Arts & Culture | Books

As American As … Stuffed Pike

08/31/2010 | Sandee Brawarsky | Jewish Week Book Critic | Books

I remember a round coffee table, made of smooth wood and a glass top that revolved, that stood at the center of my parents’ living room for many years. In the days when I wasn’t much taller than the table, my cousins and I would run alongside it as we turned it, and then sit on the edge for a ride, much like a private merry-go-round. The glass top broke several times, but even as we got older and it became less a ride and more a place to serve food, it was my favorite piece of furniture. With yet another new glass top, it now sits in my sister’s home.

Can Howard Jacobson Play In America?

08/31/2010 | Eric Herschthal | Staff Writer | Books

Book publishing has a logic all its own, though even “logic” may be too generous a term. For the wildly popular British author Howard Jacobson, it is way too generous.

‘A People That Dwells Alone’

08/17/2010 | Steven Bayme | Special To The Jewish Week | Books

Asked once to distinguish between his office and that of his Israeli counterparts, British Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jacobovits responded that while he possessed “influence but no power” they possess “power but no influence.”

Outsider Art, From An Insider

08/03/2010 | Eric Herschthal | Staff Writer | Books

‘I don’t feel any need to disassociate with Jews,” said Gary Shteyngart, the phenomenally popular 38-year-old writer whose third novel, “Super Sad True Love Story,” released last week, is chock full of them.

Did Harper Lee Whitewash The Jewish Past?

07/13/2010 | Eric Herschthal | Staff Writer | Books

The 50th anniversary of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which is being marked this summer, was supposed to be a celebratory event. But at least in the press, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that still sells about a million copies a year has become the subject of ruthless criticism.

Clash Of Zionisms In Academia

06/23/2010 | Eric Herschthal | Staff Writer | Books

From the United Nations to the capitals of Europe to the pages of the New York Review of Books, Zionism — and the Israeli policies that undergird it — have lately come under withering attack.

Israel is reeling from the international condemnation following the failed flotilla attack. And Peter Beinart’s essay in the NYRB — which attacked Jewish leaders for failing to inspire a new generation of Jews committed to Israel — urged a more liberal Zionism as a way to get young Jews back in the fold.