Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Review of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

 Nathan Englander writes about families with insight and great sensitivity.  He digs behind the surface dialog to reveal what is hiding beneath.  In the title story—“What We Talk about When We Talk about Anne Frank”—a wife asks her husband if he would save her in the Holocaust, if he would risk his own life to hide her in the attic.  He says yes, but, in a feat of miraculous writing, we all know the true answer is no.  The second story, “Sister Hills,” is a kind of epic allegory covering decades that challenges deep tenets of the Jewish faith.  In “Peep Show,” a successful lawyer faces down his hidden guilt about suppressing his Jewishness in favor of a secular life.  “Everything I Know about My Family on My Mother’s Side” is uniquely structured as a series of sixty-three numbered paragraphs, intermingling family lore with the narrator’s personal struggle to form meaningful relationships.  Perhaps the best story is the last one, “Free Fruit for Young Widows,” in which a father teaches his son about moral ambiguity and unconditional forgiveness.  Judaism is a big part of these stories, as are family relationships and the theme of individual responsibility.  This is a beautifully written and thought-provoking collection by a masterful story teller.

7 comments:

Zibilee said...

Your excellent description of this book, and your reactions to it make me really excited to grab this one and give it a go. I think these stories sound very unique, and I love the fact that they have an overarching theme of the various issues of Judaism. Very nice review today!

Unknown said...

Perhaps people call me crazy cuzza the 'carte-blanche-reality' we're all living under, they're STILL focused on themselves & their narrow indifference; however, if Im a crazy mortal, Im definitely crazy 4 Seventh-Heaven, the only realm which Im totally, utterly passionate for: OFF-or-ON, I getta message with oil young women in panties forever; where we may DO anything & HAVE anything 4 the length & breadth of eternity. Who wouldn't want an eternal tantamount of joy??? To serve them & love them & B1 withem (<- like that word). Precisely why we ROTE this: though I never went IN (I was an NDE), I actually saw the Great Beyond after our messy, catalyst ottowek.

So follow along if ya wanna wiseabove this whorizontal tragedy at croakin time; if you dont & choose Hellfire through your 'laissez-faire-indifference', your choice, earthling. Your demise.

God bless your indelible soul.
Google+: kold_kadavr _flatliner

Unknown said...

To weave an account of any consequence involves self-evident adaptation; a convincing culmination will further add a vast amount of attitudes/vitriol to the 'Animal House' which is the term EYE use for the literal Great Beyond:

Yay! yoo RITE!! Gotta gobba lotta shrewd, surreal, subtle, sardonic satires, psychotically savvy, sassy elixers & electronic elegance on our YOUTHwitheTRUTH blogz. N'joym, earthling.

So, why-O-why should U love our fuse-blowin, hot-shot, HOLEsumm-cage-match? Our abundant productivity coupled withe copious depth of the extraordinary? Our proFUSE NRGod which leeeds to explosive fairy-tales in the 'one-stop-shop' symphony? Our bombastic tenaCITY on a Hill which'll plant the Seeds 4U2 grow-up to great heights? Follow us on the journey Home...

CAUTION: our 22ish, wildchild, accurately-atrocious, off-the-reservation, metal-breadKrumm-blogazzzms R so boring, they're such an intimate wealth of bottomless residue; however, my just and groovy earthling, who else hast actually SEEN the Great Beyond in person & lived to tella youse bout the bionic, bloated, brevity-like-earth we're living on, almost salivating4salvation?? So, gain altitude, never attitude: death has no favorites.

If the Great Beyond's an ultra-great-reward, and not everyone enters, why is it an excruciating deluge of epic caliber where the quality's a limitless bulldozer pushin-your-power-cord with eternal goodies?? The Prize-a+-TheEnd-of-Reality just gives U.S. moe-curley graphiXX which few R asking 4 anymoe. They're too concerned withe grotesque sanity of the ambivilant PISSANTS! which crawl like lemmings to their doom!

THANK GAWWWD!!! the Don has the ebullient BAWLS!!! to say the Manifest Destiny!!! To lead us forward to the White House Upstairs with his SQUARES!!!

