Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Jew of New York by Ben Katchor ISBN: 0375700978 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 19 December, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.43
Rating: 5
Summary: A world that never existed, or did it or should it have?
Comment: Ben Katchor's magical, sketchily precise illustrations lead us through a grey other world where people face problems none of us will ever know. Or fathom. But who cares! Every step of the way is uniquely Katchor's, grounded in a strange logic that seems to make perfectly good sense... at least to his characters. A wealth of invention infuses every page, conjuring exotic maladies, bizarre business enterprises and wierd obsessions.
Rating: 2
Summary: Everybody except me either loves or hates this book
Comment: I'm a big fan of Julius Knipl, so I looked forward very much to _The Jew of New York_. When I saw that all the Amazon.com reviews of it were either adoring or vituperative, I knew I had to buy it right away. Why had that happened?
Well, now I know. This is a book with prerequisites, and if you don't have 'em, you're going to find the book very difficult. You need to know something about Jewish life in America, particularly the panoply of stereotypes to which they've been subjected (one that gets a lot of play in the book, the idea that Jews somehow smell bad, is not quite so current as it once was). And it helps to know something about the 19th century American brand of crackpot people and crackpot groups.
Finally, you need to know how to read Ben Katchor. If you expect a linear read you'll be frustrated. Each panel needs to be scrutinized carefully, and pages will pass before you catch the significance of certain details. You'll need to learn to like that centered panel that one reviewer hated so much...it's used for reasons, sometimes esthetic, sometimes dramatic.
In the end, I was disappointed in _The Jew of New York_ because I'd hoped for a book first about people and feelings rather than about ideas. The author's aim (my informed guess here) is to show how the majority can simultaneously fetishize minorities and hold them in contempt, certainly a notion with relevance to 1999. But I wish he could have told me about that with more emotion; instead, we get a range of exceedingly eccentric characters, whose hearts we don't really get into.
Anyway, I don't regret my purchase, but if I weren't a Katchor fan, I might.
Rating: 1
Summary: Waiter! A bowl of turtle soup...
Comment: This book is terrible. First the story. It weaves several different story lines together. A production of a play 'The Jew of New York' by a questionable director (guess what happens to him in the end), a plan to carbonate Lake Erie, and a guy reading 'Lost Tribe' pamphlets in a rubber suit. There's a button importer and an Indian who speaks Yiddish. Sounds inventive. Sounds squirrelly enough for a graphic novel. But the author, caught up in his own casting brillance, forgets to make the characters say and do inventive and brilliant things. Instead they plod. In the beginning you do find yourself wondering if the plots are historical, but by the end you're just screaming to have the book done with. The art? Every character looks like they were morphed out of one base character. It's impossible to tell them apart. Also you should have a good magnifying glass because the panels are too small. It would have been nice if the publisher would have included one. There is also this repetitive center panel that appears every six or seven pages. It distracts and is annoying. The author should have known this. I think the actor Maynard Daizy (a character in the novel) sums it up the best as he discusses the up and coming play with the scenic director Samson Gergel..."The dialogue itself is devoid of humor. Waiter! A bowl of turtle soup..." I couldn't have said it better myself.
 |
Title: Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: Stories by Ben Katchor, Michael Chabon ISBN: 0316482943 Publisher: Little Brown & Co (Pap) Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply District by Ben Katchor ISBN: 0375401059 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 06 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
 |
Title: Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay, with Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer by Ben Katchor ISBN: 0140159975 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware ISBN: 0375404538 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: The Golem's Mighty Swing by James Sturm ISBN: 1896597459 Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly Pubns Pub. Date: 01 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
