7:15PM - Book review: The Man Who Never Stopped Sleeping by Aharon Appelfeld

4:38PM - Jewish books: in Max's Diamonds family secrets stalk its ambitious protagonist

"Max’s Diamonds, Jay Greenfield’s debut novel published last week by New York publisher Chickadee Prince Books, is a guilty pleasure, a book I enjoyed and could barely put down for its suspenseful serpentine plot despite its pedestrian and occasionally heavy-handed prose." -- From my examiner article. Also see my New York Journal of Books review, which concludes "with Max's Diamonds readers are rewarded with a fun and absorbing read whose fortuitous May publication date makes it a felicitous beach or airplane book."

2:06PM - Israeli books: Youval Shimoni’s experimental post-modern fiction classic A Room

In my New York Journal of Books review of Youval Shimoni's A Room I write: "A Room is strongly recommended to readers of post-modern and experimental fiction who enjoy stream of consciousness narratives and who are willing to delve deeper than a thin plot’s surface level."

See my examiner article for additional excerpts from the novel.

11:50PM - Israeli books: Ronit Matalon's autobiographic novel The Sound of Our Steps

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"A fictional and more literary tale of an Egyptian Jewish family’s diminished circumstances after immigrating to Israel is The Sound of Our Steps by Ronit Matalon, a novel published today in Dalya Bilu’s English translation by Metropolitan Books. In my New York Journal of Books review I praise it as a 'beautifully written and skillfully translated book that rewards rereading.'” -- from my examiner article Israeli Books: Ronit Matalon's autobiographic novel The Sound of Our Steps
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4:21PM - Jewish books: Joshua Cohen's Book of Numbers is a high tech epic

What happens when a down on his luck luddite novelist is hired to ghostwrite a memoir by a math whiz tech mogul who shares his (and the author of this novel’s) name? ...At close to 600 pages of dense prose Book of Numbers is not light reading. I close my NYJB review by recommending it to “readers as ambitious as it is.” -- from Jewish books: Joshua Cohen's Book of Numbers is a high tech epic Also see my New York Journal of Books review. A challenging but fun and rewarding read!

7:19PM - Israeli books: Five Selves explores five inner lives

“...recommended to readers who enjoy interior prose and psychological literary fiction.” -- from my review of Five Selves by Emanuela Barasch Rubinstein in New York Journal of Books. My additional remarks and excerpts from the book appear in examiner.com.

7:34PM - Israeli books: Gail Hareven's Lies, First Person is a visceral novel of ideas

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"There are books that make us feel intensely and others that make us think deeply; one that does both is Gail Hareven’s opalescent and psychologically complex eleventh novel Lies, First Person (in the original Hebrew Hashkarim Ha’aharonim Shel Hagoof which literally translates as The Body’s Last Lies), which is only the second (The Confessions of Noa Weber) of her 13 books for adults to be published in English in Dalya Bilu’s fine translation." - From my New York Journal of Books review

"Lies, First Person, Gail Hareven’s second novel to be translated into English (the eleventh of her thirteen adult books published in Hebrew), which is published today by Open Letter Books, is both an emotionally compelling narrative and a novel of ideas. Its characters find different ways of coping with the emotional aftermath of an unreported and unpunished crime, and the novel invites its readers to consider such questions as the nature of evil and the justification of vengeance and retribution." - From my examiner.com article

9:10PM - Book review: In the Illuminated Dark: Selected Poems of Tuvia Ruebner

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My two part review begins with the poet's bio and backstory in New York Journal of Books and continues with a discussion of his poems in examiner:

"Anglophone readers (especially those who also read Hebrew) will find both this handsome book’s bilingual presentation of Ruebner’s selected poems, and his heart wrenching backstory described by translator Rachel Tzvia Back in her informative introduction and endnotes, compelling reading."

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11:21PM - Book review: A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman

 

 

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Slava Gelman, the protagonist of Boris Fishman's debut novel A Replacement Life, fabricates Holocaust narratives for elderly Russian immigrants' reparations claims applications. In my NYJB review I write, "Slava knows that to make his stories convincing he has to get the details right, and despite the leaps of faith Fishman demands he provides more than enough correct details and well crafted figurative turns of phrase to convince most readers to go along with him—and those who do will be amply rewarded by this multidimensional and handsomely written debut novel." For additional remarks about A Replacement Life see my examiner article.

