Stories gathered from the last forty years deal with love, the family, Jewish life, travel, childhood, and the search for meaning

"A wedding reception becomes a gothic dream in which the bride, groom, and guests struggle with obsessions, fantasies, and the constant failure of love. The bride is not all she seems and there is something ambiguous about the groom - and about everyone else at the surreal and strangely moving wedding."--

Review 47th Street Abc Of Culture Adoration Of The Moon Autobiography Battle Report Beyond The Demonic Element Blue Eyes The Bridge Brooklyn Heights: 1 Brooklyn Heights: 2 City City Portrait Cityscape Combat Comment Cry Of The Small Rabbits Cummings Curtains Cynthia Days And Nights Death Of A Grandmother Ditty Domestic Matters The End Feast Of The Ram's Horn For Delmore Schwartz For The Yiddish Singers In The Lakewood Hotels My Childhood For Wcw From A Chinese Master From An Autobiography From Martin Buber The Gift Of Remembering: 1 The Gift Of Remembering: 2 The Gift Of Remembering: 3 The Heart History In The Room The Intensity Interlude Italy, 1944 A Jerusalem Notebook: 1 A Jerusalem Notebook: 10 A Jerusalem Notebook: 11 A Jerusalem Notebook: 12 A Jerusalem Notebook: 13 A Jerusalem Notebook: 14 A Jerusalem Notebook: 15 A Jerusalem Notebook: 2. Postcard A Jerusalem Notebook: 3 A Jerusalem Notebook: 4. Tourists A Jerusalem Notebook: 5 A Jerusalem Notebook: 6 A Jerusalem Notebook: 7 A Jerusalem Notebook: 8. For C. R. A Jerusalem Notebook: 9. The Old Jewish Poet Floats ... July The Kingdom Last Things May 14, 1978 A Message From Rabbi Nachman Middle Class Monday Mountain Fire, Thornbush Muse Poem Musical Shuttle National Cold Storage Company News Of The World The Night Nightsounds A Notebook Notes At 46 Observations The Old Nostalgia Past Time Power In America The Prophet Announces The Realization Riding Westward Riverside Drive Saul's Progress Sister The Six Hundred Thousand Letters Spirit Of Rabbi Nachman Summer Sunday Morning The Synagogue On Kane Street The Talker Through The Boroughs Tides Tight Like That To The Teacher Two Cornell Deaths Vacation Poetry The Way Where I Am Now -- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® Product description Book by Shapiro, Harvey From Publishers Weekly This collection, which consists of new verse as well as selections from Shapiro's previous books, spans over 30 years, and reveals his evolution as artist and observer. An American urban poet with an informal style that is direct and often colloquial, he captures the essence of life in anxiety-ridden, overstimulating New York: "If you walk by the river, Manhattan / is like a book, the pages turn, / the words march down those pages. / Look back to the lights along the river. / Wait for the dark, wait for the city to come on, / windows and bridges blazing, / Whatever you needed was there, wasn't it?" With haunting insistence Shapiro, former editor of the New York Times Book Review , explores his ambivalence, pain and fascination regarding his Jewish lineage, childhood, women and marriage, fatherhood, and mortality: "I was conceived on the night / of my sister's funeral. / . . . This is family history. / What is unclear is my father's role. / Was the night of my sister's funeral / a suitable time for making love? / Did they both think that? / Or was my father excited by my mother's grief? / Though I honor my mother and father, / I want to ask a few more questions." He describes domestic life candidly and with considerable humor and humility, but his words are serious and linger. The length of the poems varies; many are spontaneous snippets of thought, others are longer, carefully crafted and, richer in texture and content, offer more of Shapiro's seasoned insight and tenacity of spirit. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Meticulous and deceptively simple, Shapiro's poems embody craft and concept. Had William Carlos Williams been Jewish, fought in World War II, and later lived in New York City, he might well have written poems like these. Though Shapiro offers a unique exploration of the American Jewish identity, what stands out in this collection are the love poems: "I believe we came together/ Out of ignorance not love." Shapiro's career in publishing (including editorship of The New York Times Book Review from 1975 to 1983) has overshadowed his poetry, but one comes away from this collection wishing it had inclu

