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Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.) Paperback – Bargain Price, August 15, 2006

by Michael Wex (Author)

101 customer reviews

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A delightful excursion through the Yiddish language, the culture it defines and serves, and the fine art of complaint

Throughout history, Jews around the world have had plenty of reasons to lament. And for a thousand years, they've had the perfect language for it. Rich in color, expressiveness, and complexity, Yiddish has proven incredibly useful and durable. Its wonderful phrases and idioms impeccably reflect the mind-set that has enabled the Jews of Europe to survive a millennium of unrelenting persecution . . . and enables them to kvetch about it!

Michael Wex—professor, scholar, translator, novelist, and performer—takes a serious yet unceasingly fun and funny look at this remarkable kvetch-full tongue that has both shaped and has been shaped by those who speak it. Featuring chapters on curse words, food, sex, and even death, he allows his lively wit and scholarship to roam freely from Sholem Aleichem to Chaucer to Elvis.

Perhaps only a khokhem be-layle (a fool, literally a "sage at night," when there's no one around to see) would care to pass up this endearing and enriching treasure trove of linguistics, sociology, history, and folklore—an intriguing appreciation of a unique and enduring language and an equally fascinating culture.

Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.) [Bargain Price]

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Product Details

Series: P.S.
Paperback: 303 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (August 15, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061132179
ASIN: B0028N72YO
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,353,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4633 in Books > History > World > Jewish
- #5331 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Linguistics
- #9074 in Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language Dictionaries & Thesauruses

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101

4.3 out of 5 stars

5 star		56%
4 star		31%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

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Top Customer Reviews

What every jew needs to know

ByRachael Kafrissenon September 24, 2005

Format: Hardcover

You can buy a book about Yiddish. You can buy a book about Jewish life. You can buy a book about religious observance. Or you can save the shipping costs and buy Born To Kvetch, one of the best books I've ever read about the Ashkenazi Jewish experience. I would compare this wonderful new book to Maurice Samuel's The Gentleman and the Jew for it's erudition and vision.

And Michael Wex is a whole lot funnier than Maurice Samuel. You will be laughing uncontrollably (WARNING: may cause embarrassment if you read this on the subway in the morning, as I did) while you learn more than you ever wanted to about the Talmud, the yiddish word for toilet paper and the REAL meaning of kvetching.

Don't hesitate, buy it today and be cursing your friends in yiddish tomorrow.

0Comment 180 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Hits the nail on the head

Bymoose_of_many_watersVINE VOICEon October 31, 2005

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

English books on Yiddish generally fall into two categories: the oh isn't it a cute colorful language angle; the scholarly tome that sucks the life out of the language.

Mr. Wex has done Yiddish a great service and has written a book that avoids both of these pitfalls. Beneath the humor - and this is a very funny, well written book - is a very serious examination of Yiddish as a language inextricably tied to its religion. Very few people could have written a book as insightful as this one and still made it entertaining. Mr. Wex has the background - a Yeshiva bocher turned secularist - and mindset to carry it off with aplomb.

Some people might complain that the examination of Yiddish language and culture in this book is too harsh and well... kvetchadik. But there is pride for a language and culture long gone throughout this book. More than any book on Yiddish that I've read, this one rings true. The description of the culture of Chasidic education of children is particularly unflinching and mordantly accurate. Footnotes would help this book a great deal. But this is a fine achievement. Now if only they wouldn't have put someone else's photo next to the NY Times review. ;)

0Comment 66 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

The one thing you will have not to kvetch about is this book

ByShalom FreedmanHALL OF FAMEon September 28, 2005

Format: Hardcover

Aside from the rave reviews on this site I have read two other longer rave reviews, William Grimes in the 'New York Times' and Josh Lambert in J-books. Both claim that this book is not only tremendously funny but a very deep probe into the nature of Yiddish, and in fact Diaspora Ashkenazi experience.

This is what Lambert has to say about the lead idea of the book.

"Yiddish, Wex argues, is most comfortable when it's complaining. It's "a language that likes to argue with everybody about everything." He explains this as consistent with the Mishnaic scholars (who "disagree 99.8 percent of the time") and the principle of "aftselakhis"-"the impulse to do things only because someone else doesn't want you to." The kvetch, or complaint, is thus the basic unit of Yiddish thought, as developed over hundreds of years of Diaspora living: "kvetching becomes a way of exercising some small measure of control over an otherwise hostile environment."

It is rare when we find a book which not only enriches our thought but makes us laugh outloud.

