Chronicling the lives of Jews in America, nine stories combining history, fable, theology, and myth include searching for an impossible gem in Manhattan's diamond district, a university library that catalogues human evil, and a rabbi matching wits with the devil.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The mundane and the mystical collide in these remarkable, offbeat stories that use a Jewish-American milieu to pose universal moral and metaphysical puzzles. In "Gematria," a Manhattan jewelry dealer encounters a mysterious woman who wants a square emerald; a series of murders follows, accompanied by cryptic messages that reveal the murderer's familiarity with gematria, the kabbalistic discipline of calculating the numerical value of words in order to reveal "the secret truths evident beneath the surface of the language." In "The Big Metzia," a New York garment manufacturer copes with a ghost as he teams up in business with two shady Russian emigre brothers who lead him through the entrepreneurial minefields of glasnost-era Moscow. Bukiet (Sandman's Dust) creates memorable, maverick characters who live on the edge, treading a dangerous path between the sacred and the profane: a Columbia archeologist on a dig in the Near East believes he has unearthed the birthplace of the eternal monotheistic God ("Old Words for New"); a New Jersey real-estate lawyer tracks down a crackpot German refugee peddling a rare Nazi home movie ("Himmler's Chickens"); a dishonest Kosher butcher is a closet vegetarian ("The Golden Calf and the Red Heifer"); an upstate New York rabbi tries to outwit the devil ("The Devil and the Dutchman"). Bukiet is a gifted, inventive writer whose fine sense of contrast is evident not only in his eerie juxtapositions but also in moments of perfect comic timing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Nine short stories make up this unusual collection of Jewish tales by a master storyteller. The title comes from Maimonides' Thirteen Principles: "I believe...in the coming of the Messiah. Even though he may tarry, I await him." European Jews recited this verse as they entered the Nazi gas chambers. Bukiet (Stories of an Imaginary Childhood, Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1992) explores in great depth the foibles and predicaments of Jews in America while the Messiah tarries. In "Landsmanshaft," a group of older men at a New York City cemetery are burying one of their own from their village of Knihynicze, Poland. "No matter, they were more than merely friends or third cousins; they were landsmen." All their friendship and enmity for the newly deceased theater critic, Alexander, is reviewed along with his enemy Pincus's promise to dance on his grave. In "The Big Metzia," con men from post-perestroika Moscow wreak havoc at once comic and tragic on the Lapidus family business, Weslacks, a wholesale men's pants firm. Reminiscent of I.B. Singer in his probing of the human psyche, Bukiet adds freshness and depth to Jewish storytelling.?Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five-Star YES,
By Sonechka "Sonechka" (Hotzeplotz) - See all my reviews
This review is from: While The Messiah Tarries: Selected Poems (Hardcover)
I think I understand why the previous reviewer was disappointed, for this book is so rooted in Jewish life and culture that it might indeed go right by someone who doesn't have these roots. But I couldn't put it down, except to stop now and then to stare into space and shake my head YES over such a devastatingly smart-guy-funny and old-guy-wise collection of stories. I also shook my head in wonderment--"Why was this book on a sale table marked down to a dollar and why isn't Bukiet famous?" He is the only American Jewish writer I've read in a very long time whom I consider worthy to fill the spot left by the brilliant Stanley Elkin. Eventually I would like to write the kind of substantial review that these stories deserve but for now, I will just say: these stories are good. In the sense of there being no higher compliment than GOOD. They partake of the reality of being GOOD. Laughter through tears, OK, that's not "new" but laughter through tears so that it hits you anew with total vitality and genuine human presence, why else bother to write and read fiction? So much flotsam and jetsam out there, I mean in the realm of trendy and purportedly mystical/comical Jewish tales, and most are a cleptrep of mishmosh. These stories are cut from the real cloth of Jewish life. That takes a master tailor, trust me.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Never Comes Together For Me,
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: While the Messiah Tarries: Stories (Library of Modern Jewish Literature) (Paperback)
I read the first four of the nine short stories that comprise this book and I just couldn't be bothered to read on. It's not that the stories are poorly written per se, it's more the heavily Jewish themes that pervade them. The "Jewishness" of these stories is integral to each, and doesn't really speak to me, others may enjoy. His novel After is somewhat better.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
