Eric Pallant's Jewish Book Reviews Home Fiction Reviews Nonfiction Reviews Jewish Books Mystery Recommendations Links Jewish Books The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon Written for a thinking reader, treats you like you are intelligent, though he could have used a bit of editing to cut some of the excessively long passages. Beaufort by Ron Leshem **** (of 4) Erez, a patriotic IDF commander of 13 fresh recruits, is sent to Lebanon in the late 90s to protect Israel’s northern border from Hezbollah rocket attacks. What begins as a group of gung-ho, post high-school roustabouts on a clear mission descends into the heart of darkness as the reason for Israel’s being in Lebanon disintegrates and the soldiers do too. One of the finest written descriptions of the pride of being part of a group of men whose lives depend on one another followed by the creeping development of post-traumatic stress disorder. May 2008. Betrothed by S.Y. Agnon A wonderful little novella that I listened to on tape about a botanist who arrives in Palestine in 1909 (I think) is quickly surrounded by six lovely and lovable Jewish women and his abiding love for his childhood sweetheart. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak **** (of 4) Death narrates the story of Liesel Meminger, abandoned, nine-year-old daughter of a communist, who escapes death's grasp during WWII in the German city of Molching. She survives in a foster home with German parents who also hide a Jewish boxing champ in the basement. The book made me sympathize with Germans who were not Nazis, a distinction I don't usually make when considering German responsibility for the Holocaust. Zusak's book is original and creative. It won the Book Sense of the Year Children's Literature Award, but it is a lot more than a children's book. May 2007. Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All its Moods by Michael Wex **** (of 4) Wex is three-fourths scholar and one quarter stand-up comic. In departure from say Rosten's books on Yiddish, which list words, definitions, and accompanying anecdotes, Wex puts Yiddish in its sociological and historical context. So more than learning a few words, which by and large go by too fast and in constructions that are too long to recall, I learned an immense amount about why Yiddish was an essential language for people living apart -- both by choice and by force -- from their European goyish neighbors. If it is at all possible, I recommend listening to Wex read his book on CD. September 2006 The Coffee Trader by David Liss *** (of 4) A Jewish escapee from the Spanish Inquisition makes his living on the Amsterdam stock market, where shrewd trading skills run up to the border of legality, morality, and safety. The book's strength is its insight into the lives of Jews trying to maintain their religious and economic identity with the memory of Spanish persecution fresh in their minds. Moreover, the description of how stocks, in this case coffee is making its very first appearance in Europe, are bought and sold is fascinating. The plot is rather ordinary, however. It is a quick read. April 2007. Crabwalk by Gunter Grass. A slow, intelligent, patient novel I listened to on tape about how three generations of Germans relate to Nazis. The central theme is the sinking of an ocean liner in which nearly 10,000 people lost their lives making it one of the greatest ocean catastrophes of all times. There's a Stalinist grandmother who lived in East Germany, her liberal, apologist, knee-jerk anti-Nazi son, and his neo-Nazi son. I skipped one of the five tapes by accident and that may have helped prevent the story from becoming too tedious. Detective Story by Imre Kertesz *** (of 4) A novella about the abuse of dictatorial power in an unnamed South American country. Secret police contrive accusations against a Jewish store owner because they are so paranoid that an incident will destabilize their country that nearly any fact can be construed in their minds into a threat. That's the plot. Imre Kertesz is a Nobel prize winning Hungarian Holocaust survivor so we can surmise that South America is simply a convenient location for horrors Kertesz has witnessed first hand beneath the twisted logic of first the Nazis and then the Communists. I believe if I had not known the book was written by a Nobel prize winning writer I would not have thought the book as strong. The translation by Tim Wilkinson is very clunky so I cannot be sure if the book is much better in the original Hungarian or whether it was just a toss-off exercise by Kertesz. April 2008. East of Eden by John Steinbeck **** (of 4) A retelling of the stories of Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel transposed to three generations of two families living mostly in Salinas, California during the turn of the nineteenth century.  Steinbeck, with good reason, won the Nobel Prize for this book.  