This survey of Eastern European Jewry was prompted by Meltzer's desire to investigate the background his immigrant parents never talked about. As Meltzer reads neither Yiddish nor Hebrew, the result is, predictably, a montage of impressions excerpted from such standard English works as Zborowski and Herzog's Life is With People, Chamofsky's Jewish Life in the Ukraine, I.L. Peretz' Memoirs, and I.J. Singer's novels. Yet the book — which ends up focusing on the 19th century shtetl of Russian-Polish Jews — possesses the virtue of eschewing sentimentality about that hard and dirty life. Meltzer also sketches with detachment the split between the Hasidic mystics and various opponents who wanted to merge Judaism with the Enlightenment, as well as the origins of the Bund and Zionism. A well made introduction for those who need a bridge to the standard works Meltzer introduces.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1974
ISBN: 0440994225
Page Count: -
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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