Redemptive Memory reveals the pattern of a life lived passionately and examined deeply. Its themes are love, that draws the poet to the world; anger, that rages against disappointment; and song, that joins feeling and thought in the redemptive promise of form. These poems arise from experience and evoke unnamed others through many modes of address: interrogative, imperative, suppliant. Yet in their use of allegory and parable, and their generalizing thrust, they reach beyond the individual life, discovering laws of conscience and commitment that might guide another life. The body's joys and losses, the ego's rage against betrayal and death, language's "acrobatic" enchantments, the sand and water of the mutable world we act in-all fi nd their enduring music here. The poems have the majesty of Yeats, the intellectual ambition of Eliot, the humanity of Stevens, pressing back against the pressure of reality. The phrasing in these poems displays an intelligence that reveres mystery: "all my solaces turn ashes in your seeking"; "the snowman kneels into sleep"; "the heel of space stamping/the changes of what I feel." The compelling rhymes shape an ethical awareness: "sober judges on the stormy roof/ you tell every man to come home from his youth." And the rhythms are designed to body forth their arguments: Carve your substance in the furnace of form; the wall of the word grows stronger than harm In these masterful poems, some braced against harm, others whispering in the silence or just swinging in glee, the imagination is satisfi ed and memory is indeed made redemptive. Bonnie Costello, Boston University

This highly anticipated songbook by Sephardic singer/composer/guitarist Gerard Edery contains 40 musical gems from the Sephardic oral tradition. Includes ballads, songs of courtship, love and marriage, as well as liturgical pieces. Includes a 17-track CD, Ladino pronunciation guide, lyrics and translations, and a foreword by renowned author/storyteller Peninnah Schram. Songs are arranged in an easily readable format that highlights melody and guitar chords with suggested accompaniments. Includes: Montanas Altas * Shalom Alechem Senores * La Roza Linda * Eli Eliyahu * Tus Cavellos Seda Son * and many more!

The Objectivist Press published George Oppen's first book Discrete Series, a collection of thirty-one short poems with a preface by Ezra Pound, in 1934. Four years earlier, the twenty-one-year-old poet had sent an unbound sheaf of typewritten poems with the title 21 Poems hand-written in pencil on the first page to the poet Louis Zukofsky, who forwarded them on to Pound in Paris. These poems, suffused with Oppen's love for his young bride Mary, as well as his love of sailing, are strikingly different from what they'd eventually become in Discrete Series. The scholar David B. Hobbs recently found 21 Poems buried in Ezra Pound's papers at Yale's Beinecke Library, and they appear here as a collection of their own for the first time.

Under the influence of science, modern civilization has adopted the view that only things that can be verified empirically or arrived at rationally are true. Modern people tend to regard themselves as mechanisms, without any subjective aspects to their nature. In this insightful and passionately concerned book, British educationist and man of letters David Holbrook retorts persuasively that this reductive view of human nature is profoundly false. Man's inner, subjective life is essential to his nature, what happens to his consciousness is the most important thing in his life, and his greatest need is to find meaning.Holbrook also warns that reductionism has pernicious, even lethal, cultural, social, and political consequences. The logical result is nihilism: if human beings and existence are but physical mechanisms, it necessarily follows that consciousness does not exist, life is meaningless, our concern with moral values is pointless, and so are our lives and actions. Life itself reduces to nothing but self-indulgence and self-assertion. A culture informed by this perspective is necessarily full of expressions of hate and meaninglessness, which coarsens and demoralizes the majority of the population and worsens the mental pathologies of unstable persons. "Egoistical nihilism" becomes ever more widespread, and a decent society becomes impossible.Holbrook advances a keenly insightful and eloquent critique of the radical individualism of Max Stirner's famous tract The Ego and His Own. Stirner's worldview, he argues, is grounded in psychopathology and takes the nihilist assumptions of modernity to their logical conclusion: "the unique one" totally detached from society and reducing others to mere means to his ends, fair game for exploitation unfettered by ethical considerations. Ominously, he notes, the Stirnerean attitude toward existence is becoming increasingly common. Against the reductive perspective of positivism, Holbrook argues that scientific investigations establish the reality of meaning and of values rooted in love. He calls for a reaffirmation of both.Originally published in 1977, Education, Nihilism, and Survival speaks prophetically and even more urgently to us today. The worsening coarseness, nihilism, and brutality of our culture, the partisan fanaticisms and widespread alienation and apathy of our politics, and horrors such as school shootings reveal the consequences of radical individualism.Education, Nihilism, and Survival will be of interest to well-educated general readers concerned at the state of culture and society; educators alarmed at harmful approaches in education; and psychologists and philosophers concerned about existentialism, Stirner's egoist philosophy, and the need for meaningful, philosophical anthropology.

