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LOUIS BRANDEIS SLEPT HERE

Name: LOUIS BRANDEIS SLEPT HERE
Author: David Gleicher
ISBN: 965-229-167-6

A SLIGHTLY CYNICAL HISTORY OF AMERICAN JEWS

by David Gleicher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1997

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An often wise and always wisecracking popular review of American Jewish history. This highly subjective and discursive history is everywhere personal and opinionated. Gleicher—an observant Jew, Chicago lawyer, and son of Holocaust survivors—sees Reform Judaism as a doomed, assimilationist aberration; gives lawyers from Brandeis to Dershowitz extra attention; vilifies past American Jewish leaders for not doing enough during the Holocaust; and credits Holocaust survivors with rescuing traditional Judaism. The outline of American Jewish history is thorough if terse, and often straightforward and serious. But Gleicher can't resist gags, even adding humorous footnotes to some passages. One such note ``exposes'' Marranos for giving a pledge during a church appeal, and another suggests that synagogue sisterhoods could sell tickets to brawls between rabbis and their congregants and turn the fights into huge fundraisers. There are many delicious ironies and hypocrisies noted here, and Gleicher's eye for anti-Semitism—on the part of Jews as well as gentiles—adds much that is missing in more serious histories of American Jewry. But other all-too-candid remarks about black-Jewish and Jewish-gentile relations might better have been left out. The chauvinism is leavened by the use of humor and first-person pronouns; but it is still sufficiently apparent to limit Gleicher's potential audience to right-wing traditional Jews like himself. Introducing his bibliography, Gleicher closes with a final crack: ``This book is a survey, not a detailed text. Therefore it is my responsibility to direct you to further readings . . . from where I derived all my facts, figures, and biased opinions.'' Professor Graetz meets Jackie Mason in this easy-reading American Jewish history with plenty of facts, insights, chutzpah, and shtick.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997

ISBN: 965-229-167-6

Page Count: 144

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1997

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.