Kagans Superfecta And Other Stories

Download or read book Kagan's Superfecta: And Other Stories written by Allen Hoffman and published by WW Norton. This book was released on 2000-11-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The art of Jewish storytelling thrives in this captivating collection of tales by Allen Hoffman, filled with memorable characters. This captivating collection of stories by Allen Hoffman, award winning author of the critically acclaimed Small Worlds series are deeply felt explorations into the Jewish mind and world?stories in the tradition of Isaac Bashevis Singer. At the same time, illuminated by compassion and humor, they transcend cultural boundaries and provide fascinating studies in the universal human experience. Kagan the compulsive gambler, Bluma the old beggar woman, Hymie the well-to-do arsonist, and Maxie the juggling uncle are but a few of the comic and sympathetic characters of Hoffman's title novella and four short stories that celebrate the human experience. Hoffman loves and integrates two worlds, the modern secular and the timeless traditional. Kagan's Superfecta is a dazzling, inspirational performance.

Download or read book A Comparison of Selected Contemporary Jewish American Prose by Allen Hoffman written by Andreas Nauhardt and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-11-12 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1, Martin Luther University (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Hauptseminar 'Contemporary Jewish American Writers', language: English, abstract: About twenty years ago Bonnie K. Lyons suggested that every writer, regardless of which cultural origin, writes out of a culture serving as the battlefield of conflicting visions and values. Eventually, the writer may either embrace or attack his cultural heritage. At a first glance it seems to be indefinite where to pigeonhole the abstract above regarding to Lyons'ndistinction but after opening oneself to the tales of the reviewed contemporary Jewish American writer the classification becomes definite. Taken from one of his short stories, the excerpt gives a brief glimpse into the authentic, exhilarant writing of Allen Hoffman. Truly refreshing characters who argue about things of mundane and devout significance as well as the usage of partially genuine parallels to the autho himself determine Hoffman's prose which has sustainable effects on readers. He covers Jews, Jewish values, and idiosyncratic Jewish topics as actually urgent and particular characteristics of Jewish American prose. Although his literature comprises humorous and ironic valuations the respect and appreciation for the Jewish culture in times of clashes between tradition and renewal never gets lost.

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature written by Hana Wirth-Nesher and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-06-12 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than two hundred years, Jews have played important roles in the development of American literature. The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature addresses a wide array of themes and approaches to the distinct yet multifaceted body of Jewish American literature. Essays examine writing from the 1700s to major contemporary writers such as Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. Topics covered include literary history, immigration and acculturation, Yiddish and Hebrew literature, popular culture, women writers, literary theory and poetics, multilingualism, the Holocaust, and contemporary fiction. This collection of specially commissioned essays by leading figures discusses Jewish American literature in relation to ethnicity, religion, politics, race, gender, ideology, history, and ethics, and places it in the contexts of both Jewish and American writing. With its chronology and guides to further reading, this volume will prove valuable to scholars and students alike.

Download or read book Two for the Devil (Small Worlds) written by Allen Hoffman and published by WW Norton. This book was released on 2011-06-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year and Day of Judgment — in Moscow during the Stalinist purges of 1936. In the Lubyanka secret police prison, senior investigator Grisha Shwartzman masterfully pursues the rigorous logic and obsessive legalism of the Soviet witch-hunt. Facing an extraordinary prisoner, Grisha realizes that the Soviet system he has faithfully served is murderously corrupt and that he himself will be the next victim — but not an innocent one. In despair, he flees to his home, where his deranged wife and an unexpected Rosh Hashanah letter from his father-in-law, the enigmatic Krimsker Rebbe in America, await him. The Day of Judgment proves to be a startling experience as Grisha, the once idealistic radical, judges himself, accepts his responsibilities, and is guided to sublime passion and possible redemption by his mad wife, who for twenty years has been patiently awaiting him in a closed wardrobe. In 1942 a train of imprisoned Jews leaves the Warsaw ghetto for "resettlement in the East." It is Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the Jewish year. In a crowded cattle car stands a lonely, defeated individual who is ashamed that he cannot even remember his own name. During the tortuous journey Yechiel Katzman will overhear a talmudic debate and meet a dull-witted giant who turns out to be none other than Itzik Dribble, also from Krimsk. As they arrive in the death camp of Treblinka, Yechiel remembers not only his name but also the Krimsker Rebbe's prophetic curse that exiled him from Krimsk forty years earlier. Yet as death approaches, that curse will prove a blessing. Stalin and Hitler decree certain death, but Grisha and Yechiel discover Jewish fates. The devil incites loneliness, degradation, despair, and even complicity; through memory, the victims elicit community, dignity, and the awareness of sanctity. Grisha's "Soviet" Rosh Hashanah and Yechiel's "Nazi" Yom Kippur are truly "Days of Awe." Even when death is certain, life can be lived.

Download or read book American Jewish Fiction written by Josh Lambert and published by Jewish Publication Society. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new volume in the JPS Guides series is a fiction reader?s dream: a guide to 125 remarkable works of fiction. The selection includes a wide range of classic American Jewish novels and story collections, from 1867 to the present, selected by the author in consultation with a panel of literary scholars and book industry professionals. Roth, Mailer, Kellerman, Chabon, Ozick, Heller, and dozens of other celebrated writers are here, with their most notable works. Each entry includes a book summary, with historical context and background on the author. Suggestions for further reading point to other books that match readers? interests and favorite writers. And the introduction is a fascinating exploration of the history of and important themes in American Jewish Fiction, illustrating how Jewish writing in the U.S. has been in constant dialogue with popular entertainment and intellectual life. Included in this guide are lists of book award winners; recommended anthologies; title, author, and subject indexes; and more.

Download or read book The Library Journal written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 950 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes, beginning Sept. 15, 1954 (and on the 15th of each month, Sept.-May) a special section: School library journal, ISSN 0000-0035, (called Junior libraries, 1954-May 1961). Also issued separately.

Download or read book The Publishers Weekly written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 1404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: