Fiction Bonanza: New Adult Jewish Fiction 2004-2005 By Merrily Hart, Julie Moss, Rosalind Reisner and Kate Wenner Description: Back by popular demand! A panel of experts provides an extensive bibliography and suggests the best of the current crop of fiction. Bring your rants and raves and join in the discussion. Included are historical & literary fiction, mystery & thrillers and a special presentation by novelist Kate Wenner on creating believable Jewish characters. For Wenner, it’s not a matter of the trappings of a cultural type, but rather what she believes is deeply embedded in Jewish identity – the moral struggle over right and wrong and the issue of one’s responsibility to the world. Kate will talk about some of the characters she has created in this approach to writing a Jewish novel. Merrily F. Hart has been a librarian at the Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Beachwood, Ohio for over 10 years. A lover of literature, she leads several ongoing book discussion groups. Julie Moss has served as librarian of The Arthur J. Lelyveld Center for Jewish Learning at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, Ohio since 1991. She is a past Chai r of the Sydney Taylor Committee and currently serves as Vice President of AJL’s Greater Cleveland Chapter. Rosalind Reisner is the Program Coordinator at Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative and has been the librarian at Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, NJ for the past 25 years. She is the author of the reference book Jewish American Literature: A Guide to Reading Interests, part of the Genreflecting Series of readers' advisory guides published by Libraries Unlimited. Kate Wenner is the author of two novels with Jewish themes: Setting Fires and Dancing With Einstein. Before turning to fiction, she was a print and television journalist, who w on many professional awards during her 14-years as a producer for ABC’s 20/20. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine and The Village Voice. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries (Oakland, CA - June 19-22, 2005) 1 FICTION BONANZA: NEW ADULT JEWISH FICTION 2004-2005 Presented by Merrily Hart, Julie Moss, and Rosalind Reisner * BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR I. LITERARY FICTION Abraham, Pearl. The Seventh Beggar. Riverhead, 2004. Rabbi Nachman’s tales provide the inspiration and core of a story of the spiritual journey of a young man in the Orthodox world and his nephew at MIT. Lots of mysticism and kabbalah, but a careful reading is very rewarding. Compare to Chaim Potok’s books, The Outside World, Bee Season. Teen appeal. Arkin, Frieda. Hedwig and Berti. Thomas Dunne Books, 2005. A much-delayed second novel by an 87 year-old writer relates the tale of refugees fleeing Nazi Berlin and their subsequent life in England and the U.S. Satisfying and unnerving. Compare to The Song of Names. HOLOCAUST. Auslander, Shalom. Beware of God: Stories. Simon & Schuster, 2005. Fourteen humorous and sardonic short stories that explore the spiritual and mystical aspects of Judaism, with a heavy dose of satire visited on the true believers. A fresh and unique voice. Bauman, Bruce. And the Word Was. Other Press, 2005. After the tragic death of his son, Dr. Neil Downs tries to work through his grief by serving as a physician in India. A modern retelling of the Abraham and Isaac story. * Bezmozgis, David. Natasha and Other Stories. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004. Linked stories relate the experiences of an immigrant Russian family in modern Toronto as they set about reinventing their lives. The grace and sensitivity of the writing has made Bezmozgis an overnight star in the literary world. Compare to The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, There Are Jews in My House. URJ Significant Jewish Book & New York Times 100 Notable Books. Teen appeal. Cozarinsky, Edgardo. The Bride from Odessa: Stories. Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004. Born in Buenos Aires and a long-time resident of Paris, the film-maker/author’s cosmopolitan outlook and keen sense of history yield a collection of appealing, sensual stories. Elbom, Gilad. Scream Queens of the Dead Sea. Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2004. The author, an Israeli now residing in North Dakota, explores an old theme: whether the inmates of the lunatic asylum are saner than those on the outside. Witty black humor. Furman, Andrew. Alligators May Be Present. University of Wisconsin Press, 2005. Matt Glassman, an academic with shaky mental health, takes a job as a book review editor at a Florida Jewish tabloid and spends healing time birding in the Everglades. Furman, a professor at Florida Atlantic University, has published several very gracefully written books on contemporary Jewish American literature. