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Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled
  • According to D.G. Myers, Susan Fromberg Schaeffer (1940-2011) “was probably not a great novelist, but she was and is the kind of writer upon whom a living literature depends — hard-working, indefatigable, utterly devoted to the life of words.”
  • Further reflections on Samuel Menashe (1925-2011), courtesy of Jewish Ideas Daily/David Curzon.
  • Four poets—Rachel Barenblat, Matthew Zapruder, Kathryn Hellerstein, and Yerra Sugarman—collaborate on a poem inspired by Genesis 22:13. (“So Avraham took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son.”)
  • Author Wayne Hoffman wants straight Jewish readers to choose Jewish gay books. He provides a reading list to help.
  • For Jewish Woman, Sandee Brawarsky shares “A Quartet of Stores About Love and Loss,” new books by Katharine Weber, Lucette Lagnado, Ellen Feldman, and Alice Hoffman.
  • From New Jersey Jewish News: “the first in a ongoing series of columns on how best to communicate for Israel.”

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • Next week, I’ll be publishing an interview with debut novelist Anna Solomon. But this week, you can read Anna’s fascinating essay on Jewish mail-order brides on Tablet.
  • Poet Samuel Menashe has passed away.
  • Some fall nonfiction titles of Jewish interest to anticipate.
  • Mazel tov to David Bezmozgis, author most recently of The Free World, which has been shortlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.
  • Eric Herschthal compiles a Jewishly-focused reading list for President Obama.

    • Shabbat shalom, with an emphasis on “shalom,” especially for our community in southern Israel.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    1
  • As an academically trained historian of modern France, I subscribe to an active listserv on French history. This week, the listserv presented a review of The Hidden Children of France, 1940-45: Stories of Survival, edited by Danielle Bailly and translated by Betty Becker-Theye.
  • Barbara Krasner (The Whole Megillah) recently returned from Prague, where she visited the graves of Franz Kafka and Arnost Lustig.
  • I neglected to create a dedicated post on the 15th to announce the latest monthly Jewish Book Carnival. But it’s a good one, so please go over to the August host, the HUC-JIR librarians’ blog, and take a look.
  • Tablet profiles the impressive founder of Yaldah magazine.
  • Commentary magazine has launched a literary blog: Literary Commentary. According to the magazine’s editor, John Podhoretz, the blog “will be a place to discuss matters fictional, science-fictional, Jewish-fictional, and all other manner of story, and it will be the charge of D.G. Myers, long a professor of English literature at Texas A&M and now a member of the faculty of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at Ohio State University.”
  • The Adventures of Augie March, by Saul Bellow, is Chicago’s latest “One Book, One Chicago” pick.
  • I purchased two novels for my Kindle this week: The Submission, by Amy Waldman (whom Eric Herschthal has just profiled for The Jewish Week), and, at long last, Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay, which I hope to read before going to see the movie (my parents saw it last week, and they are still talking about it).

    • Shabbat shalom!

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2
  • One of this week’s highlights was the latest Jewish Book Council “Twitter Book Club”. Up for discussion this time: Deborah E. Lipstadt’s new book, The Eichmann Trial. If you missed the chat, you can read the transcript (the author participated).
  • Another fascinating piece by Adam Kirsch, this time about Israeli writer Lea Goldberg, whose novel And This Is the Light (trans. Barbara Harshav) is available from Toby Press.
  • New podcasts on the Association of Jewish Libraries website!
  • A writing prompt led to this lovely pre-Holy Days post from Frume Sarah.
  • I am going to have to see this film.
  • This week marked the six-month anniversary of my short-story collection, Quiet Americans, which was released last January. Read my “half-birthday” reflections here.

    • Shabbat shalom, everyone.

    Books About the Dreyfus Affair

    by Erika Dreifus on
    1

    I think I may have come up with a new (albeit irregular) feature for this blog, one that holds cross-over appeal for my other blog (on writing and publishing). And it’s this: Every so often, I should come up with a short list of books that I’ve read and would recommend on a given literary-historical topic. (And as far as this blog is concerned, if it’s a Jewish-literary-historical topic, so much the better!)

    Let us begin with books about the Dreyfus Affair (named for its ill-fated victim, Captain Alfred Dreyfus). And that’s because ever since I found out (via Josh Lambert) that a new novel connected with this major episode in world/French/Jewish history will be on shelves soon–Susan Daitch’s Paper Conspiracies–I’ve been recalling other books that I’ve read and remember that are also embedded in this material.

    A bit of background: While earning my Ph.D. in Modern French history, I prepared a “special field” for my general examinations in French literature, and within that area, I focused on political literature. It was during that period in my studies that I dove into the literature surrounding the Dreyfus Affair, among other événements. I was lucky to work with some wonderful faculty on this project, including the brilliant Susan Suleiman, whose article “The Literary Significance of the Dreyfus Affair” (in Norman L. Kleeblatt, ed., The Dreyfus Affair: Art, Truth and Justice, [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987], pp. 117-139) is a must-read for anyone interested in this subject.

    I will add, too, that whenever I am in France and need to introduce myself, and my listeners appear to have trouble understanding me (my spoken French is not up to the level anyone might hope or expect), I say, “Dreifus, comme le capitaine.” That usually does the trick.

    So here are a few titles to which I remain attached. (more…)