Pre-Shabbat Jewish Literary Links

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Every Friday My Machberet presents an array of Jewish-interest links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Did you follow that recent brouhaha about a so-called “banned” book in Israel? Liel Leibovitz dug deeper into that story for Tablet; read his piece. (See also Michele Chabin’s report for The Jewish Week.)
  • Fascinating to see what the National Library of Israel has been up to.
  • New on the Fig Tree Books blog this week: a look back on Philip Roth’s Everyman.
  • “If the American Jewish story is, on balance, a very happy one, why are our books so miserable? Where are the well-adjusted Jewish writers?” In a new review for Tablet, Adam Kirsch spotlights one of the happy ones: Herman Wouk, who has a new memoir out.
  • I’d fallen behind on the “Israel in Translation” series; here’s a tribute segment for Amir Gutfreund, the Israeli author who passed away this fall.
  • Shabbat shalom. PS: I’ll be traveling for the next few days; comment moderation and response will resume after my return.

    Sunday Sentence

    IMG_2804In which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, sharing the best sentence I’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

    But one day, Stanley conversing with a distinguished visitor before a lecture, cast a glance in my direction and in a loud stage whisper said, “And that young man hiding behind his beard at the end of the table is Arthur Goldhammer, whom you should ask to translate your next book.”

    Source: Arthur Goldhammer’s Memorial Note in the program for “A Tribute to Stanley Hoffmann,” December 3, 2015.

    Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

    I’ve got some kind of bug this week–I had to leave my Monday class a little early and haven’t quite managed to get everything accomplished that I’ve been hoping to. (And if you’re reading this on Wednesday morning, I may just be undergoing a root canal for the first time as you do so! Fun times!)

    But here are a couple of tidbits from the week just past. (more…)

    From My Bookshelf: Poetry for Jewish Book Month

    As you may already know, tomorrow brings the beginning of the 90th year of Jewish Book Month. And in anticipation, I’m sharing a few poetry titles that are on my tbr list.

    But first, a quick look back on my latest read: Inspired by sample poems written by Dan Pagis (1930-1986) about the biblical characters Adam/Eve/Cain/Abel—poems distributed by instructor Amy Gottlieb in a class I’m taking at the Drisha Institute—I spent a chunk of last weekend reading Variable Directions, a full collection of Pagis’s work translated by Stephen Mitchell. And I’m very glad that I did.

    Now that I’ve returned Variable Directions to the library, here are three additional poetry titles awaiting my attention.

    FullSizeRender-22 (more…)