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries (Oakland, CA - June 19-22, 2005) 2 Grossman, David. Her Body Knows: Two Novellas. Translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005. The title story captures a daughter's angry view of her mother's failings, while the other, titled "Frenzy," focuses on adultery, real or imagined. Grossman's intense psychological stories capture the ugly side of love. Keret, Etgar. The Nimrod Flip-Out. Translated from the Hebrew by Miriam Shlesinger and Sondra Silverston. Chatto & Windus, 2005. Short, satiric, bizarre bits by Israel’s hottest young writer. Previous book is The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God & Other Stories. Kertesz, Imre. Liquidation. Translated from the Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson. Knopf, 2004. A surreal journey through the lives of a group of friends who struggled through the Holocaust and communist tyranny only to be further battered by the aftermath of the fall of communism. A short intense read, challenging but worthwhile, by the Nobel Prize winner. HOLOCAUST. * Krauss, Nicole. The History of Love. Norton, 2005. Alma, a 14-year-old New Yorker, searches for the story behind her name with the help of a book called The History of Love. Creating an intriguing book-within-a-book narrative, Krauss's novel is funny and affecting. Lester, Julius. The Autobiography of God: A Novel. St. Martin’s Press, 2004. Always provocative, Lester will shock his audience with this book about a female rabbi - a blend of magic realism and intense spiritual debate set in a contemporary story of a campus murder. Compare to Joy Comes in the Morning. Neugeboren, Jay. News from the New American Diaspora: And Other Tales of Exile. University of Texas Press, 2005. An evocative collection from a confident storyteller. * Ozick, Cynthia. Heir to the Glimmering World. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. With her imaginative prose and vivid imagery, Ozick paints a fascinating portrait of an impoverished, dysfunctional, depression-era German refugee family in New York. Booklist 2004 Editors’ Choice, New York Times 100 Notable Books & Koret Foundation Jewish Book Award Finalist. Prose, Francine. A Changed Man. Harper Collins, 2005. A 32 year-old tattooed skinhead has a change of heart and arrives at the offices of the World Brotherhood Watch offering to help them "save guys like me from becoming guys like me." Teen appeal. Ravel, Edeet. Look for Me. Perennial, 2004. Dana Hillman’s husband vanished after an accident in the Israeli army. Eleven years later, she meets a man she thinks she could love, only to receive news that her husband is still alive. Follows 10,000 Lovers; the second in Ravel’s trilogy dealing with the impact of war and conflict on the everyday lives of Israeli Jews and Arabs. * Rosen, Jonathan. Joy Comes in the Morning. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004. Explores the complex life of a rabbi attempting to balance her identities as a woman, rabbi and Jew when she becomes involved with the son of a Holocaust survivor. URJ Significant Jewish Book & Wallant Award winner. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries (Oakland, CA - June 19-22, 2005) 3 * Roth, Philip. The Plot Against America. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Roth creates an eerily plausible alternate world in which anti-Semite Charles Lindbergh is elected president. A suspenseful and dramatic novel of ideas. Booklist 2004 Editors’ Choice, New York Times Ten Best Books and Koret Foundation Jewish Book Award Finalist. Shabtai, Yaakov. Uncle Peretz Takes Off: Short Stories. Translated from the Hebrew by Dalia Bilu. Overlook Duckworth, 2004. Originally published in Hebrew in 1972, these stories capture the characters and spirit of the Yishuv under British rule. * Stern, Steve. The Angel of Forgetfulness. Viking, 2005. Three distinct and intertwining narratives tell the tale of a raggedy angel residing on earth, his human son - a struggling writer, Nathan - and an alienated 60s era student, Saul. Saul’s elderly aunt, who was the love of Nathan’s life, is the link among these fragments and it is her memories of tenement life that bring this tale to life. Wilson, Jonathan. An Ambulance Is on the Way: Stories of Men in Trouble. Pantheon, 2005. Funny, poignant stories about men - very different from his previous books, The Palestine Affair and The Hiding Place. Yellin, Tamar. The Genizah at the House of Shepher. Toby Press, 2005. Rich with historical detail, this debut novel explores a family’s history through the tale of a mysterious book. II. POPULAR FICTION Braff, Joshua. The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green. Algonquin Books, 2004. Characterized by a critic as “Kvetcher in the Rye,” this hip first novel is a clever and funny coming-of-age story, but sophomoric. Consider it a bar-mitzvah level version of Portnoy’s Complaint. Contains obscenity and graphic sexual fantasies but definite appeal for teens. Booklist 2004 Top Ten First Novels. Chessman, Harriet Scott.