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The Schmooze Escaping the Past?
Earlier this week, James Patrick Kelly wrote about a man as puzzling as his stories and John Kessel examined Kafka and the parable. Today, Kelly discusses Sami Rohr Prize Winner Tamar Yellin and her story “Kafka in Bronteland.”Their blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council…
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The Schmooze Tortured Soul of Joseph Roth
Philip will have to make room for another Roth. The irony is that Joseph Roth, a Galician-born Austro-Hungarian Jewish writer, dead for nearly three quarters of a century, has never been more alive in the English speaking world. Translator Michael Hofmann, whose gifted ear has graced 11 of Roth’s titles including the recently published “Joseph…
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The Schmooze Albert Brooks on Thugs and Presidents
“I wanted to play a villain but couldn’t convince an American director,” Albert Brooks told an audience January 8, his curly hair framing a gentle cherubic face. The Film Society at Lincoln Center was honoring Brooks for his career, including his recent role as a psychopathic Jewish mafioso in the 2011 movie “Drive.” Given his…
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The Schmooze Kafka and the Parable
John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly are the editors of “Kafkaesque: Stories Inspired by Franz Kafka.” On Monday, James Patrick Kelly wrote about a man as puzzling as his stories and today, John Kessel looks at Kafka and the parable. Their blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the…
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The Schmooze Top Israeli Literary Award Goes to Underdog
At a gala ceremony in Tel Aviv January 16, author Haggai Linik joined a select group of literary luminaries when his third novel, “Darush Lahshan” (“Prompter Needed”) was awarded Israel’s Sapir Prize for Literature. Inaugurated in 2000, the Sapir Prize is Israel’s most prestigious literary prize. Awarded by Mifal HaPayis — the National Lottery —…
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The Schmooze Kafka: A Man as Puzzling as His Stories
John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly are the editors of “Kafkaesque: Stories Inspired by Franz Kafka.” Today, James Patrick Kelly writes about a man as puzzling as his stories. Their blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For…
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Culture Land of the Rising Zun
Yiddish-Japanese Dictionary/Yidish-Yapanish Verterbukh/Idisshu-go jiten Compiled and edited by Kazuo Ueda, with the aid of Holger Nath and Boris Kotlerman Daigakusyorin, 1302 pages, ¥60,000 Rabbi Marvin Tokayer of Great Neck, N.Y., knows from Japan. “In 1969, I was living in Tokyo and I got a telephone call at my house from a guy who was Japanese…
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The Schmooze Q&A: Oliver Stone on Israel, Palestine and Newt Gingrich
Filmmaker Oliver Stone has been keeping busy. In research for his forthcoming Showtime documentary series, “The Untold History of the United States,” which re-examines crucial events in American history, Stone conducted a seven hour interview with Tariq Ali, the Pakistani-born activist and intellectual who inspired the Rolling Stones song “Street Fighting Man.” That dialog formed…
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