artist must choose, "perfection of the life, or of the work," as in the line from Yeats that Malamud once used as an epigraph. But Mr. Davis also shows that the image of Malamud as schlemiel is wrong in another, more troubling way. Malamud was not a simple man, but he was not entirely honest, either; and out of his deceptions, Mr. Dav...
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And the winner is ... not Philip Roth
2007-10-11 06:37:00
It?s not Amoz Oz, either. It?s not even the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, who had been among the top three favorites along with Roth and Oz. Doris Lessing (pictured left) is the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy called her, ?that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.?I?m not as familiar with her work but after glancing at her biography and reading of her upbringing in Iran by British parents, it appears this could be a continuation of the politicizing of the Swedish Academy. So, the Nobel folks continue with their unpredictable ways. Oh well. As other columnists and commentators have noted, Roth can take comfort in the knowledge that the Nobel Prize committee has also snubbed the likes of Joseph Conrad, Franz Kafka and Marcel Proust. There?s always next year.
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Oddsmakers favor Philip Roth to win Nobel Prize
2007-10-10 06:53:00
The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced tomorrow and a U.K. bookmaker says Philip Roth is the favorite to win. As of this writing, Ladbrokes PLC has Roth leading the odds at 7-2. It would be the crowing achievement to a career that has seen Roth win just about every other literary prize. He received the National Book Award in 1960 for his first book, ?Goodbye, Columbus.? He won another National Book Award in 1995 for ?Sabbath's Theater.? And, he took home the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1998 for ?American Pastoral.? But, as Hephzibah Anderson notes in this Bloomberg News article, the ?ways of the Swedish Academy are legendarily baffling.? ?For the past three years, the prize has gone to overtly political writers: Elfriede Jelinek and Harold Pinter, both strident critics of U.S. foreign policy, won in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Last year's award went to Orhan Pamuk, who found himself hauled into court ? and onto the political frontline ? in 2005 on a charge that he ha...
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Shalom Auslander, just get over it
2007-10-09 07:01:00
I've never met Shalom Ausland er and I have not read his new book, "Foreskin's Lament." But, from what I have seen already, he seems like a maladjusted kid who likes to complain a lot. That said, he appears to have written a mildly entertaining memoir that either charms or repulses the critics. Writing for the Associated Press, Rachel Konrad says Auslander needs to ?get over it.? Here is an excerpt from her review: Auslander starts out funny and fresh -- think Philip Roth but much more bitter, vulgar and sarcastic. However, he relies too much on the guilt schtick and even recycles the same phrases. (A favorite is, "That is so God.") Some hilarious moments -- including the discovery of the "Stone of Pornography," a trove of dirty magazines in the woods -- wear thin by mid-book.It's also tough to maintain empathy for someone who argues with -- as opposed to listens to -- his therapist, wife and others offering help; Auslander doesn't truly commit to overcoming his dysfunctions.In t...
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Saul Bellow's remarks on race
2007-10-08 13:01:00
Controversy blew into Chicago last week over a request to have the city name something after Saul Bellow. Here is an excerpt from an Oct. 5 article in the Chicago Tribune:The request, made several months ago to Mayor Richard Daley's office by Bellow's longtime friend and University of Chicago colleague Richard Stern, was sent along to Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th.) The request was promptly denied, Stern said. Although Preckwinkle declined to comment for this article Thursday, Stern said he received a letter from the alderman saying she had heard remarks from Bellow she considered racist and because of those comments would not agree to name something after the author.Bellow, who died in 2005, was known to have said some things that upset minorities and drew accusations of elitism. As the Tribune notes, he famously told an interviewer in 1988: "Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus? The Proust of the Papuans? I'd be glad to read them." Bellow later said he'd been misquoted but there's n...
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A few one-liners
2007-10-03 06:55:00
Here are a few worthy reads: • God, writing in yesterday's edition of the Village Voice, apparently didn't find the humor in Shalom Auslander's new book, "Foreskin's Lament." • Jan Gross's recent book "Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz," received a review in today's New York Sun. • Of all the reviews and articles I've read recently about Philip Roth's "Exit Ghost," this piece written by Bryan Cheyette is one of the best.• And, speaking of Philip Roth, our Headline of the Week comes to us from the New York Post's review of "Exit Ghost": "IT?S TIME HE ASKED HIS DOCTOR ABOUT LEVITRA"
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