Oreo, by Fran Ross (1974)

 

What’s not to love about a novel that, within its first few pages contains the following: 

 

"There is no weather per se in this book.  …  Assume whatever season you like throughout.  Summer makes the most sense …  That way pages do not have to be used up describing people taking off and putting on overcoats."

 

This novel is a very funny novel about relations between African-Americans and Jews.  Fran Ross (1935 ~ 1985) was the daughter of a Jewish father and an African-American mother.  She had also been a comedy writer for Richard Pryor, hence, her humor in this book.

 

The heroine of the novel is also the daughter of a Jewish father and Black mother.  Although her given name was Christine Clark, she was known by family and friends as Oreo.  Ostensibly, it was because her grandmother called her Oriole after the bird.  But, of course, this is a nod to the fact that the name is also a racial slur.

 

Her parent’s marriage causes concern on both sides of the family.  Oreo is raised by her maternal grandmother after her father deserts the family, but not before he leaves his legacy of Yiddish words and phrases, and her mother travels with a theater troupe.

 

When she reaches of age, Oreo sets off for New York City to find her father and his new family.  This book is hard to describe, as it is written in such a humorous manner, complete with graphs, tables and mathematical equations.  It addresses heavy issues on race relations and is quite relevant in todays atmosphere.

 

Read:  August 3, 2020

 

5 Stars

The 188th Crybaby Brigade

 The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah, by Joel Chasnoff (2010)

Joel Chasnoff, the author of this memoir is a stand-up comedian, who, at the age of 24 decided that he wanted to join the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).  Chasnoff grew up in a Conservative home in the United States, but felt a strong connection to Israel.  He had made a couple of visits to Israel, and as he explored his Jewishness, he decided he wanted to fulfill his long desire to serve in the IDF.  He describes his entry into the IDF, where he was assigned to the Armored Corps.

This book describes the rigors of the basic training and the bonds formed with his fellow soldiers.  At age 24, he was years older than his fellow recruits, who were all still in their teens.  His superior officers were barely in their 20s.  He is trained as a tank gunner, and after initial training, finds himself in the Golan on the Israel-Lebanon border.

On his rare days off, he visits his Israeli girlfriend and her family in Tel Aviv.  His training schedule is exhausting and on his time off, he only wants to veg.  His girlfriend, however, wants to party.  Maintaining a relationship is not easy.

When Chasnoff and his girlfriend decide to get married, he also learns just what it means to be a Jew in Israel.  Parts of this book were laugh-out-loud funny.  Other parts certainly provide food for thought.

This book was an easy and enjoyable read.

Read:  June 11, 2020

4 Stars

The Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor Lipman

The Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor Lipman is a delightful little romantic comic novel.

We first meet Natalie Marx, the heroine of The Inn as Lake Devine, as a young girl, who lives in a tight-knit Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts.  The year is the early 1960s.  While exploring a resort for a summer vacation, her mother writes a letter of inquiry to the Inn at Lake Devine, which is situated on a beautiful lake in scenic Vermont.  Ingrid Berry, the owner and manager of the Inn, writes back stating that the clientele at the Inn is for gentiles.  This seems to be Natalie’s first experience with anti-Semitism.  It also convinces her that she absolutely must find out what is so great about this particular Inn.

Soon after this event, the Civil Rights Act became the law.  Young Natalie began a campaign to flood the Berry’s letters reminding them that they could no longer restrict their clientele to only gentiles.

Later, while at summer camp, Natalie meets Robin Fife, whose family just happens to vacation at the Inn at Lake Devine each summer.  Natalie befriends Robin, even though she finds Robin a bit dull.  She devises a scheme to get herself invited to go to the Inn with Fife family for a week’s vacation.

Flash-forward 10 years.  Natalie is now a professional chef who is between jobs.  Natalie and Robin have more-or-less lost track of each other when Natalie learns that Robin is working in Boston at the Pappagallo store on Newbury Street in Boston.  (How well I remember this store!)  Natalie learns that Robin is engaged to marry Nelson Berry, son of the infamous Inn at Lake Devine.  Robin insists that Natalie attend her upcoming nuptials, which will be held at … (wait for it) the Inn!