So, break-free, earthling: be like a contraversial outgrowth of incredibly-intoxicating-effusiveness in your zeitgeist. Wanna join this useFULL idiot Upstairs 4 the most zany, kooky, handcrafted antidotes? Extremely exquisite & explicit endorphins in abundance? Puh-lenty of pulverizingly-tantalizing ex-psycotics with esoteric tics? i2i-kick-ass-ultra-maximum-rocket-fuel-party-hardy at my pad ya ever encountered without d'New Joisey accent 4 an eternal slew of precarious, magnanimous and primeval absurdities indelibly etched in the Granite Corridoors of our eternity with a total-barrage-of-melt-in-thy-mouth infinite indulgence ...???

Make Your Choice -SAW
...cuzz nobody gitts outta here alive, earthling.

Unknown said...

To weave an account of any consequence involves self-evident adaptation; a convincing culmination will further add a vast amount of attitudes/vitriol to the 'Animal House' which is the term EYE use for the literal Great Beyond:

Yay! yoo RITE!! Gotta gobba lotta shrewd, surreal, subtle, sardonic satires, psychotically savvy, sassy elixers & electronic elegance on our YOUTHwitheTRUTH blogz. N'joym, earthling.

So, why-O-why should U love our fuse-blowin, hot-shot, HOLEsumm-cage-match? Our abundant productivity coupled withe copious depth of the extraordinary? Our proFUSE NRGod which leeeds to explosive fairy-tales in the 'one-stop-shop' symphony? Our bombastic tenaCITY on a Hill which'll plant the Seeds 4U2 grow-up to great heights? Follow us on the journey Home...

CAUTION: our 22ish, wildchild, accurately-atrocious, off-the-reservation, metal-breadKrumm-blogazzzms R so boring, they're such an intimate wealth of bottomless residue; however, my just and groovy earthling, who else hast actually SEEN the Great Beyond in person & lived to tella youse bout the bionic, bloated, brevity-like-earth we're living on, almost salivating4salvation?? So, gain altitude, never attitude: death has no favorites.

If the Great Beyond's an ultra-great-reward, and not everyone enters, why is it an excruciating deluge of epic caliber where the quality's a limitless bulldozer pushin-your-power-cord with eternal goodies?? The Prize-a+-TheEnd-of-Reality just gives U.S. moe-curley graphiXX which few R asking 4 anymoe. They're too concerned withe grotesque sanity of the ambivilant PISSANTS! which crawl like lemmings to their doom!

THANK GAWWWD!!! the Don has the ebullient BAWLS!!! to say the Manifest Destiny!!! To lead us forward to the White House Upstairs with his SQUARES!!!

So, break-free, earthling: be like a contraversial outgrowth of incredibly-intoxicating-effusiveness in your zeitgeist. Wanna join this useFULL idiot Upstairs 4 the most zany, kooky, handcrafted antidotes? Extremely exquisite & explicit endorphins in abundance? Puh-lenty of pulverizingly-tantalizing ex-psycotics with esoteric tics? i2i-kick-ass-ultra-maximum-rocket-fuel-party-hardy at my pad ya ever encountered without d'New Joisey accent 4 an eternal slew of precarious, magnanimous and primeval absurdities indelibly etched in the Granite Corridoors of our eternity with a total-barrage-of-melt-in-thy-mouth infinite indulgence ...???

Make Your Choice -SAW
...cuzz nobody gitts outta here alive, earthling.

Unknown said...

Perhaps people call me crazy cuzza the 'carte-blanche-reality' we're all living under, they're STILL focused on themselves & their narrow indifference; however, if Im a crazy mortal, Im definitely crazy 4 Seventh-Heaven, the only realm which Im totally, utterly passionate for: OFF-or-ON, I getta message with oil young women in panties forever; where we may DO anything & HAVE anything 4 the length & breadth of eternity. Who wouldn't want an eternal tantamount of joy??? To serve them & love them & B1 withem (<- like that word). Precisely why we ROTE this: though I never went IN (I was an NDE), I actually saw the Great Beyond after our messy, catalyst ottowek.

So follow along if ya wanna wiseabove this whorizontal tragedy at croakin time; if you dont & choose Hellfire through your 'laissez-faire-indifference', your choice, earthling. Your demise.

God bless your indelible soul.
Google+: kold_kadavr _flatliner

-blessed b9, Catalyst4Christ said...

<- who ROTE that? Did I? Egad! [gulp]

-blessed b9, Catalyst4Christ said...

Why dont you RITE
a peAce bout my blogOramma??
Tell me how it rhymes with
Seventh-Heaven, dear, not
here HintHint