Category: Book Reviews

June 21, 2010

Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz by Jan T. Gross ** (of 4)

When the handful of Poland’s original population of 3 million Jews returned from Siberia, concentration camps, or from hiding to reclaim their property and their...

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June 21, 2010

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer * (of 4)

Has received excellent reviews from Newsweek, New York Times, New Yorker, and my mother, but I couldn’t read even half of it, so take my...

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June 21, 2010

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer *** (of 4)

I really enjoyed this book, but I have to admit I didn’t understand it. The story line kept coming in and out of focus. Nevertheless,...

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June 21, 2010

East of Eden by John Steinbeck **** (of 4)

A retelling of the stories of Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel transposed to three generations of two families living mostly in Salinas, California during the...

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June 21, 2010

Detective Story by Imre Kertesz *** (of 4)

A novella about the abuse of dictatorial power in an unnamed South American country. Secret police contrive accusations against a Jewish store owner because they...

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June 21, 2010

Crabwalk by Gunter Gras *** (of 4)

A slow, intelligent, patient novel I listened to on tape about how three generations of Germans relate to Nazis. The central theme is the sinking...

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June 21, 2010

The Coffee Trader by David Liss *** (of 4)

A Jewish escapee from the Spanish Inquisition makes his living on the Amsterdam stock market, where shrewd trading skills run up to the border of...

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June 21, 2010

Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All its Moods by Michael Wex **** (of 4)

Wex is three-fourths scholar and one quarter stand-up comic. In departure from say Rosten’s books on Yiddish, which list words, definitions, and accompanying anecdotes, Wex...

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June 21, 2010

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak **** (of 4)

The character of Death narrates the story of Liesel Meminger, abandoned, nine-year-old daughter of a communist, who escapes death’s grasp during WWII in the German...

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June 21, 2010