|
|
|
|
 |
| March
2004 |
 |
The
English Disease by Joseph Skibell
Described as "a wildly funny
novel that is equal parts Philip Roth, Groucho Marx
and Woody Allen," this novel by award winning author
Skibell, engages us in the search for identity of a
neurotic and talented Mahler expert as he contemplates
divorce, parenthood and human compassion. |
| |
Joseph
Skibell Recommends: |
| |
 Ragtime
by E.L. Doctorow
An extraordinary tapestry,
Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between
the turn of the century and the First World War. One
lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry
Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside
their house, and almost magically, the line between
fantasy and reality disappears. |
|
| April
2004 |
 |
The
Color of Water by James McBride
Written in remembrance of his
Polish-born, Southern-raised Jewish mother-who married
a black man and raised twelve children, all of whom
completed college-The Color of Water is a classic of
the memoir genre, a testament to love, and a truly American
story. |
| |
Alternative
Reading: |
| |
 White
Teeth by Zadie Smith
Set against London's racial
and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire
and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White
Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life,
flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and
embracing the comedy of daily existence. |
|
| May
2004 |
 |
Days
of Awe by Achy Obejas
Born right in the heart of
Castro's revolution, Alejandra is brought to North America
by her desperate parents, where she remains until her
job brings her back to Cuba, a land which awakens in
her a vibrantly-told journey of discovery. |
| |
Achy
Obejas Recommends: |
| |
 The
Book of Memories by Ana Maria
Shua
The
Book of Memories by Ana Maria Shua narrates the migration
of a Jewish Family from Poland to Buenos Aires, Argentina
and the challenges and transitions it faced there.
Shua illustrates, through her central characters,
three generations of women, the commonalities and
differences of Jewish experience in Latin America
with their cousins in the United States who have made
an important contribution to our national literature
and consciousness.
|
|
| June
2004 |
 |
Everything
is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
An arresting blend of high
comedy and great tragedy, this is a story about searching
for people and places that no longer exist, for the
hidden truths that haunt every family, and for the delicate
but necessary tales that link past and future. |
| |
Jonathan
Safran Foer Recommends: |
| |
 The
Question
of Bruno by Aleksandar Hemon
In this stylistically adventurous,
brilliantly funny tour de force-the most highly acclaimed
debut since Nathan Englander's-Aleksandar Hemon writes
of love and war, Sarajevo and America, with a skill
and imagination that are breathtaking.
|
| July
2004 |
 |
Bee
Season by Myla Goldberg
Not merely a coming-of-age
story, Goldberg's first novel delicately examines
the unraveling fabric of one family. The outcome of
this tale is as startling and unconventional as her
prose, which wields its metaphors sharply and rings
with maturity.
|
| |
Myla
Goldberg Recommends: |
| |
 The
Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
This street in the Polish
city of Drogobych is one of memories and dreams where
recollections of Bruno Schulz's uncommon boyhood and
of the eerie side of his merchant family's life are
evoked in a startling blend of the real and the fantastic.
Most memorable - and most chilling - is the portrait
of the author's father, a maddened shopkeeper who
imports rare birds' eggs to hatch in his attic, who
believes tailors' dummies should be treated like people,
and whose obsessive fear of cockroaches causes him
to resemble one.
|
|
August
2004
|
 |
The
Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart
"The enduring victim of every
practical joke the late twentieth century had to offer,"
Vladimir Girshkin, at age 25, sets on an at-times Gogolian
adventure through New York and Eastern Europe. Infused
with wit, humor, and rare insight, the Russian Debutante's
Handbook is both a highly imaginative romp into uncharted
territory and a furious exploration of the role of the
outsider in American culture. |
| |
Gary
Shteyngart Recommends: |
| |
 Barney's
Version by Mordecai Richler
Told in the first person, Barney's
Version gives us the life (and what a life!) of Barney
Panofsky - whose trashy TV company, Totally Useless
Productions, has made him a small fortune; whose three
wives include a martyred feminist icon, a quintessential
JCP (Jewish-Canadian Princess), and the incomparable
Miriam, the perfect wife, lover, and mother - alas,
now married to another man... |
| September
2004 |
 |
A
Palestine Affair by Jonathan Wilson
This swift and sensual novel
of passion and politics transports us to British Palestine,
where the Arabs, the British, and the Jews mingle in
a scene of colonial excess and unease. It is 1924, and
Mark Bloomberg, a disillusioned London painter, arrives
in Jerusalem to take up a propaganda commission. When
he and his American wife, Joyce, accidentally witness
the murder of a prominent Orthodox Jew near their cottage,
they become embroiled in an investigation that will
test their marriage and their characters.