It contains a complete geography of place, mind, and character:  Not a falling leaf, nor a raised eyebrow escapes his notice and his recounting makes every leaf and eyebrow unflaggingly important for six hundred pages.  Particularly interesting to me, is that the crux of the story hinges on a Jewish analysis of Genesis (related to readers from the original Hebrew by a Chinese protagonist) and how that contrasts with English translations used by Christians. Hoo Ha. An unbelievably excellent read. June 2006. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer I really enjoyed this book, but I have to admit I didn't understand it. The story line kept coming in and out of focus. Nevertheless, his descriptions of shtetl life in eastern Europe were as authentic as any that Isaac Bashevis Singer or his contemporaries wrote 150 years earlierr. Foer was a master at creating scenes that came to life. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (* of 4) Has received excellent reviews from Newsweek, New York Times, New Yorker, and my mother, but I couldn't read even half of it, so take my review with a grain of salt. A nine-year-old genius of a boy searches the wonderful niches of New York City to learn more about his father who has died in the World Trade Center bombing. I think if you can suspend disbelief enough to believe the kid is really a genius, then the book is full of insight for post-9/11 New York. June, 2005. Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz by Jan T. Gross ** (of 4) When the handful of Poland's original population of 3 million Jews returned from Siberia, concentration camps, or from hiding to reclaim their property and their lives they were subjected to intense anti-semitism following the war. They were denied work, health care, access to their property, and worse still, were subjected to threats, beatings, and in a handful of towns, Kielce being the most famous, murder. The book is highly documented and littered with footnotes and references making it more academic than a story. It takes some work to move through it, but the image of Poles as deeply anti-Semitic is inescapable. Gross's other book, Neighbors, is an account of the murder of hundreds of Jews in the village of Jedwabne, Poland during World War II, without the presence of any Nazis and Fear is a continuation of Gross's investigation into Poland's behavior toward Jews during and after the war.. In short, Fear, is the official account of the story of our friend, Chana Factor, and our Temple Congregant, Janine Dreyfus. October 2006. Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander **** (of 4) Auslander carries all of Woody Allen's neuroses into the 21st Century and does it with panache. This autobiography is a therapeutic disgorging of growing up under the thumb of an abusive father and overbearing God in an orthodox Jewish home in Monsey. While, in my opinion, he hasn't yet distinguished his parents' mishegas from his Yeshiva's he acts out his youthful frustration by alternately worrying God is going to kill him for going to the Naunuet Mall on Shabbat and giving God the finger for messing with his life. I laughed aloud at scenes such as God's testing the young Auslander by placing porn magazines behind a stone (not unlike Moses' stone on Mount Sinai) in a test of faithfulness. My parents thought it was a whiny kvetch book. I loved it. You decide. November 2007 The Genizah at the House of Shepher by Tamar Yellin ** (of 4) A British literature professor returns to her ancestor's home in Jerusalem to uncover the story of her family and unravel the mystery of ancient Hebrew texts hidden in the attic. The book is well crafted and the ancestors are full of quirks and personality, but in the end the book felt too much like a thinly veiled autobiography written by a British literature professor returning to her ancestor's home to write a book about her family. I didn't quite care enough. November 2007. Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon ** (of 4) Subtitled “Jews with Swords,” Chabon writes an adventure story of a pair of Jewish adventurers in the year 995: one from Frankish Europe and another a black African.  They have wandered into the Caucuses only to find themselves enmeshed in battles among Azeris, Kyrghs, and Kazahks.  The story would be fun and funny if Chabon weren’t so in love with his own erudition. His paragraphs are as dense as ironwood and pages become as thick as nighttime forests.  Matters were made worse because I listened to a recorded version read by one of the worst performers ever to record a voice.  