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4:08PM - David Grossman conveys parental bereavement in Falling Out of Time

“As moving as are each of these expressions of grief the cumulative effect of Falling Out of Time‘s nearly 200 pages is even more powerful. It certainly conveys bereaved parents’ pain to readers who have not suffered that loss and may help some mourning parents work through their grief, though others may feel it reopens emotional wounds.” -- from my New York Journal of Books review of David Grossman's new multi-genre book.

Also see my examiner article.

 

 David Grossman

 

12:13AM - Two part review of Rebecca Miller's novel Jacob's Folly

Read my review of Jacob’s Folly on New York Journal of Books. I continue my discussion of the novel's theme of assimilation in an Examiner article.

Jacob's Folly author Rebecca Miller

11:26PM - Jewish books: The Canvas by Benjamin Stein

7:04PM - אני רוצה חיבוק

הספר הראשון מבית הוצאת ספרים "פלא" הוא

"אני רוצה חיבוק".

לא במקרה בחרנו בספר הזה. זה ספר מיוחד במינו

גם מבחינת האיורים של המאייר האמרחקאי ג'והן ראו

וגם מבחינת הנושא.

הקיפוד אלויס, שמחפש נואשות מישהו שירצה לחבק אותו
למרות הדוקרהות ועוקצנות שלו, מעורר חמלה ואכפתיות.
פונה לילדים והורים ומזמין אותם ביחד לדון

על שאלות חשובות, כמו:

מהו חיבוק?

מדוע כל אחד מאתנו מחפש חיבוק ומגע?

האם חיבוק ברחוב שונה מהחיבוק בתחנת רכבת?

האם חיבוק באיצטדיון דומה לחיבוק בביקור חולים?
איזה חיבוק אנחנו רוצים ומה אנחנו מרגישים, כאשר מחבקים אותנו?

תשאלו ברשתות הגדולות את הספר! אנחנו מבטיחים לילדכם קריאה מהנה.
מכל הלב
צוות הוצאת "פלא" 

9:05PM - A new year, two exciting new projects

A Midsummer Night's Press
announces a call for submissions
for two anthologies celebrating queer Jewish poetry:

FLAMBOYANT:
A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH GAY POETRY
edited by Lawrence Schimel

and

MILK AND HONEY:
A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH LESBIAN POETRY
edited by Julie R. Enszer

to be published in Spring 2011.

We are looking for poems that celebrate and question, meditate and intimate, argue and reconcile contemporary queer Jewish identity. What is queer Jewish experience in the twenty-first century? What poetry expresses queer Jewishness today?

Whether you write about interfaith queer parenting, cruising in shul, how it feels to sign a ketubah in a country that won't recognize our same-sex marriages, fetishizing a sheggitz or being fetishized, we want to read about it and share it with others who want to read it as well.

What are our sacred texts for today? If they don't yet exist, write them. What are our queer Jewish blessings, curses and prayers.

While there is a rich tradition of queer Jewish writers who have made an indelible mark on our literature over the years, from Gertrude Stein and Adrienne Rich to Allen Ginsburg and Edward Field, we are looking for work that reflects queer Jewish identity in the new (secular) millennium. As such, we are open either to unpublished work, or work that was published since 2000 (this would include work originally published in a magazine or anthology before 2000, which was later collected in a book published after 2000).

We welcome voices from across the spectrum of Jewish identity, from observant to merely cultural, and their intersections with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identities and experiences.

We are open to all styles of poetry, from formal to free verse.

We welcome queer Jewish voices from outside the US, and are willing to consider translations into English. (It is the translator's responsibility to secure permission to reprint the poem in English.)

Both anthologies are open to previously published work, but it is the poet's responsibility to secure permission to reprint the poem.

We welcome work from Jewish trans poets, so long as the content of the work is relevant to either gay or lesbian experience.

