This is a crucial act of preservation: by archiving and translating into English this wealth of fiction, Glinter has helped...
A new anthology gathers a century’s worth of fiction from a pre-eminent Yiddish publication.
When the Forward began publishing news, editorials, literature, and essays in 1897, it became a haven for writers and readers of Yiddish not only in New York, where it was published, but also in much of Europe. It has since become the longest-lasting Yiddish newspaper in the United States. A vibrant, and vital, new anthology gathers fiction from across the Forward’s long tenure. It seats luminaries like Isaac Bashevis Singer, Sholem Asch, and Abraham Cahan (longtime editor of the Forward) alongside lesser-known figures like B. Kovner, Yente Serdatsky, and Miriam Raskin. Many of the stories, like those of Lyala Kaufman (daughter of the illustrious Sholem Aleichem), are here translated into English for the first time. With sections organized around various themes, such as “Immigration and Its Discontents,” “Modern Times,” which looks at shifting social and sexual mores, and “World on Fire,” with fiction inspired by the two world wars, the Ukrainian War of Independence, and other violent tragedies, the anthology provides a wide-ranging, comprehensive depiction of a century’s worth of experiences by American and European Jews. Many of the stories take the form of slight character sketches, like Roshelle Weprinsky’s “Annie,” which describes a factory worker’s yearning to provide her husband and children with comforts they can’t afford. In Avrom Reyzen’s “Who Will Prevail?” a pompous young intellectual tries to win over his landlady’s daughter only to lose her to a more unequivocal tailor. Many of the stories have the edifying aspect of fables. If there is a certain sameness in narrative structure and literary style, this is forgivable, since Glinter, who edited the collection (and currently serves as deputy culture editor for the Forward) has selected such a diverse, wide-ranging group of writers. Women are well-represented here, as are the aging, the lonely, and the yearning.
This is a crucial act of preservation: by archiving and translating into English this wealth of fiction, Glinter has helped to ensure the legacy of the Forward and its many brilliant contributors.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-393-06270-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: he’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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