Customer Reviews

The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a book to cherish. I've given many copies to friends. It is one of the best anthologies, if not the best, I've ever come across. Stavans' introduction and chronology guide the reader intelligently through history and literature. A triumph!

I was given this anthology as a gift and I read it immediately. It is excellent! Stavans is continuing the work that Irving Howe began. I want my children and grandchildren to read it too.

This is a wonderful collection. The great masters of modern Jewish story-telling are represented here. I could quarrel with some of the selections, and would for instance prefer a different Bellow story. But there are also some of the great , great stories here including one of the masterpieces of the writer who I personally consider the greatest of all modern Jewish storytellers Isaac Bashevis Singer.The selection here is of one of his greatest stories, 'The Spinoza of Market Street.'
Each of the fifty or so selections is briefly and competently introduced.
A truly wonderful anthology.

This is a great collection of over 50 stories by well known and not so well known writers from several different countries. Included are works by Yiddish masters such as Abramovitsh, Peretz and Sholem Aleichem as well as one of Lamed Shapiro's brutal pogrom stories,"The Kiss". From South Africa there's Nadine Gordimer, and Dan Jacobson's moving tale, "The Zulu and the Zeide" and from America, some classic stories by Roth, Malamud, Bellow and Singer. The Introduction provides some historical context and an excellent overview of the themes running through the stories. Anyone who appreciates good literature will be richly rewarded by a journey through these works.

I loved this anthology! Highly recommended for people interested in Jews all around the world.

Ask yourself, "Why would I want to read an anthology of Jewish stories?" The answer is critical to choosing to read this book. If you are looking for insight, wit, and wisdom of Jewish scholars, this may not be what you will find here. You shall find material that will give you an appreciation, but not necessarily enjoyment of, the dark side of the human condition as seen through the eyes of its contributors. It was helpful to me to seek relief from the tragedies that enfolded one after the other when the misery index rose to unbearable levels. Point made and made again, and again. True, many of the contributors had received awards for their works from organizations certainly more important to members of the academy than any reader. The book would be of value as a source book for a college level course in writing and may appeal to selected members of a group whose main interest is this type of esoterica. This is not an entry level reading. The uninitiated and those interested in broadening their understanding of the history of Jewish culture would be served better by reading more traditional works cited in this general category.