0Comment 62 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

The intillectual humor of the Yiddish culture

ByDr. Nazareth V. Asorianon October 1, 2005

Format: Hardcover

Michael Wex has masterfully reproduced the Ashkenazi Jewish experience in a colorful and humerous language, incorporating the Yiddish thought process that has emerged over many centuries.

While the book has the initial impression of being rather funny, the reader soon grasps the intillectualism that resonates throughout the book, delving into the human element. It connects many around the world, as one instinctively travels to the roots of a culture, intertwined with its ancestry as far as Biblical times.

It is a fascinating book that should appeal to most people with an open and inquisitive mind, particularly when many of the phrases, the thought processes, and the humor which connects them have been used for so many decades. Kvetching, complaining so to speak, is more than a word, or a statement...it represents a way of thinking, a necessary reflex, a defense mechanism to gain advantage on an issue or an argument.

It is informative, easy to read, enjoyable, and with the bonus of cultural and historical humor.

0Comment 27 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

I Tip My Yarmulke to Michael Wex

ByA Readeron October 31, 2005

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Here's MY "kvetch": Till now I thought my book on Yiddish, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish" was the very best book on the subject. Who told Wex to write such a funny, brilliant, erudite, insightful book - did I need this kind of competition? But I "fargin" him - and all you lovers of Yiddish out there. Buy mine if you can but DEFINITELY buy Wex's masterpiece - I loved it!!!!! Rabbi Benjamin Blech

11 comment 46 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Die Emmeseh Zach

ByDr. Deborah F. Fernhoffon October 26, 2005

Format: Hardcover

Not only is Mr. Wex funny, his book also has the ring of authenticity. This is not a book about literary Yiddish but rather, living Yiddish, replete with day-today expressions for what real people do: eat, eliminate, curse, and talk about other people having sex. Furthermore, to understand Yiddish, one must understand the Yid and the deep tie to Torah and observance. Mr. Wex writes as an insider, not an observer, and so comes up with the "real thing."

0Comment 32 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A Book by a Mensch that Goes Beyond Kvetching

ByBarbara Roseon September 28, 2005

Format: Hardcover

This book is hysterically funny! Even the most advanced intelligent Mensch will kvell and at the wisdom that goes beyond Kvetching. It goes back to the ancient roots of how insightful and indistinguishable Yiddish is. It's a language that ties so many together from the diaspora when Jewish geography has people kibitzing, or Oy Veying at news that might come from a simcha. It's a mitzvah for great reading, even for the savvy Yenta. And more than being funny, the book has reads with scholar material, rich in the roots of tradition and ancestry. It really brings meaning and understanding to kvetching. Just be prepared to roll in laughter!
Mazel Tov, Michael Wex, and thank you for this wonderful book!

Barbara Rose, Ph.D. author of Stop Being the String Along: A Relationship Guide to Being THE ONE and Know Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Wholeness, Radiance & Supreme Confidence

0Comment 86 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Great Book!

Great treatise on the Yiddish language with a twist of humor.

Published 27 days ago by Cesar A. Padilla

Five Stars

Yup, this is for Kvetching about the new apartment.

Published 1 month ago by Judy Schwartz

Shimshon hageber pisht in tzibr!

So everybody knows Leo Rosten's "The Joy of Yiddish." But it's just an appetizer. This is a main course, written by an honest-to-G-d Yiddish philologist.Read more

Published 2 months ago by Art Shapiro

Great Book!

This was a great book to read and I highly recommend it to anyone!!

Published 5 months ago by Joshua Ashmore

The detail inherent in the book was great including the history of the of the phrase and ...

It was an eye opener for me. The detail inherent in the book was great including the history of the of the phrase and the when it was used.

Published 5 months ago by Frank Weinberger D.B.A.

Very strong read

beautifully done cultural history with a light and comic touch.

Published 5 months ago by Thomas Levenson

A nechtiker tog!

The cover coerced me to buy this book but on the inside not as good. It reads ok but not amusing and fairly straight reading and repetitive sentences.Read more

Published 6 months ago by H. Wasserman

Interesting but a little too revealing: looks like the Don Rickles of religions: humor through some serious insults.

It is quite wonderful, but I have to wonder, it is really authentic. The dislike, disrespect and denigration of anything goyish goes from cute to alarming!Read more

Published 6 months ago by Gerald Berke

Born to Kvetch

I would REALLY kvetch if someone took this book away from me. It's just great!

Published 7 months ago by Naomi E. Lieberman

Funny.

Published 8 months ago by Phillip

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Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.) Paperback – Bargain Price, August 15, 2006

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