08 Apr
Latest

Redeeming Haim Hazaz

by Darren Pinsker When the Israeli writer Haim Hazaz died in 1973, his reputation was so lofty in the world of modern Hebrew letters that one observer would write in the Jewish Book Annual, “He was one of Israel’s most honored writers of fiction and one of her most influential thinkers." Upon the tenth anniversary of his death, the Israeli critic Dan Laor, introducing an anthology of lectures arranged in commemoration of Hazaz’s fiction, would write, “The work of Haim Hazaz is one of the most important phenomena in 20th century Hebrew literature.” And in an essay on Hazaz written in 2001, the literary scholar Arnold Band would opine, “If we ask who were the leading prose writers of the 1950s, we would probably agree upon three names: Agnon, Hazaz, and Yizhar.” And yet today,...

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05 Oct
Arts & Culture, Culture

Helen Schulman on This Beautiful Life

by Beth Kissileff Helen Schulman is the author of novel This Beautiful Life, her fifth novel, which takes on the contemporary issue of privacy and the Internet. The plot is ripped from the headlines of The New York Times: A teenage girl sends an older boy a graphic video of herself in extremely sexualized positions. The boy, unsure how to respond, forwards the video to his closest friend for advice. It goes viral and he is soon called into the office of his New York prep school’s headmaster. The aftermath of the boy’s suspension from school creates extreme tension for his parents and younger sister, fraying their thinning family ties. While there are not explicitly Jewish themes in the book, the mother and children are Jewish characters; certainly Jews need to be aware of a tale...

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29 Apr
Arts & Culture, History

The First and Final Nightmare

By Symi Rom-Rymer When 69 year-old Sonia Reich ran out of her Skokie home late one February evening in 2001, no one knew why.  Insisting that a man was trying to “put a bullet in my head,” she refused to go home. This anecdote opens the haunting book, “The First and Final Nightmare of Sonia Reich” by Chicago Tribune Jazz critic Howard Reich. Holocaust memoirs have conventionally ended in 1945 with survivors emerging from the years of darkness and terror, hardened but resolute. Reich’s hybrid memoir/biography, however, is part of a growing trend of books by children of Holocaust survivors who explore what happens next.  The end of the war seemed to give his mother a sense freedom and even allow her to achieve modest prosperity.  She arrived in the United States in 1947 at 16 years...

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25 Apr
Arts & Culture, Culture, Religion

James Frey's Messiah of the Subways

by Amanda Walgrove What would the Messiah be like if he were walking the streets of New York today? James Frey takes a stab at answering this question in his new book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. After revealing that his 2003 memoir, A Million Little Pieces was mostly fictive, Frey was swiftly ostracized by the literary community and, famously, by Oprah Winfrey, who had previously championed him. In a brave attempt to redeem himself, Frey has written an addendum to the most famous book of all time, revealing the second coming of the Messiah—this time, in the Bronx projects. Pulling out all the controversial stops, Frey's Christ character, Ben Zion Avrohom, also known as Ben Jones, is a former alcoholic who impregnates a prostitute, smokes pot, and engages in homosexual relations. After surviving a...

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25 Apr
Arts & Culture, Culture, Religion

James Frey’s Messiah of the Subways

by Amanda Walgrove What would the Messiah be like if he were walking the streets of New York today? James Frey takes a stab at answering this question in his new book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. After revealing that his 2003 memoir, A Million Little Pieces was mostly fictive, Frey was swiftly ostracized by the literary community and, famously, by Oprah Winfrey, who had previously championed him. In a brave attempt to redeem himself, Frey has written an addendum to the most famous book of all time, revealing the second coming of the Messiah—this time, in the Bronx projects. Pulling out all the controversial stops, Frey's Christ character, Ben Zion Avrohom, also known as Ben Jones, is a former alcoholic who impregnates a prostitute, smokes pot, and engages in homosexual relations. After surviving a...

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18 Nov
Arts & Culture, Latest, Moment Magazine

People of the Book: Foreskin's Lament

by Sala Levin The month before Hanukkah is designated as Jewish Book Month; in honor of the occasion, IntheMoment is launching a new feature: People of the Book. Every week, staff writers will share a Jewish book that they love and tell us why the book speaks to them.  Of course, the world of Jewish literature is expansive and varied, and we hope that you, our readers, will share with us your own favorite Jewish books in the comments section--maybe one of your picks will be chosen for the spotlight. The issue of favorite Jewish books inevitably raises an important question: Just what, exactly, is a "Jewish" book?  Is it any book written by a Jewish writer, regardless of subject matter?  A book whose main characters are Jewish, whether or not the writer is?  What about a book...

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