|
| |
Jonathan
Wilson Recommends: |
| |
 The
Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley
With a sure and humorous touch,
Grace Paley explores the "little disturbances" that
lie behind our everyday lives. Whether writing about
sexy little girls, loving and bickering couples, angry
suburbanites, frustrated job seekers, or Jewish children
performing a Christmas play, she captures the loneliness,
poignancy, and humor of human experience with |
| October
2004 |
 |
Hester
Among the Ruins by Binnie Kirshenbaum
Born in Berlin in 1943, raised
in the ruins of defeat by a generation of "murderers
and cowards," Professor Falk is neither infamous nor
famous--he is simply the German Everyman. But as biographer
Hester Rosenfeld uncovers more of his family history
and its possible connection to Nazism, she finds herself
reexamining her own feelings about her German immigrant
parents and her complicated attraction to Heinrich.
|
| |
Binnie
Kirshenbaum Recommends: |
| |
 A
Place to Live by Natalia Ginzburg
In this wide-ranging collection
from one of the foremost Italian writers of the 20th
century, with an unerring eye and unparalleled eloquence,
Natalia Ginzburg observes everything around her, sparing
no one - least of all herself. In these essays, most
published here in English for the first time, Ginzburg
writes honestly and insightfully about being a writer
and mother, being displaced during World War II, and
experiencing deprivation in postwar Italy. |
| November
2004 |
 |
Lost
Tribe editor: Paul Zakrzewski
Funny, raw, dark, sometimes
outrageous, the twenty-five contributors to Lost
Tribe explore themes such as conflicted identities,
sexual fetishes, religious intolerance, and even
the troubled legacy of the Holocaust to create
a stirring picture of contemporary Jewish life.
Lost Tribe features stories and commentary from
a brilliant mixture of critically acclaimed and
emerging writers. |
| |
Paul
Zakrzewski Recommends: |
| |
 Puttermesser
Papers by Cynthia Ozick
With dashing originality
and in prose that sings like an entire choir of
sirens, Cynthia Ozick relates the life and times
of her most compelling fictional creation. Ruth
Puttermesser lives in New York City. Her learning
is monumental. Her love life is minimal (she prefers
pouring through Plato to romping with married
Morris Rappoport). And her fantasies have a disconcerting
tendency to come true - with disastrous consequences
for what we laughably call "reality." |
| December
2004 |
 |
In
the Image by Dara Horn
Bill Landsmann, an elderly
Jewish refugee in a New Jersey suburb with a passion
for travel, is obsessed with building his slide
collection of images from the Bible that he finds
scattered throughout the world. The novel begins
when he crosses paths with his granddaughter's
friend, Leora, and continues by moving forward
through her life and backward through his, revealing
unexpected links between his family's past and
her family's future. |
| |
Dara
Horn Recommends: |
| |
 Tevye
the Dairyman by Sholem Alaichem
A superb introduction
to the caustic wit and keen observations of one
of the world's greatest storytellers. Included
are "Tevye the Dairyman, " his masterpiece and
the basis for Fiddler on the Roof, and all 21
Railroad Stories, in which human nature and the
various shocks of modernity are perceived by men
and women riding the trains from shtetl to shtetl. |
[Click
here for a printer-friendly book list.] |
|
|
|
|
|