There is no limit to the number of poems which may be submitted, so long as the Jewish and queer content are both relevant.

Submission instructions:

1) Title file with the initials of the anthology and author's last name: F-Surname.doc or MH-Surname.doc
2) Include your name, your mailing address, your email address, and a bio WITHIN the .doc file with your essay, as submissions will be separated from emails to be read.
3) Submit your work by email, as an attachment in .doc or .rtf format, to queerjewishpoetry@gmail.com

Deadline: November 30, 2010.

Payment will be three copies of the anthology per contributor.

About the editors:

Lawrence Schimel is the author or anthologist of over 100 books, including FOUND TRIBE: JEWISH COMING OUT STORIES, KOSHER MEAT, BEST GAY POETRY 2008, FIRST PERSON QUEER, PoMoSEXUALS: CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT GENDER AND SEXUALITY, TWO BOYS IN LOVE, THE FUTURE IS QUEER, etc.

Julie R. Enszer is the author of the poetry collection HANDMADE LOVE (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2010) and the chapbook SISTERHOOD (Seven Kitchens Press, 2010). Her work has appeared in numerous Jewish, feminist and queer publications, including BRIDGES, JEWISH WOMEN'S LITERARY ANNUAL, SINISTER WISDOM, CALYX, WOMEN'S REVIEW OF BOOKS, FEMINIST STUDIES, WASHINGTON BLADE, LAMBDA BOOK REPORT, etc. She is also the founder of the Lesbian Poetry Archive.

About the publisher:
A Midsummer Night's Press is an independent poetry publisher, publishing primarily in two imprints: 1) Fabula Rasa, dedicated to work inspired by myth and fairy tale, which has published FORTUNE'S LOVER: A BOOK OF TAROT POEMS by Rachel Pollack and FAIRY TALES FOR WRITERS by Lawrence Schimel, and 2) Body Language, devoted to queer poetry, which has published THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN OUR OTHER LIFE by Achy Obejas; BANALITIES by Brane Mozetic, translated by Elizabeti Zargi; HANDMADE LOVE by Julie R. Enszer; and MUTE by Raymond Luczak. http://www.amidsummernightspress.com

2:03PM - NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS: Blue Has No South by Alex Epstein

12:10PM - My review of The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia

9:11PM - NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS: Blooms of Darkness by Aharon Appelfeld

NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS: Blooms of Darkness by Aharon Appelfeld

10:32PM - Baruch Dayan HaEmet

Miep Gies, Anne Frank protector, dies at 100

12:55AM - A Literary Bible

In the Beginning

By FRANK KERMODE
Published: December 31, 2009
NY Times

“A Literary Bible,” by ­David Rosenberg, is a large book though not, of course, a complete translation of the Hebrew Bible. Genesis is fairly full, though one looks in vain for the passage “In the beginning . . . ,” from which Genesis takes its title in both Hebrew and Greek. The Prophets, from Samuel to Jonah, get about 160 pages, and an anthology drawn from the Writings — notably the Psalms and Job — occupies the remaining half of the book. Each selection has a preface providing scholarly information and justification for the assumptions and procedures of the present translator. An epilogue, “How the Bible Came About,” makes these points in a more expansive way.

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12:44AM - Everyone Likes A Good Article About Sex In Novels, Right?

This article is SFW, but does contain frank discussion of sexuality in literature. Read this at your discretion, please.

Personally, I think the article is worth looking at just for the ridiculous charts. :)

The Naked and the Conflicted

By KATIE ROIPHE
Published: December 31, 2009
NY Times

For a literary culture that fears it is on the brink of total annihilation, we are awfully cavalier about the Great Male Novelists of the last century. It has become popular to denounce those authors, and more particularly to deride the sex scenes in their novels. Even the young male writers who, in the scope of their ambition, would appear to be the heirs apparent have repudiated the aggressive virility of their predecessors.

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I'm very interested in the fact that at least four of the eight authors mentioned in this article are Jewish and yet the article really didn't spend any time on that particular issue. Do you feel that the author should have explored their cultural/religious heritage or do you think it was irrelevant to the discussion at hand?