Literary Guides

Gained In Translations

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:19:06 +0000

A translator (and fiction writer) on the tricky task of turning Israeli novels into English.

Evan Fallenberg

Special To The Jewish Week

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Amuch-discussed fact in the publishing world is the following statistic: only about 3 percent of all books published annually in the U.S. are works translated from another language. The stats for literary fiction and poetry are even more dismal, at 0.7 percent. So if you are an excellent writer writing in Danish or Polish or Chinese, a writer with good reviews, even a faithful following of readers, your work may never see the light of day in English.

Coming Apart At The Seams?

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:17:00 +0000

Gershom Gorenberg looks at the internal conflicts that threaten to ‘unmake’ Israel.

Jerome A. Chanes

Special To The Jewish Week

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

‘The other Arab-Israeli conflict,” a locution famously visited upon us by Middle East analyst Steven Spiegel, is well applied to “The Unmaking of Israel” (HarperCollins), Gershom Gorenberg’s cogent and incisive new book. Indeed, Gorenberg’s very first chapter — on the well-remembered but little-understood Altalena Affair — tells us all we need to know about the internal conflicts in the Yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine) and in the new state.

‘Prime’ Biographies

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:15:37 +0000

The life and times of David Ben-Gurion and Ariel Sharon, two prime ministers who define Israel.

Steve Lipman

Staff Writer

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

In Jewish publishing, the Year of the Prime Minister continues. On the heels of Yehuda Avner’s exhaustive 2010 “The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership” (Toby Press), an insider’s look at the lives and careers of four world-stage Israelis, come two more profiles of Israeli prime ministers by authors who knew them well — in one case, a son; in the other, a longtime adviser and confidante.

The Wizardry Of Amos Oz

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:13:04 +0000

In his latest meticulously crafted novel, Israel’s most famous living writer evokes a profound existential unease.

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

In Amos Oz’s new novel, or more accurately novel-in-short-stories, the sense of dread, of profound existential unease, is unmistakable. No character in Oz’s fictional Israeli village, Tel Ilan, where all the stories in “Scenes from Village Life” are set, is happy. No one is even remotely content with his lot.

Clean Sweep

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:11:25 +0000

Meir Shalev remembers his grandmother, a pioneer Martha Stewart, and that very American vacuum cleaner.

Sandee Brawarsky

Jewish Week Book Critic

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

In some circles, Meir Shalev’s grandparents would be considered Zionist royalty: They were among the founders and first settlers of Israel’s earliest agricultural cooperative, or moshav, Nahalal, established in 1921. They lived simply and honorably and worked hard, sometimes in poverty, tending the land and their chickens.

The award-winning Israeli writer was born in 1948 on Nahalal. While he grew up mostly in Jerusalem, he visited the moshav regularly. His mother always reminded him of his pedigree, that he too was a son of Nahalal.

A Montefiore Takes On Jerusalem

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:06:58 +0000

With a family pedigree and a sharp political eye, Simon Sebag Montefiore tries to get at the ‘truth’ of the complex city.

Eric Herschthal

Special To The Jewish Week

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

When Simon Sebag Montefiore was writing his new history, “Jerusalem: The Biography” (Knopf) he knew his objectivity would inevitably be questioned. After all, the author was not only Jewish, but, well, a Montefiore, one of England’s most respected Jewish families, and one with deep personal ties to the city.

FALL LITERARY GUIDE 2011

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:58:00 +0000

The Book on Israel A new read on the Jewish state, from Oz and Shalev to a biography of Jerusalem and a take on the country’s internal conflicts.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Top Jewish Chefs, Back In The Kitchen

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:28:59 +0000

The latest fare — from teen food to leek terrine —
courtesy of Susie Fishbein, Jamie Geller and Joan Nathan.

Amy Spiro

Editorial Assistant

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Whether they want to prepare haute cuisine or instant kugel or or vegan cholent, kosher cooks looking for recipes and inspiration today have plenty of new books to pick from — thanks to several top Jewish chefs.

Short Takes

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:26:44 +0000

From illustrator Al Jaffee to the Cairo Genizah to a portrait of ‘Young Tel Aviv.’

Sandee Brawarsky

Jewish Week Book Critic

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Even if you haven’t picked up a Mad magazine in decades, you’re likely to remember the fold-ins, the signature feature that has appeared in almost every issue since 1964, created by Al Jaffee. Mary-Lou Weissman, a friend for more than 30 years, presents Al Jaffee’s Mad Life (It Books), with 70 original illustrations by Jaffee. Now 89, he is the magazine’s oldest and most prolific contributor, still creating fold-ins.

Inside An ‘Epic Struggle’

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:24:54 +0000

Gal Beckerman’s book provides much-needed coherence
to the history of the Soviet Jewry movement.

Jerome A. Chanes

Special To The JewishWeek

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry — the “Soviet Jewry Movement,” as it became known — has been the topic of any number of books over the past decade and more. The story of how the “struggle” on behalf of the Jews of the Soviet Union became a “movement” parallels that of the other great “movement” of the 20th century, civil rights.

Guilt On Trial

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:22:23 +0000

Elie Wiesel’s new novel explores themes of memory, justice and journalistic ethics.

Sandee Brawarsky

Jewish Week Book Critic

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

When Werner Sonderberg replies “Guilty … and not guilty,” after being asked to enter his plea in a New York courtroom, the judge and spectators are stunned. Sonderberg, a young German expatriate who is accused of murder, seems to want to explain something to the court, but he is silenced.

Paris, When It Fizzles

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:20:14 +0000

In reworking Henry James’ ‘The Ambassadors,’ Cynthia Ozick
strikes a chord for America against a post-Shoah Europe.

Beth Kissileff

Special To The Jewish Week

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

What inspires an artist? Cynthia Ozick’s new novel, “Foreign Bodies” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), is in part an attempt to answer that much vexed question, though as we know from her prior writing, there is never one simple answer. Inspiration can come as an angry bang on a piano is translated to a symphony, as it does in this novel.

High Drama, On And Off Stage

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:18:28 +0000

First English-language biography of Sarah Bernhardt
in decades captures her complicated life.

Sandee Brawarsky

Jewish Week Book Critic

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

When my sisters and I were overly dramatic while growing up, we were lovingly rebuked, “You’re a regular Sarah Bernhardt.” We weren’t the only ones to hear this line, which echoed across suburbs and cities.

Roth The Theologian

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:16:25 +0000

In a Newark playground,
who shall live and who shall die?

Diane Cole

Special To The Jewish Week

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

With his latest novel, “Nemesis” (Houghton Mifflin), Philip Roth enters the realm of theology. Set in the summer of 1944, in the mostly Jewish Weequahic section of Newark, it is ostensibly the story of Bucky Cantor, a vital, young, virtue-driven athlete and gym teacher deemed unfit for World War II combat because of his faulty eyesight.

Literary Guide Fall 2010

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:13:59 +0000

Our annual November book section features some heavyweight fiction from Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick and Elie Wiesel. Plus, inside the Soviet Jewry movement, a new biography of Sarah Bernhardt and new cookbooks from some Top Jewish Chefs.

Staff Writer

Tuesday, November 16, 2010