Elias Canetti, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature, here offers a quintessential selection from the wealth of his short writings. Remarkable for their uncommon candor and originality, these flashes of thought illuminate a half century of Canetti's existential and intellectual development. By turns enigmatic and profound, anguished and humorous, Canetti's concentrated reflections reveal his grand themes - the mystery of love, the meaninglessness of history, the ambiguity of language, the problem of power, mankind's savagery toward other living creatures. Canetti's hatred of dogma, his passionate protest against aging and death stand out with unparalleled clarity, as does the deep ethical awareness at the core of his creativity.

Felice Bauer was Kafka's first great love and the inspiration for his first great fiction. Six weeks after they met, he wrote The Judgment for her in one night of feverish activity. Kafka always inferred to the traumatic, public breaking-off of their engagement as his "tribunal," and indeed he began work on The Trial within a month of that event. Kafka's letters to Felice offer rare insights into the writer's life and art. Elias Canetti's brilliant and sensitive examination of this moving correspondence to shows is the origins of Kafka's voice as a writer and his torment as a man.

A collection of short stories:I. Ange MarieII. The modern marauderIII. The shrew of MadridIV. An ethical dilemmaV. The fugitive of Adelphie terraceVI. The battling pacifistVII. Mr Brown and the MadonnaVIII. The dancing GentlemanIX. With a dashX. The chateau of phantasies.Major Andrew Forester is a retired British Army officer, of no discernible occupation, who wanders about Europe, England and the United States in the 1920s. He is looking for adventure, but not outside the bounds of the acceptable. He is willing to skirt the law, but not break it. A bachelor, he has been unsuccessful in love, with a limited income. He stays in out-of-the-way hotels, and smaller pensions, and takes an occasional gamble on the tables at Monte Carlo. His peripatetic life style brings him in contact with scam artists, gold-diggers, art thieves, industrial spies,taxi dancers, and flappers. Sometimes he benefits from these associations, but at other times he is their victim. He does this all with style, impeccable clothing, and a humorous tolerance of human failings.

"A very readable book which portrays the human being behind the music, increasing our love of both." Yehudi Menuhin, from inside cover.

A whirling top most of his life, Michael Goldberg's world changes when his dying shrink bequeaths to him the tapes of thirty years of Michael's therapy sessions. The tapes give Michael a second chance in middle age: they unlock his life for him, as a gallery of absurd and touching characters, events and scenes spring out of his past: the shrink who cracks up and reverses roles with Michael when his wife dies; a first love encountered again in desperate, ravaged middle age; a Communist Party leader who "would rather be a lamppost in Moscow than President of the United States"; a "glistening failure" of a father who is a cheerleader of Michael's defeat ("You can fail, Michael, if you try! I did it, why can't you?"); the fetish porn-drenched world of old TImes Square; a Holocaust survivor Michael meets on September 11th who cannot confront his experience; a Hollywood of elderly Jewish moguls, scholarly and bizarre, "who seemed to have been shipped fresh to California from New York like onion bagels or seeded bialies"---- men like Michael's mentor, Julius Birnbach, creator of the cult classic, The Curse of the Evil Midgets. As Michael reclaims his life, The Great Kisser becomes a story of gratitude ---- of many kisses ---- by its climax ...

