The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness: A True Story [Paperback]

Joel ben Izzy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2005

"Wonderful!” (Grace Paley).

“Heartwarming and smart and wonderfully written” (Detroit Free Press).

“Provides edifying advice, intimately given, like the best-selling Tuesdays with Morrie” (the Dallas Morning News).

“Altogether original” (Dr. Laura Schlessinger).

“This story will speak to the humanity of the reader” (Jewish Book World).

The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness is that rare, magical book—a book that tells a good story but also shows us how the tales we learned when we were children shed light on our adult lives. Joel ben Izzy had the unusual opportunity to relive those lessons when he lost his voice and reconnected with his old teacher, Lenny, a retired storyteller. Through his meetings with Lenny, Joel rediscovers the wisdom of ancient tales and takes us on a journey into a world of beggars and kings, monks and tigers, lost horses and buried treasures—and in the end tells us the secret of happiness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First-time author ben Izzy's vocation as a professional storyteller may fill his life with heady myth and poetry, but as he acknowledges early on in this slim but memorable recollection of personal tragedy, "the absence of magic" in his childhood is the very thing "that sent me looking for it." He found it in the unlikeliest and most cruelly ironic way. After undergoing surgery to remove thyroid cancer, ben Izzy lost his voice-the instrument of not only his art, but also his livelihood. Telling himself that a return to the routine of performance would spark a recovery, ben Izzy accepted an offer to perform at a bar mitzvah, but only "whispers and gasps" emerged. Retreating into self-pity, anger, hopelessness and sullen solitude, the author searched, like the protagonists in the stories he used to tell, for a spiritual explanation of the loss. He reconnected with his estranged, cantankerous mentor, who offered support by telling dizzyingly enigmatic stories hinting at the idea that ben Izzy had been given a magical gift by losing his voice. When a doctor suggested he might be able to help ben Izzy speak again in a risky procedure, ben Izzy's wife told him she liked him better without it, an incident the author does not satisfyingly explain. But ben Izzy successfully translates the best elements of oral storytelling to the page; his memoir shines with brisk suspense as well as his unerring, precise eye for including only the elements of his hard-won wisdom that matter the most.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In his debut effort, professional storyteller Ben Izzy shares personal experiences that have caused him to search for life's true meaning in the stories he has spent two decades telling. The book starts with the fable of the beggar king, in which King Solomon loses his kingdom and is left to wander the land as a beggar, and from there Ben Izzy's own tale unfolds. A renowned storyteller, the author was at the top of his game when throat cancer robbed him of his voice. As a consequence, he lost his livelihood and became severely depressed until he met up with his old mentor Lenny, a cantankerous and often drunk old storyteller who helped him to stop dwelling on his misery and to see his fate in terms of life's bigger picture. The book ends with the conclusion of the story of the beggar king, in which King Solomon's journey is realized as an illusion, and with Ben Izzy making sense of the cards fate has dealt him. Kathleen Hughes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; First Edition edition (September 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565125126
• ISBN-13: 978-1565125124
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Special Needs

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