Auslander in the Attic
by Sala Levin
The Holocaust, as Michael Scott so wisely taught us, is one thing we just can't joke about. (Scott's other taboos? JFK and AIDS, though the Lincoln assassination was only recently crossed off that list.) But Shalom Auslander, well, bless him, he's trying. The angry writer behind Foreskin's Lament recently released a series of book trailers (entitled "The Attic Calls") for his forthcoming novel, Hope: A Tragedy. In the trailers, Auslander pleads with fellow Semite Ira Glass and friends-of-the-Jews Sarah Vowell and John Hodgman to shelter him and his family if--let's be real, in Auslander's mind it's when--there's another Holocaust.
Auslander isn't the first Jewish writer to wade into the world of book trailers: Last year, Gary Shteyngart released a hilarious trailer featuring everyone's favorite post-graduate-degree-collecting Jewish dreamboat James Franco and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jeffrey...