Natalie returns to the Inn for the wedding and, on the way to the event, Robin is killed in a tragic car accident.  With family gathered for the wedding, the family decides to hold the funeral there instead.  Natalie stays for the week, cooking for the grieving families where she befriends Kris Berry, the groom’s younger brother.

She hopes that her budding friendship with Kris will develop into something more.  Her parents aren’t thrilled with her involvement with Kris because not only is he not Jewish, but at least 1 member of his family is anti-Semitic.  They fail to give Natalie messages and letters from Kris.

Ultimately, Kris and Natalie get together and go off to a resort in the Catskills with Nelson and his college friend Linette.  Linette’s family runs a kosher resort in the Catskills and she is engaged to a rabbinical student.  She and Nelson, however, renew their friendship as Natalie and Kris’s relationship blooms.

I liked this book, however, the ending was a little too trite.  Nelson quickly became involved with Linette so soon after Robin’s death.  This seemed very callous.

There is a brief, but interesting, #MeToo incident between Natalie and her influential boss.  He tacitly promises to provide her with job opportunities in exchange for sexual favors.  Natalie declines his “offer”, but this passage was written 20 years before such actions were even remotely being taken seriously by the public at large.

Read:  February 26, 2020

4 Stars

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, by Michael David Lukas

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, by Michael David Lukas (2018)

The Last Watchman of Old Cairotakes place over a millennium, from 1000 years ago when Ali became the night watchman of the Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, to the late 1890s, when Solomon Schechter and the Smith twins, Agnes and Margaret, “discovered” and saved the documents stored in the synagogue’s geniza, to present day Joseph al-Raqb, who traveled to Cairo, Egypt to learn about his father.  The synagogue is said to house the legendary Ezra Torah Scroll, which was written centuries before the birth of Christ.

In alternating chapters, we learn Cairo during three periods of history.  Ali’s story takes place around the year 1000. He was a young Muslim orphan who was hired by the synagogue council to be its night watchman.  As he learned his job, he also became fascinated by Jewish traditions, while maintaining his own religious beliefs.  In the late 1890s, Solomon Schechter (1847 ~ 1915) was in Cairo to search for the Ezra Torah Scroll.  With him were the middle-aged widowed twins Agnes Smith Lewis (1843 ~ 1926) and Margaret Smith Gibson (1843 ~ 1920), who were real people (although probably did not join Schechter on this quest).  The sisters were known for having discovered the Syraic Sinaiticusand were Biblical scholars in the Presbyterian Church.  In present day, Joseph al-Raqb, is a young American graduate student, raised by his Jewish mother, but whose father is Muslim.  A few months after his father’s death, Joseph received a mysterious package from his father.  This led him back to Cairo to find out why the object was sent to him.

In alternating chapters, the focus is on one of the above periods of history.  In Jewish tradition, texts with G~d’s name are sacred.  When such texts become worn or unusable, they must be treated with respect and not just thrown out.  Traditionally such texts are either buried or stored in a geniza.  The geniza in the Ibn Ezra Synagogue is a small room in the attic.

When portions of sacred texts are found being sold on the black market, Solomon Schechter traveled to Cairo to seek out the documents.  He had the documents saved and sent to Cambridge University, where they are still held.  [This is true.]

In family tradition, the eldest son of the al-Raqb family (with Ali being the original night watchman).  Joseph’s father was the eldest son, hence was the night watchman.  He held this position until after the Yom Kippur War when an event occurred in which he was unable to keep a mob from the synagogue. Joseph became fascinated in his quest to determine the fate of the Ezra Scroll.

The novel doesn’t take a position on the religious tradition per se, but does raise issued confronted by religious scholars in studying ancient documents.

I was totally absorbed by this novel.  Michael David Lukas also wrote The Oracle of Stamboul, which is a historical novel about the last days of the Ottoman Empire.  I read this book about 7 years ago and very much enjoyed that as well.

Read: August 8, 2018

5 Stars