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What I’m Reading: kaddish.com by Nathan Englander

My Amazon and Goodreads review of kaddish.com (Rating 5) – Can One Shlemiel Repay the Debts of Thousands? It is said that converts and returnees are the most zealous religious practitioners. If this tenet is true, then Shuli, an erstwhile relapsed Orthodox Jew, is one such fanatic. In the novel kaddish.com, Nathan Englander poses the general question of how we repay a debt to the dead and, more specifically, whether one shlemiel can repay the debts of thousands. A shrewish sister notwithstanding, he is helped by the good people in his community: bright boychiks, wise rabbis, and an understanding wife. Englander is a brilliant and original writer, who plots his book carefully, if sometimes preposterously. Nu, just relax and go along. Even if the Orthodox rituals and Talmudic explications are murky, they are never confusing enough to obscure the book’s intent. Like Shuli’s late father, rebellious pupil, sainted wife, and presumably Hashem, him/her/itself, you want the man to succeed. I have some quibbles — Englander’s cardboard women; a testosterone-fueled scene that evades a difficult but essential cry for insight with an easy and unfulfilling orgasm — but these drawbacks are not sufficient to lower my estimation of the book. Fasten your kippot to your skull and proceed on faith. You won’t be disappointed.

Brilliant, original, and preposterous writer Nathan Englander

“Read everything … like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.” – William Faulkner)

Learn History Through Fiction: Labor Reform After Tragic Triangle Waist Company Fire

The 1911 Triangle Waist Company fire, which killed 146 workers, most of them immigrant women, led to major labor legislation. NYC’s Tammany Hall passed 60 of 64 laws recommended by the Factory Investigating Commission, created in response to the tragedy. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) fought for better sweatshop conditions, including a 54-hour work week, and the American Society of Safety Engineers was founded seven months later. Read more about the fire and the U.S. labor movement 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Public outcry after the 1911 Triangle Waist Company fire led to major labor reforms

Tazia and Gemma (Vine Leaves Press) by Ann S. Epstein

Learn History Through Fiction: Earlier Last Call in Wartime

At the beginning of WWI, under the 1914 “Defence of the Realm Act,” British pub hours were limited to 12-2:30 PM and 6:30-9:30 PM, so factory workers wouldn’t show up drunk after lunch or the next morning. These hours, widely disregarded outside London, were finally relaxed nationwide in the 1960s and 1970s. In the WWII era, pubs were gathering places for trade unions and sympathizers (albeit wary of communist influence). Many had football teams who played the regulars from other pubs at Sunday matches. Read more about old London in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

In WWI & WWII, Britain restricted pub hours to keep factory workers sober

A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (Alternative Book Press) by Ann S. Epstein

Learn History Through Fiction: Old Mafia Lingo

The Mafia, a.k.a. the Mob, is rich in slang. Some examples: action (illicit profits); associate (someone who works for the Mafia but is not a “family member” or on the books); break (discipline someone by a demotion in rank); crumb (legitimate working man); going to the mattress (warring with a rival gang); goomah (mistress); goomba (term of affection & respect); vig or vigorish (% of a bet retained as income by the bookmaker). Read more about how the Mafia infiltrated Las Vegas with loot and lingo 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: Oops! Grauman Accidentally Steps in Wet Cement

Theater magnate Sid Grauman opened Grauman’s Egyptian Theater in 1922 on Hollywood Blvd. It was the site of the first Hollywood premiere, Robin Hood, with Douglas Fairbanks. In 1927, Grauman’s Chinese Theater opened farther west on Hollywood Blvd., where Cecil B. DeMille premiered King of Kings. The entrance is renowned for its elaborate pagoda, dragon, and two Ming Heaven dogs guarding the door. Jean Klossner (later dubbed Mr. Footprint) was hired to create a concrete forecourt to preserve the hand and footprints of stars. Sid Grauman got the idea when he accidentally stepped in wet cement during construction. Read more Hollywood and Los Angeles history in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Grauman’s Theater has been a Hollywood attraction for nearly a century

