Actually, it’s all Jewish books, all the time at Nextbook.org, “gateway to Jewish literature, culture and ideas” and a nice place to spend some time that won’t rot your brain.

A sure way to enliven your intellectual Jewish synapses is Matthew Brogan’s interview with poet Robert Pinsky, author of Life of David.

In contemplating David — king, soldier, artist, rebel — and his complex relationship with the Almighty, Pinsky hits the confusion and guilt of diaspora Jews spot-on:

He is perhaps the ultimate illustration that no generation invented the tangle. The supposed stability of some Absolute Zadeh, the pure and undiluted Real Jew, is unreal. Contemplating the David story reminds me how every Jew can find his own point on an infinite, glorious spectrum of Jewishness.

This may be misfiled, as I haven’t read the book yet, but I will remember this quote — and the image of the great warrior king suffering over the meaning of Jewishness just like the rest of us.

In response to Sarah Laughed: Modern Lessons from the Wisdom & Stories of Biblical Women by Vanessa Ochs:

For all the guff Jewish women get about being mouthy, there’s a distinct lack of female voices in the Old Testament.

Take Job’s wife (please): She loses her home, her children are killed and her husband continues to praise the One who made it all happen, and all she can say is “Curse God and die!”

I don’t know about you, but I’m guessing her actual speech was longer, louder and a bit more specific about the curses.

You can read the rest of my my review in this week’s J.

Sweet Caroline, is it true? Yes, Neil Diamond has a new album out and it’s completely devoid of rhinestones, sequins and anything that might inspire your mom to throw her underpants onstage.

Producer genius Rick Rubin, who once upon a time helped rocket a trio of rappin’ Jew boys to fame and fortune, has turned his less-is-more-for-old-fogies philosophy (his collaboration with Johnny Cash is considered to be one of the most brilliant works of the past decade) onto Diamond, long thought to be put out to pasture in Vegas.

The new album, 12 Songs, showcases Diamond’s talents as a songwriter without gunking it up with splashy instrumentation; the other musicians on the album sound like they’re barely there. It’s just a man with a guitar and a whole lotta soul — “Delirious Love” is destined to the classic for young couples who never even heard of “Love On The Rocks.”

I haven’t listened to the entire thing yet, but I’m calling this one of my faves — and not just because he’s Jewish. But I do have this irrisistible urge to rent The Jazz Singer this weekend…

Houston‘s got Jason Alexander, St. Louis has Fran Drescher, Detroit’s got Jack Klugman — who needs TV when our favorite stars are out promoting their new books?

All month long your local JCC is hosting readings, discussions, book groups and more. If you’ve been thinking to yourself, “Hey, I need to unglue myself from this screen and buy a good book to read on a park bench somewhere,” remember, nobody — but nobody — throws a book fair like the People of the Book.

Go. Read.

In other news, Mima’amakim has published its new journal and is celebrating with a grand fête in NYC’s East Village as I write.

I am, of course, nowhere near. But since I did get an acceptance e-mail for my poem “The Big You”, I was actually invited. And that’s really all it takes to make me feel like a real writer.

Even though it was duly mentioned in a post written from a press release last January, I finally got around to actually reading The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green by Joshua Braff. (It had been waiting on my nightstand for months while I muddled through Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, a densely written tome about magic and fairies in 19th century England that has absolutely nothing to do with Judaism, but I’m diverse like that. Highly recommend that one.)

First off, Unthinkable Thoughts was not nearly the arduous read as the book that came before it, thank Hashem. In fact, the narrative was so fast, funny and fresh that I ate the whole thing in a day.

Second son Jacob Green begins his story as a New Jersey yeshiva boy overshadowed by his older brother’s charisma but not nearly hidden enough to escape their control-freak father’s wrath. Abram Green believes himself to be the life of the party, the guy everyone loves to kibbitz with, but his children understand him to be a maniacal narcissist of the greatest order. Jacob, who can’t seem to finish his bar mitzvah thank you notes but can read Torah like an angel, is tormented by his father for the former but used by him for the latter to assuage his ego — “look at my son reading scripture! Aren’t I a wonderful Jew?”

Among the themes of coming-of-age and dysfunctional families, I found the one of “obligational Judaism” most fascinating. As someone who eagerly seeks out Jewish knowledge, the idea of having it shoved down one’s throat as a kid is horrifying. No wonder so many people who had religious upbringings completely turn away from their roots; the association of tyranny with Torah wouldn’t get me to synagogue after adulthood, either.

This isn’t the first Braff to write about a controlling father; Josh’s bro Zach cast Ian Holm as the psychiatrist who dopes his son to the gills to “save” him from the pain of paralyzing his mother in his movie Garden State. Brothers Braff swear up and down that neither father figure was autobiographical, but the similarities are there. I don’t know these boys, but if they were oppressed by their real dad, they certainly have their literary revenge.

Anyway, the best reason to read it is the dialogue — yeshiva boys screaming “Jesus Christ” at each other is just the beginning.

Back in the mid-90’s I shared a flat with a bouncy blonde German girl named Elke. Since we had clubbing, cute boys and crap waitressing jobs in common, we never got around to discussing the uncomfortable subject of where our grandparents had been during WWII.

Elke was a liberal, compassionate Californian just like the rest of our patchuoli-lovin’ roommates. She always shared the chocolate her sister sent sent her from Hamburg. I couldn’t just flat out ask if her relatives were Nazis; we already had one chick who liked to do naked yoga in the living room and that caused enough household tension. So we never talked about it.

Several years later Elke flew in from Germany and stood next to me in the synagogue at my wedding (along with four other really tall, blond bridesmaids. What can I say? I collect shiksas. Later someone told me my cousin started humming “Ride of the Valkyries” as they swooped down the aisle.) Her German-ness and my Jewish-ness never clashed and often mixed, but I wonder if she had private thoughts about what her grandparents would think of her standing next to a chuppah. (She now runs a wine shop in Hamburg. I suppose I could still ask; but whereas before it seemed indelicate, it now seems blatantly rude.)

I thought about Elke a lot while watching Walk On Water, Eyton Fox’s Israeli thriller Continue reading →

Legendary cartoonist/lampoonist R. Crumb discusses the difficulty of drawing the Almighty for his latest comic work The Book Of Genesis
…maybe I’ll draw God as a black woman. But if you actually read the Old Testament he’s just an old, cranky Jewish patriarch. It’s a lot of fun doing Genesis, actually. It’s very visual. It’s lurid. Full of all kinds of crazy, weird things that will really surprise people.
Man, if the Pope has a problem with Harry Potter, we can’t wait to see how he reacts to this.
Ill. c/o http://www.suitelorraine.com.

Since Jews are just so hott right now, it just makes sense that some shiksa would write a book about snagging one. Boy Vey seems riddled with stereotypes, and we find it disturbing that Jewish men are being stalked by non-Jewish women like so much game meat.

We’ve read much about the German film Alles Auf Zucker! (Go For Zucker!), mostly by writers who are astounded that a film about German Jews could be funny.
Following the story and eventual reconciliation of two brothers estranged by the Berlin Wall and family dysfunction, the slapstick comedy was nominated for ten out of a possible fifteen “Lolas” by the German Film Academy. It won six, including best film, best screenplay and best actor.
We missed it on the Jewish Film Festival rounds and are waiting for an as-of-yet DVD release, but if the world can wait this long for a German Jewish comedy, we can too.