In the spring of 1937, Brooklyn’s Daniel Fuchs, twenty-seven years old and already the author of three remarkable novels (now collected as The Brooklyn Novels), came to Hollywood to bang out a treatment of one of his short stories. His thirteen-week contract turned into a permanent residence―and a lifelong love affair with the movie business. Fuchs worked with the best: Warner and M-G-M and RKO, Wilder and Huston and Joe Pasternak, Raft and Cagney and Doris Day. He spent his days crafting screenplays, but off the lot he continued to write prose, mainly stories for Collier’s and The New Yorker and non-fiction “Letters from Hollywood” for Commentary. The Golden West collects, for the first time, the best of Fuch’s writings about studio life, from a novice screenwriter’s anxious first impressions to a fifty-year veteran’s mellow memoirs. Fuchs may have loved Hollywood, but he saw life as it is, gold and tinsel both, and described it without falling into easy sentiment or condescending laughter.

"Substantial Justice chronicles the 1985 misadventures of Spider Lacey, a laconic Citroen mechanic, and Siobhan Mollenkopf, a lawyer who has reappeared in Spider's life after a ten-year hiatus. Things start well, then devolve when Spider's best friend, a marijuana grower and controversial talk-show host, is murdered. Spider and Siobhan spiral into a world of white supremacists, political activists, lumber tycoons, motorcycle gangs, early online geeks, tree-spikers and law enforcement. The terrain is San Francisco, Mendocino County, New York City, and Arizona. A cross between Carl Hiaasen and E. L. Doctorow, Substantial Justice is a comic thriller and a surprising love story that delights in the vicissitudes of the era"--

A love story wrapped in a modern noir that takes our hero down the conspiracy rabbit hole where he starts to question his own sanity. FishKill is a love story wrapped in a modern noir that takes our hero, Detective Bart Fishkill, so far down the conspiracy rabbit hole that he starts to question his own sanity even to the point of wondering whether if he isn’t the villain in the first place.

Tales of America, adultery, football, incest, love, paranoia, sadism and Zionism.... Wickedly funny these stories may be, but heartless they are not. Disturbing images abound; like the loving family that feasts upon living butterflies; and other images that connect the themes with places deeper than the mind. The narrators are an extraordinary a berserk psychiatrist, a giraffe, a man with an invisible creature on his back, a Jewish private eye, a communist with a bowel fixation, and various other disillusioned souls. None the less, each story is lucid, concisely written and has a strong sense of location. In The Promised Land a diaspora Jew travels to Israel determined to plant his seed, only to find himself excluded from his erotic paradise. In Le Docteur Enchaîné, a London psychiatrist decides that he can only find satisfaction with a dumb woman and takes the remedy into his own hands. In The Luftmensh, Joshua Smolinsky, trailing a missing writer to New Orleans, becomes involved with ghosts from American and Jewish history. In A Moment of Happiness a Czech hypochondriac manipulates two tourists into providing him with ‘that single 1/60th of a second when I am not afraid’....

Part Bildungsroman, part hymn to the city of Glasgow, Jericho Sleep Alone is without a doubt the finest book written about the Scots-Jewish experience. From Bar Mitzvah to an unfulfilling teaching career, Jericho Eli Broock finds himself a perennial outsider and unlucky in love, neither his on-off affair with the flighty Ninna or his financially prudent dalliance with the homely Camilla coming to fruition. Will the sometimes oppressive aid of the Jewish community make all well in his world?

