Great conversation about a broad range of books. What more could you ask for? Coffee and snacks, you say? Anything you want.
BOOKS DISCUSSED LAST NIGHT:
The Last Jew Standing, by Michael Simon. This book is a great antidote for those readers who might think that we only discuss serious books. Simon – a former college teacher, actor, playwright, and Texas probation officer – is the author of the Dan Reles crime novel series. His detective is a lieutenant in the Austin, Texas, police department. He is also the only Jew on the force, and the son of a gangster father with ties to the New York Mob. The last Jew of the title refers to Sam Zelig, who is the last of the great Jewish mobsters, following in the footsteps of such luminaries as Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Abe Bernstein, Lefty Rosenthal, Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein, and Harry Horowitz aka Gyp the Blood. (Unlike the others, Sam Zelig is fictional, although there was, once upon a time, a New York mobster called Big Jack Zelig.)When the novel opens, Lieutenant Reles’s father, Ben, shows up in Austin, with a Russian prostitute in tow, and the villainous Sam Zelig in hot pursuit. Complications ensue. According to our reviewer, the book is a fun read, quick and dirty, with lots of murder and mayhem, but also some interesting observations about race, religion, and prejudice in the “liberal” oasis of Austin, TX. Most importantly, it posits the thesis that Jews can also excel in such non-traditional endeavors as police detective or crime boss.
The Pity of It All, by Amos Elon. OK, enough levity. It would not be a Jewish coffee klatch if we did not, sooner or later, work our way around to some depressing book. The subtitle of this book is, “A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933.” It is not a happy story.
However, it is an instructive story, with useful lessons for those who might get overly complacent in the warm glow of assimilation. As Elon exhaustively documents in this fact-filled volume, German Jews, time after time, managed to persuade themselves that this time things were different, only to be rudely reminded that anti-Semitism is never too far below the glittering surface.Recommended reading for anyone suffering from excessive delusions of human harmony.
Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew, by Neil Gillman. Rabbi Gillman is a professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He was ordained at JTS in 1960, and received his PhD in Philosophy from Columbia University in 1975. He is the author of numerous books about Jewish thought and religious practice.
This particular volume, written as a road map for those wishing to discover, delve into, or reinforce their own religious beliefs, was the winner of the 1991 National Jewish Book Award. According to our reviewer, it continues to be an outstanding resource for readers wishing to arrive at their own answers to fundamental questions about the existence and nature of God, the existence of evil in the world, the importance of ritual, and the historical and philosophical underpinnings of Conservative Judaism.
That Used To Be Us, by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum. More trenchant analysis or trite pablum (depending on your point of view) from the authors of The World Is Flat series of prescriptions for making America great again. According to the official blurb: “Thomas L. Friedman, one of our most influential columnists, and Michael Mandelbaum, one of our leading foreign policy thinkers, offer both a wake-up call and a call to collective action. They analyze the four challenges we face—globalization, the revolution in information technology, the nation’s chronic deficits, and our pattern of excessive energy consumption—and spell out what we need to do now to sustain the American dream and preserve American power in the world.”
According to our reviewer, this latest installment in the series is well worth borrowing from the library.
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Happy Chanukah to all our members and to all our readers. We will see you all back as soon as you have recovered from all those sumptuous holiday feasts, exciting football games, thrilling parades, and strutting mummers. (Our next meeting is on Tuesday, January 3, 2012, at 7:45 pm.) Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012.
