#7 - Liana Millu's Smoke Over Birkenau
I cannot believe I did not know until last month of this brilliant translation (in 1991) by the novelist and short-story writer, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, of Millu's six essays on her experiences in Birkenau. You will cry, and you will be amazed at her elegance, in these astonishing stories which tell of the women who lived and suffered alongside her during her months at Birkenau in 1944. They are stories "of violence and tragedy, but also of resistance, of dreaming in the middle of a nightmare, and of the endurance of the human spirit." Primo Levi says that it is "one of the most powerful European testimonies to come form the women's lager at Auschwitz-Birkenau."
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Book Recommendation #6
Clive Sinclair, in his True Tales of the Wild West, claims that the hybrid work he has written could be called "creative realism," but he prefers the term "dodgy nonfiction." Either way, it is so much fun! Two Jewish cousins from Luton, England, Saltzman and Peppercorn, wander the west trying to write it up. Peppercorn is a photojournalist doing a piece on the Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park in So Dakota, but that is just an excuse for trying to find his inner cowboy. Saltzman is an American Studies professor from the University of St Albans and his adventures are more startling and even more fun (if that is possible). Much of this "cannot put it down" book is packed with details about actors and movies and scenes in movies: did you know that Mrs Wyatt Earp was of German Jewish ancestry? The dime-novel cover says it all (as you will see when you are done) and this is a clever, funny, slanted take on America, pop culture and much much else.
Clive Sinclair, in his True Tales of the Wild West, claims that the hybrid work he has written could be called "creative realism," but he prefers the term "dodgy nonfiction." Either way, it is so much fun! Two Jewish cousins from Luton, England, Saltzman and Peppercorn, wander the west trying to write it up. Peppercorn is a photojournalist doing a piece on the Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park in So Dakota, but that is just an excuse for trying to find his inner cowboy. Saltzman is an American Studies professor from the University of St Albans and his adventures are more startling and even more fun (if that is possible). Much of this "cannot put it down" book is packed with details about actors and movies and scenes in movies: did you know that Mrs Wyatt Earp was of German Jewish ancestry? The dime-novel cover says it all (as you will see when you are done) and this is a clever, funny, slanted take on America, pop culture and much much else.
Friday, June 6, 2008
#5 to Recommend
Those of your who were present for the discussion of the stories of Tevye and his daughters from the superb collection by the same name, heard me suggest that you now read THE ADVENTURES OF MOTTEL THE CANTOR'S SON, a hilarious Sholom Aleichem novel (his only one) about the Jewish immigrant experience from eastern Europe. And those of you who were not present will enjoy its comedy and its intelligence, both integrated into a little book you cannot put down. It may no longer be in print, but copies abound from used book sellers.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Book #4 to Recommend
Amy Bloom's Away is a literary triumph, despite the simplicity of a 1926 transcontinental shlep by an immigrant Jewish seamstress as the basis of the plot. You will not be able to put it down.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Book #3 to recommend
This one is really extraordinary: Ehud Havazelet, Bearing the Body. Some of you may know his exceptional short stories, but this is his first novel. It is rich and unforgettable on most every page.
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