For those as interested as the artist in the limits of satire, this audacious, potent collection pushes past them.
A cartoonist’s collection of graphic provocations on Zionism, the Diaspora, and Jewish stereotypes.
When Valley began publishing these cartoons in the Forward, they ignited “a series of debates on the meaning and limits of satire that would endure throughout my time at the newspaper.” He was accused of anti-Semitism, self-hatred, and Nazism. If satire’s aim is to ruffle feathers and stir things up, these strips most certainly succeeded. In this collection, they will likely rile readers again, particularly those who feel a strong allegiance to Israel or fear that such pointed humor concerning Jewish issues and clichés will simply feed a prejudice that has never disappeared. As Peter Beinart writes in his foreword, “Eli Valley’s cartoons are outrageous and absurd.” They are also explosively subversive, with a MAD-meets–R. Crumb sensibility. At the crux of these comics is the tension between the cultural assimilation (and dilution?) of American Judaism and the anti-assimilation militancy of Israel. In the one-page comic “Israel Man and Diaspora Boy,” the former is a muscle-flexing superhero, while the latter is a drooling cripple with a crutch. He wails, “My entire existence is a useless waste, Israel Man!” And Israel Man responds, “Have no fear Diaspora Boy! I am here to replace you!” This may not be sophisticated political analysis, but much of the value lies in Valley’s thoughtful and reflective annotation, which does not pull any of the punches he has struck with his drawings but provides some context on the current events that inspired him, the thinking that went into each piece, the process of publication (or not; some were spiked), and the reader’s response. As he proceeds through subjects including Jewish ambivalence toward Barack Obama, Darth Vader (“Half-Jew”), Bernie Madoff, Amy Winehouse, Charlie Hebdo, Bernie Sanders, and Batman and Robin, it is clear that the author knew exactly what he was doing and what sort of reaction he would receive.
For those as interested as the artist in the limits of satire, this audacious, potent collection pushes past them.Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68219-070-8
Page Count: 150
Publisher: OR Books
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Another big Lenny B. bio, jam-packed with accomplishment and angst. This is not a terrible book, and there are occasional passages of nice insight. Ultimately, however, the limitations that biographer Secrest admits at the outset prove to be too much for her. She is not a music historian, her previous subjects mostly having been figures from architecture and the visual arts (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1992, etc.), and her self-professed inability to evaluate Bernstein as composer exacerbates the inherent difficulties of writing his life so soon after his death. ``Various family members, close friends, and colleagues'' refused to talk to her because the Bernstein estate was contracted to another biographer (presumably Humphrey Burton, author of Leonard Bernstein, p. 260); for the same reason, she did not have access to the ``vast Bernstein archives.'' There were, of course, still plenty of folks who would talk (and talk and talk) to her about the maestro, and they had a lot to say, on every now-familiar subject from L.B.'s ambivalent sexuality to his podium manners, his business acumen, and his skills as father and teacher. If it were not for the thematic and chronological connective passages that display Secrest's skill as a biographer, the book could be called Reminiscences on Bernstein. Predictably, not all of the lengthy, sometimes rambling, quotations are of equal merit; all are self- interested and some don't make sense. We hear much about Bernstein's conflicts—conducting vs. composing, his attraction to men vs. women—but in the absence of an overview of his creative legacy (which simply may not be possible at this early date), the reader winds up feeling merely exhausted by Lenny's energy level. Another book for the growing shelf from which some Maynard Solomon or musical Walter Jackson Bate will have to winnow when the time comes to write a critical biography rather than the Bernstein story. (100 b&w photos) (First printing of 35,000)
Pub Date: Nov. 10, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-40731-6
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
The daughter of Boston's beloved maestro transposes the familiar laments of a star's adult child into the world of classical music. In the course of his 50-year tenure as conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra, Arthur Fiedler emerged as a true celebrity. Beyond his musical flair and dashing appearance, he exhibited a knack for marketing. He made his reputation by organizing America's first annual series of free outdoor symphony orchestra concerts on Boston's Charles River Esplanade. On taking over the Pops in 1930, he built a national following, and in his last decades, the PBS ``Evening at Pops'' television broadcasts cemented his fame. The Arthur Fiedler whom the public adored, however, turns out— surprise!—to have distanced himself from his family, immersing himself in his career and continuing to live the high life while on tour. When at home, he would show himself to be misanthropic, miserly, and alcoholic. Fiedler fille details in a clear style how this behavior impeded her personal growth. After a withdrawn, troubled childhood, she came to have difficulties of her own with alcohol and searched into adulthood for a father figure—for instance, dating musicians, some ``hand-picked'' by her father, all with forceful, dominating personalities like his. Her complaints against Fiedler päre seem valid, but the dysfunctional Fiedler family nevertheless strikes the reader as having been more typical of the mid-century upper middle class than traumatic in the ``Daddy Dearest'' vein. More intriguing sections of her book narrate her family's singular accomplishments: her grandfather's emigration from Austria to join the Boston Symphony, her father's navigation of the tides of cultural politics and of nationalist sentiment during WW I, and his endeavors to prove his mettle as a serious artist. That he loved dogs, fire engines, and women while hating children is, in the end, relatively uninteresting. Only Fiedler enthusiasts and habituÇs of the classical music scene will want to wade through the run-of-the-mill pop psychologizing featured here.
Pub Date: Oct. 11, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-42391-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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