Most of the characters that perform in this book still live, and are prosperous and happy. Some day it may seem worth while to take up the story of the younger ones again. - Mark Twain, 1876 Catherine Hiller has taken up Twain's challenge. Her latest novel, The Adventures of Sid Sawyer, turns The Adventures of Tom Sawyer upside down. Told from the point of view of Tom's supposedly sissy half-brother Sid, we get a fresh and original take on this beloved classic. Inspired by both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Hiller has cleverly woven some of the original text into a brand new adventure. This beautifully crafted and well-paced tale, a complete story in its own right, is told through Sid's eyes and brings a whole new twist to all the characters, shedding a rather different light on Tom, Mary, Aunt Polly and needless to say, Sid. The Adventures of Sid Sawyer will appeal to nostalgic adults and readers over 16 and features a series of 9 specially commissioned line drawings by artist and illustrator Ana Stankovic-Fitzgerald. REVIEWS from the eBook launch: April 2012: Sid Sawyer, brother of the more famous Tom, is a complex character. This coming-of-age tale is true to the spirit of Twain's books, but aimed at a slightly older audience. Catherine Hiller deals bluntly with issues of sex and racism, and portrays a darker view of human nature. Sid learns some tough life lessons, but ultimately love and loyalty prevail. An interesting read for anyone who enjoyed the original books. Jane Bailey Bain, author of 'Lifeworks' 'Most of the characters that perform in this book still live and are prosperous and happy' says Mark Twain in the foreword of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 'Some day it may seem worth while to take up the story of the younger ones again.' This is precisely what writer Catherine Hiller has done in The Adventures of Sid Sawyer. With graceful and witty style, she has continued Twain's story. This book explores life from the eyes of Tom's younger half-brother Sid - a thin, reflective, inquisitive boy with a tendency to be a right tattletale. The story follows Sid as he sets out to find out about the father he never knew. Along his journey he experiences love, saves a life, learns about himself and starts to grow up. Hiller's writing is crisp and her observations astute. The characters' voices are distinct and real. This book is touching and nostalgic without being sentimental. Colette Brenda, producer It was such a pleasure to revisit Tom and Huck whom I felt I grew up with several times over, on several readings. Following on from Twain, Hiller explores a new dimension with Sid Sawyer being the observer and narrator. The characters are developed thoroughly and much to my liking. I'm glad I caught this one - thanks! Jordan, customer review, Armadillo Central website.

"This is a collection of poetry & art by the author-artist Carolyn Mary Kleefeld, dedicated in memoriam to David Campagna, the great romantic interest in Kleefeld's life, co-published by Cross-Cultural Communications of Merrick, New York, and The Seventh Quarry Press of Swansea, Wales. What is "immortal"? That which is not subject to death and decay. As Hippocrates wrote, Ars longa, vita brevis. And what is a "seed"? Origin, root, fountainhead-come to mind. Immortal Seeds is a collection of art and poetry, of that which cannot decay and is a planting of creative eternality. Borne of a heart nurtured by true love, he love of David Campagna, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld, the artist-poet has, in image and word, produced a volume that brings to mind Shakespeare's: "So long lives this and this gives life to thee." Or, to paraphrase: "So long as these Immortal Seeds exist, they give life to Carolyn's beloved." -Stanley H. Barkan, Poet-Publisher Cross-Cultural Communications"--

What are the origin and meaning of the words "greed is idolatry" found in Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5? In what sense are the greedy guilty of idolatry? Many different answers have been given to this question throughout the history of interpretation. In fact, a consensus exists on only one score - that the expression serves to vilify greed. Brian Rosner takes on the challenge of interpretation by tackling the phrase as a metaphor, structuring his argument around an intriguing comparison to mountain climbing. From this vantage point, he offers a history of interpretation of the phrase, including a study of the origin of the concept of idolatrous greed in biblical and Jewish sources. Rosner concludes that the comparison of greed with idolatry teaches that to desire to acquire and keep for oneself more money and material things is an attack on God's exclusive right to human love, trust, and obedience. With this work comes an understanding of familiar terms - "greed," "idolatry," and even "God"--Challenging both the church as a whole and individual believers to consider the far-ranging implications of our materialistic world. --From publisher's description.