Customer Reviews

Strange Kaddish: Tales You Won't Hear from Bubbie

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This story, plain and simply, is about the lubavitch hasidic sect two thousand years in the future, how it has changed for the better and for the worse. For me the story I Geza really hit close to home.In addition to knowing the Lubavitch, Yeshiva system first hand, I also have attended the Rabinical College of America in Morrisstown N.J for 2 years and so I was able to understand many of the subtle jokes and charachters thrown into the story by Meth(many which relate with the Chabad residents of Morrisstown), who is himself a morrisstown resident.

I understood and related very much to the charachter of Pheobus a young BT yeshiva bochur who is starting to grow doubtful about the Lubavitch way of doing things as he grows more mature and starts taking things less for granted. However, I would not use this story to try and illistrate things that are wrong with the chabad movement, because it is totally innacurate of it's portrayal of the chabad Hasidic movement. Although i will admit Meth does bring home some very good points about some things, it doesn't mean that it is all true. I feel that he wrote it in a [bad] mood and didn't mean half of the things he said in the story. Still in all it is a good entertaining story (more so if you understand the puns). To end off, il leave you all with a word to the wise, "Dont take this story to seriously, it will only aggravate you if you do." So...whether you are a lubavitcher, misnaged, a plain yid or a goy =) . just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

So Harlan calls me and asks if I have time to do some research for a Hanukah story he's been asked to do by National Public Radio. Sure, I say, and I go to work, give him some stuff, and then *he* goes to work. The result--another Ellison masterpiece entitled "Go Toward The Light." I read it. It kills me. I call him back and ask if anyone has claimed it for an anthology. Nope, he says--it's yours. So I dust off "I, Gezheh" (the story that Lubavitchers wanted to murder me for writing) and make some phone calls and, well, it's STRANGE KADDISH. --Clifford Met

When three of the best short-fiction writers come up to bat back-to-back like this, it just has to be good...and it it. Some new writers, too, and great choice of illustrations (especially the ones by Bill Messner-Loebs!). My only complaint is that the book was too short, but I'd recommend it highly

Any Sci-Fi fan who knows anything about comics will just love this collection. Ellison and Gaiman get you thinking while newcomers Mike Pascale and Sid Gevurah had me laughing. Comics fans will love the artwork by Dave Cockrum, Bill Messner-Loebs, Gray Morrow and others. Most of the stories have a jewish subtext, but none ever get preachy. Gevurah's "Last of the Moe Greenbaums" is a standout that still has me chuckling. Clifford Lawrence Meth's "I, Gezheh" is a classic allegory. All in all, a great read

Strange Kaddish was suggested to me by a colleague. Although not Jewish, I thoroughly enjoyed the anthology. The collection of authors was exquisitely comprised, although surprising. It's not everyday you get to read Gaiman, Ellison and Messner-Loeb bound together. Nice work and congratulations to the editors. I also liked CL Meth's story, I Gezheh. Great storyline. He's coming into his own as a sci-fi/horror writer. I can't wait to read his latest...Perverts, Pedophiles and Other Theologians. Count me as another addition to his growing list of readers! I highly recommend Strange Kaddish. I hear a sequel is to follow. I can't wait

This is one of those rare little gems where almost all of the stories are excellent and you really don't mind the ones that are kind of boring. The Ellison piece is a time travel Chanukkah story, while Clifford Meth's anti-Lubavitcher story is depressing but not entirely inaccurate either. Neil Gaiman's reversed Eden story seems like it was taken out of some of his earlier work and other stories lean just a little too much towards the borsht-belt humor (do we really think that someone 200 years in the future will be throwing Yiddish into every other sentence or that eating kosher will save him from an intergalactic plague?) and there's one dud where a guy is explaining to a large-headed bigot in a bar that not all Jews are alike

But the real star of the book is the Messner-Loeb story that casts Dr. Frankenstein as a Jew that decides to hide his fellow Jews and gets thrown into jail by the Bavarian authorities for that one act of solidarity. Won't say much more about it, but it is definitely a story that I really wish I had read when I was reading that awful The Ultimate Frankenstein book with a couple dozen stories abotu Frankenstein being sad. I would say that the Messner Loebs story is worth the cover price alone, but it is a steep cover price for an extremely thin book.

These are all great stories, or at least most of them are great stories and it's unlikely that you'll see them in other anthologies. Still for 9.95 it would be nice if the book was more than 100 pages instead of less, and none of the stories are great enough to warrent such a high price tag.

So if you have the money, buy this book. It is an excellent and strange book. I would also recommed Jewish Tales of Fantasy and Occult by Neurosgal (sic) which has some great turn of the century Jewish fantasy stories including the Golem and selected works by Ansky (who wrote The Dybbuk)

Really surprised to see some of these stories linked together. The illustrations were cool, too. Can't wait for the sequel

This is just fun reading, folks--oddball SF/horror/weird tales w/ a Jewish twist. The book in in second printing, now (after years of being sold out!) And the sequel, STRANGER KADDISH (with Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, and Peter David) is available, too. For more info, visit the Aardwolf Publishing website.

I bought this book for the drawings by Dave Cockrum, Nelson, and Gray Morrow. Never thought I'd like the stories as much as I did. This is a real eclectic, funny collection. Quality throughout

Basically this has a brilliant Neil Gaiman short-short story (they've printed it really big with bad illustrations to try and spread it out, but it can't be longer than a page) and a so-so (for him -- okay for anyone else) Harlan Ellison story, and a bunch of unreadably bad/not ready for prime time stories on 'jewish themes' by a bunch of authors you've never heard of, and for good reason