December 2008. A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson *** (of 4) Johnson is an anti-Semitic summofabitch. He blames the victim at times. He seems incredulous that the Jews didn't recognize Christ as part of the Holy Trilogy. But he's a very good writer who excels at putting Jewish history into a larger historical context. And unlike Jewish historians who have a tendency to be triumphalist, tracing a thread of Jewish history, that ignores Jewish failures and Jewish converts to other religions, Johnson supplies a more objective perspective that feels more all-encompassing than some other histories. The Human Stain by Phillip Roth One of the best pieces of literature I've ever read with multiple layers about an African American who disguises himself as a Jew becomes a college professor at (Williams) and is accused of racism, sexism, agism, and in the end anti-semitism, nearly none of which are true. Very complex characters. The Inextinguishable Symphony by Martin Goldsmith I listened to about half of the book on cassette and have to say I was disappointed. I loved listening to Goldsmith on the radio. I could listen to him speak all day. This book about his parents, professional musicians, who fell in love, married, and managed to stay one step ahead of death in Nazi Germany somehow didn't really hold my interest. Sue felt about the same. His parents were interesting, but not that interesting. The Nazis were nearby, but not that close. A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A.B. Yehoshua **** (of 4) The year is 999. European Christians are awaiting the return of the Messiah. Ben Attar a Jewish Moroccan trader packs a ship with his desert wares, his two wives, his Islamic business partner, and a Rabbi to confront his nephew in Paris. The nephew used to be the third member of the trading partnership, but his new Parisian wife cannot tolerate the notion her husband consorts with bigamist Jews and repudiates the partnership. It is Sephardic cosmopolitanism versus the Ashkenazim living in the swamps, ghettoes, and drizzly dark forests of Christian Europe. Ultimately the book wrestles the question of love: a nephew for his uncle and his new wife; Ben Attar for his two wives (is that really possible or practical in 999 or ever?). November 2008. Joy Comes in the Morning by Jonathan Rosen, *** (of 4) An assistant Reform Rabbi slowly loses touch with God while she falls in love with the son of a Holocaust survivor who slowly finds God while the two of them find one another. A nice portrait of the essential tenets of Reform Judaism that what matters most are your actions in life and how the adherence to ritual can help you maintain your religiosity even when - as all Jews do - you must wrestle with the utility of believing in God. The story and the characters seemed real, but the writing was a little stiff. I could put the book down whenever I wanted to. December 2004. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction by Martin Gilbert *** (of 4) A fluky book by on the of the world's greatest Holocaust historians. Gilbert gathers dozens of newly uncovered personal histories of November 10, 1938 when more than a thousand German and Austrian synagogues were attacked and burned. The accounts of burned synagogues seem trivial compared to what we know follows. Moreover, the personal histories are all from survivors so their cumulative impact is to make it seem like escaping the Holocaust was not so hard. At first the personal stories seem randomly distributed through the text, but as the stories intermingle with the sound of country doors slamming shut to Jews trying to escape Germany and the war and extermination machines power up to full throttle this highly readable, short book with a British perspective turns terrific. August 2006. The Lost: A search for six of six million, by Daniel Mendelsohn **** (of 4) Nearly sixty years after the author's great-uncle, wife, and four daughters disappeared in the Holocaust, the author searches for their memories. Beginning with his grandfather's (his great-uncle's brother) stories, some letters and finally to several of the 48 survivors of the 6,000 Jews of his great-uncle's Ukrainian-Polish town, Daniel Mendolsohn exquisitely crafts one of the most memorable, humanizing, personal and universal searches for his roots. In so doing he asks all of us to pause and consider the memories and lives of senior generations who have led us to who we are today. One of the most expertly constructed and readable books I've read. July 2009. Martyr's Crossing, by Amy Wilentz (** of 4) Not great writing, but very informative about the checkpoints in Middle East before the Second Intifada made them even worse. Mila 18 by Leon Uris **** (of 4) One of my absolute favorite books about the Warsaw ghetto uprising. A real page turner with wonderful characterizations. Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis. **** (of 4) This short collection of short stories is a wonderful piece of honey cake with a glass of tea. A Jewish Russian immigrant to Toronto describes the transition he makes with his parents and uncle and aunt as they climb from helpless newcomers to weary acceptance of life in the new world, without ever losing the cultural imprinting that Russia plants within its citizenry. The book is full of smiles of recognition, truthful while remaining fictional--but who knows where autobiography is replaced by a little relish -- and I think quite accessible even to people who neither know Russians or Jews. In fact, it's probably a wonderful introduction to both. The book is short, the stories chronological, the characters continue to grow from one to the next, yet it's not quite a novel with contiguous chapters. July 2005. Nuremberg: The Reckoning, by William F. Buckley. (* of 4) It was surprisingly bad. I learned a fair amount about the Nuremberg trials after WWII, but was shocked by how trivial the plot was and how uninspiring the writing was. I expected more. O Jerusalem by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre Very engaging history of Israel war for independence Old Men at Midnight, by Chaim Potok. Enigmatic. I went back and forth between thinking the three short stories were too simple, too typical, not completely unique recountings of Jewish suffering in the Holocaust and Pogroms and Russian Revolution and being totally captivated. Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky *** (of 4) As a Hampshire College student in the late 70s, Lansky decides to learn Yiddish. At that time Yiddish, having barely survived the murderous rampage of the Holocaust, was being finished off by assimilating Jews anxious to distance themselves from their ghettoized past. Lansky found himself a teacher, an old textbook, and I.B. Singer's Satan in Goray. Then he could not find any other Yiddish book in print. He puts an ad in the paper searching for extant Yiddish books and starts collecting. Outwitting History is the story of how he saves more than a million Yiddish books and in so doing probably also saves a language and a culture from extinction. He does it, too, with enormous modesty. July 2008 A Peace to end all Peace by David Fromkin. An unbelievably informative book about the transformation of the Ottoman Empire through World War I into the colonial prizes carved up by Western Europe into the countries that now form the modern Middle East. It is full of the origins of today's conflicts and differences between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Syria, and Iraq and is filled with characters whose names are famous, but whose activities during this time period I knew nothing about, e.g., Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia, the House of Saud (to become today's rulers of Saudi Arabia), and King Abdullah, whose descendants still rule Jordan. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks **** (of 4) An extensively researched fictional account of the survival of the Sarajevo Haggadah, the luminescently illustrated (that alone is unusual for a Jewish book) account of the Jewish escape from Egyptian bondage read at the Passover Seder. First printed in the1480s the book survives the Inquisition, 400 years of European travel, World War I, an attempt by the Nazis to steal it from the Sarajevo library in World War II, and the seige of Sarajevo. The story of the book conservator created by Geraldine Brooks to provide the clues to the Haggadah's history is a little too modern, but it is forgiveable because the historical accounting is simultaneously so well researched and richly portrayed. February 2008. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth *** (of 4) No writer captures anxiety, apprehension, fear, and hopelessness better than Roth. I cannot think of a happy or fulfilled character in a single one of his books so to read Roth is to experience a descent into discomfort. His characters are so believable, however, and his writing so captivating there is no turning away once you begin. Plot Against America is a perfect vehicle, a midrash, on what might have happened in the U.S. if American patriotic hero, vocal anti-Semite, and Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh had defeated Franklin Roosevelt at the outset of Germany's European conquest. October 2009. Prisoners by Jeffrey Goldberg *** (of 4) Goldberg describes himself as a Zionist, former peace-nik, with an insatiable wish to meet people who want to kill him because he is Jewish. As a regular contributer to the New Yorker he's an excellent writer with an ability to meet face to face with leaders of Islamic Jihad, the Taliban, and Hamas. In this book Goldberg is best when he's doing journalism, describing the hell of Ketziot prison for Palestinians swept up by the IDF and in the end of the book when he refuses to relinquish his search for a Muslim Palestinian willing to put friendship with a Jew before desire for revenge. I had to wade through a long middle section of memoir that I didn't quite care about. September 2007 QBVII by Leon Uris About a trial of a libelous author who writes about Nazis, autobiographical. Uris is a class-act story teller making big books go by in quickly. Six Days of War by Michael Oren A very thorough, detailed and extremely informative account of the 1967 Six day war in the Middle