Grauman’s traditional hand and footprints began as an accident

Learn History Through Fiction: Topeka Schools After Brown v. Board of Education

After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, Topeka encountered little resistance to elementary school desegregation. Its middle schools had been integrated since 1941. The high school had been integrated from its 1871 inception and its sports teams since 1949. A new school board was voted in which moved quickly to integrate students, soon followed by teachers and principals. Unlike the South and many cities in the North, there were no demonstrations in Topeka. Nevertheless, throughout the country today, de facto segregation is reinforced by neighborhood housing patterns and school district boundaries. Read more about race relations in Topeka 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Segregated Topeka elementary school before Brown v. Board of Education

What I’m Reading: Mama’s Last Hug by Frans de Waal

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves (Rating 5) – All in the Family. In Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves, primatologist Frans de Waal’s fascinating and accessible book fulfills the title’s promise. Although we generally use “emotion” and “feeling” interchangeably, he begins with a useful distinction. Emotions drive behavior and can thus be observed. Feelings, the internal states that accompany emotions, can only be inferred. Recounting the behaviors he and his colleagues have observed in our fellow primates and other species, Dr. de Waal makes a convincing case that humans are not that different animals, most notably, we are not “superior.” He has documented this claim elsewhere with regard to cognitive capacities; here he extends the comparison to affective behavior. As a developmental psychologist, I was reminded of my own field’s chronic underestimation of the capabilities of young children with regard to such attributes as empathy and morality. Dr. De Waal’s precise delineation of both the similarities and differences between apes and humans is insightful. Similarities abound in everything from laughter and grief, to fair play and revenge (even premeditated murder). One telling difference is the label “alpha male.” Originally the concept, which dates to wolf studies in the 1940s, simply meant the dominant male. However, as the term has been applied to humans, “alphas are not just winners, they beat the hell out of everyone around them.” In the animal world, the alpha male is not the biggest bully. In fact, “this male acts as the healer-in-chief, comforting others, intent on restoring harmony.” Perhaps, in observing our species today, de Waal can be forgiven for occasionally substituting cynicism for science. However, as a fiction writer, I set out to prove that even my most reprehensible characters can change. As a reader, I’m equally inclined to be generous. For optimists like me, de Waal offers hope that people can behave better by citing studies of female primates, who are the primary conciliators of their species. Whereas males physically dominate and intimidate, females stand their ground by exerting a powerful social influence. Females are peacemakers rather than warriors. Thus, de Waal says, it is past time to abandon macho theories of human evolution and embrace feminist ones. Only then we can harness the emotions that facilitate relationships and re-channel the destructive ones.

Humans and primates are emotional kinfolk

Learn History Through Fiction: From Wicked Witch to Soap Opera Star

After her success as the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz, Margaret Hamilton appeared in My Little Chickadee but had only minor film roles after that. She had a long-running radio career from 1944 to the 1950s on Ethel and Albert, where she played the scatter-brained Aunt Eva. In the 1960s and 1970s, Hamilton was a regular on the soap operas The Secret Storm and As the World Turns. She reprised her role as the Wicked Witch on Sesame Street in 1976, but parents complained that it scared their children, so the episode was never reshown. Read more about the making of Oz and the lives of its stars in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

The Wicked Witch on Sesame Street was deemed too scary by parents

Learn History Through Fiction: Kansas Immigrants Drawn to Farming and Freedom

The 1867-1868 great famine in Sweden combined with discontent from a repressive government made the American advertisement of land and freedom in Kansas particularly attractive to Swedes. They became the third-largest group of foreign-born citizens in the state, after Germans and Russians. Italians followed in 1871, coming to the coal-mining regions in SE Kansas. Read more about Topeka and Kansas history, and the immigrants who helped build the United States, in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Swedish immigrants fled famine and government repression for the farmlands of Kansas

“Adverbicide” Online at The Woven Tale Press

My craft article “Adverbicide: Must Writers Eradicate Adverbs?” is now online at The Woven Tale Press. The essay challenges the rule that writers should avoid adverbs. The editors expect the article to generate a lively debate, so please leave a comment. Do you think Stephen King will reply: (A) Promptly; (B) Perfunctorily; (C) Appreciatively; (D) Sarcastically; or (E) Nonely of the Abovely? Read more about my thoughts on writing in REFLECTIONS.