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Title: The English Disease: A Novel by Joseph Skibell ISBN: 1-56512-257-7 Publisher: Algonquin Books Pub. Date: May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A New Millennium Portnoy Has Appeared
Comment: Charles Belski, musicologist, expert on the neurotically depressed Gustave Mahler, whose 'disease' Belski also shares, finds himself on the assimilated Jew's journey in American to discover who he is and his place in the Jewish world. Belski a new millennium Portnoy is condemned to forever chase the 'shiksa goddess' after his first grade teacher provides him with a six year old beautiful shiksa desk mate. The novel opens with Belski traveling through the Southwest with his shiksa goddess wife with whom he has become disenchanted. We follow Belski through the land of the 'glue eater's' as he takes his gentile daughter to day care and on a trip to Auschwitz with his hilarious colleague Liebowitz, who offers a witty exegesis on how the Marx Brothers are models of the Ascent of Assmiliating Jewish Man. Skibell's writing is intelligent, piquant and fun, and at the end Belski discovers his place on Liebowitz's model Ascent. I won't spoil the book by revealing that place.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Positively Great Read
Comment: This book comes highly recommended. It is laugh out-loud funny, and is full of meaningful insights. The New York Jewish experience is what colors most of the writing on the archetype of the neurotic Jew. Joseph Skibell captures the conflicts of being a modern jew from a very different perspective, I think to great effect. Plus, the writing and internal monologues are so readable and funny, that they make the book worth it on their own.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful
Comment: The English Disease is a wonderful blend of the neurotic realities faced by Americans of any culture faced with assimilation. The struggle of Jewish-Americans' assimilation struggles are echoed by many Americans and Skibell's character takes this topic to places it's never been.
His thoughts are mimic those of many American Jews who struggle with the juxtaposition of American life, and Jewish spirituality. I laughed out loud at parts and was amazed at Skibell's observations in others.
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Title: A Blessing on the Moon by Joseph Skibell ISBN: 1565121791 Publisher: Algonquin Books Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: American Reform Judaism: An Introduction by Dana Evan Kaplan, Arthur Hertzberg, Eric H. Yoffie ISBN: 0813532191 Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: In the Image: A Novel by Dara Horn ISBN: 0393325261 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Fabulous Small Jews by Joseph Epstein ISBN: 0395944023 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 07 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Seven Blessings: A Novel by Ruchama King ISBN: 0312309155 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 13 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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