East The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer ** (of 4) OK, I admit it. I'm tired of reading books about the evils of Islam. It's enough to make you think there's a conspiracy of publishers each searching for the next great novel of Islamic terrorists, brutal prison guards, violent husbands, and psychologically tortured ordinary citizens. After reading this overrated book about a Jewish gemologist in Iraq imprisoned after the Iranian revolution and tortured while his family waits helplessly and anxiously I was left wishing for more complexity. Sofer hints at deeper characterizations, but doesn't quite make good. The gemologist, for example, really did turn a blind eye to the Shah's evil secret agents. The prison guards did have mixed feelings about their obligations to the revolution, their families, their own security, and to justice. Yet, for me, the characters felt flat, surprising, since I suspect much of the book is an autobiographical account of the author's father. (Makes me doubt she has another critically acclaimed book in her.) Perhaps I'm poisoned reading this book back to back with A Thousand Splendid Suns but I am issuing a challenge to editors: surely there are some level headed Muslims living in the Middle East. Let's hear their stories. January 2008. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemorovsky. Translated by Sandra Smith. ** (of 4) According to the NY Times, this stunning book contains two narratives, one fiction and the other a fragmentary, factual account of how the fiction came into being about life in France under Hitler's occupation. I don't get what all the hype is about, however. Nemerovsky completed two-fifths of what she imagined to be a five parter, like a symphony. The first describes the Nazi invasion of France, seen through eyes of upper-crust Frenchmen forced to do without some of their accustomed privileges as they flee with the chaotic hordes to the rural areas around Paris. The second is life under occupation, and the interactions of French families with billeted Nazis. Both accounts feel like first drafts. The characters and action are superficial; I found it difficult to connect. A far better account of the war and Nazi occupation can be found in Corelli's Mandolin. I think what makes the critics react are the appendices. Nemerovsky sensed she was going to die at the hands of the Germans. She had an excuse to be writing in a hurry. That sense of reality hanging over the book is more powerful than the book itself. July 2006. A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell ** (of 4) It chronicles the Italian resistance to the Germans during the last two years of WWII. A very positive review in Publisher's Weekly, and it was read as "One book, One City" in Erie, but I didn't finish it. Russell's research is outstanding, I could feel it on every page, but the plot was well, plodding, and I didn't learn much after I realized that Italians were not really Nazi supporters in WWII. After that the Jews suffer, Germans are evil, countryside Italians are friendly peasants, and keeping track of all the characters in Russell's multi-threaded narrative is just a bit too much work. October 2007. The World to Come by Dara Horn *** (of 4) On the plus side I learned a lot about Chagall. Dara Horn writes well. She channels the great Yiddish authors like Peretsky, Singer, Sholom Aleichem, and Nachman of Bratslav. She has compiled a modern version of the angst, absurdity, folklife, and culture of Yiddishkeit. But on the minus side Horn has also created a story that wanders aimlessly, sometimes is senseless to the point of distraction, and admits the entrance of the supernatural (yes, these are all features of the great age of Yiddish literature) in ways that divert her story rather than move it along. September 2008. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon **** (of 4) Hard to say if this book plays in Peoria, but Chabon prepares a perfect rendition of two genres: 1940s noir detective novels and Yiddish culture. A murder occurs in a sleazebag motel on the wrong side of the tracks in Sitka Alaska, home to Jews who were permitted to settle there after Palestine failed as a Jewish state following WWII. Arab - Israeli conflicts are replaced by Chasidic - Tlingit ones. The hard-drinking detective drinks slivovitz from the old country instead of whiskey; chasidic hoodlums hang in gangs on street corners discussing how to launder stolen money and what's the talmudic way to kosher pots; and the detective has to follow his chief-of-police, ex-wife (he's still in love with her) on his hands and knees through an escape tunnel, but all he can think about is how much he misses being able to bite her tushy. The parody holds for the entire book and the more you know about murder-mysteries and Yiddish culture, the more you'll enjoy it. June 2007. Eric Pallant, Department of Environmental Science, Allegheny College/updated 5 August 2009.