Month: October 2008

Bare-faced humor: review of Alan Zweibel’s non-fiction collection Clothing Optional

The Jerusalem Post, October 31, 2008

Clothing Optional and Other Ways to Read These Stories is the latest effort by award-winning comedy writer Alan Zweibel. This imaginative collection includes a wide range of forms – from a mock court deposition, to essays, to scripts, with an occasional pencil drawing thrown in for added humor.

The subject matter of the often irreverent pieces varies tremendously. Nothing is off limits for Zweibel and (reader, be warned) nothing is sacred. The opening act, “My First Love,” includes material that Zweibel refers to as “a heartwarming story titled ‘The Day I Got Caught Playing with Myself in Hebrew School… While Thinking About Abraham’s Wife, Sarah.'” Bouncing off of passages from Genesis, Zweibel takes us on a hilarious ride through the imagination of the 11-year-old “Avraham” Zweibel.

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Fugee Fridays

The Jerusalem Post, October 24, 2008

It’s almost Shabbat and Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market is slowly closing up. Stalls are clapped shut, the walkways are sprayed with water, and the last of the customers are clearing out, passing by mounds of unsold lettuce that have been dumped on the ground.

Behind the shuk, a motley crew of volunteers – some Israeli, but most American – is assembling on the sidewalk adjacent to the Carmelit bus terminal. A guy in a bright blue tank top and navy sweatpants pulls up on a bicycle. He has close-cropped dark hair and an easy smile. He looks relaxed, but the work he’s doing here is serious.

His name is Jesse Fox. He chats with some of the volunteers for a few minutes and then debriefs the group. Speaking of the vendors inside the shuk, he says, “These guys know us already. Just tell them we’re collecting food for the refugees from Darfur. They’ll give you a little food. It’s very simple.”

He’s right. It is simple. And the beauty of the project lies in its grassroots simplicity.

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From sunny Tel Aviv to cloudy Michigan: review of Danit Brown’s collection of short stories Ask for a Convertible

The Jerusalem Post, October 24, 2008

Danit Brown’s debut, Ask for a Convertible, is a collection of beautifully woven short stories, most of which revolve around Osnat Greenberg, who is both American and Israeli and comfortable with neither. Upon leaving sunny Tel Aviv for the cloudy suburbs of Michigan at the beginning of her teen years, Osnat embarks on a long and, under Brown’s artistry, exquisitely rendered struggle to find a place she feels she belongs in and can call home. Bookended by the appropriately titled “Descent” and “Ascent,” we follow Osnat as she freefalls through identity issues and as she searches for somewhere she can feel her feet firmly planted on the ground.

The journey we are on as readers is through stories full of vivid, quirky characters many of whom, like Osnat, are forced to continually define themselves and their place in the world. The characters are at turns compelling, darkly humorous and downright funny.

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