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maritacov's review against another edition
3.0
I grabbed this book off the shelf because I recognized the name from This American Life and I have Foreskin's Lament sitting somewhere on my bookshelf, still unread. I started reading this knowing nothing about the plot and, as a concept, the book is interesting. I would have liked to have read this story as told by a more competent writer. The themes and ideas seem half-baked and not fully realized. I did laugh out loud quite a few times reading through it.
micaelabrody's review against another edition
2.0
i am very conflicted about this book, but on a whole i... didn't love it. much like the yiddish policemen’s union i kind of feel like this isn’t a book that gentiles should Get to read until they’ve kind of covered some basic jewish literature first, if that makes sense. (for the record i liked the yiddish policemen's union more than this, if i am remembering it correctly.) i don’t have a Problem with anything ~politically necessarily, i don’t have a problem with the irreverence or the way he talked about the holocaust necessarily but.. i just didn’t love it.
me reading books like this feels like that famous margaret atwood quote from the robber bride: "You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur." all i can think about is how non-jewish people will react to it and how it will influence them, rather than having an actual genuine experience with the book myself. (this isn't with all jewish lit, as my goodreads shelf will surely show, so it's part of why this is detracting from my rating.)
and i wanted to like it!!!!! i’m so SO sick of reading books where the jewish people are just haunted by the holocaust and their entire existence is framed around it, as if the centuries and centuries of culture and history before 1939 didn't exist! i’d LOVE to read more books about diaspora jews!! so maybe this was just too many generations off and it felt alienating. i'm not sure. i’m 3rd generation, and the narrator here is 5th so that could have contributed. or maybe it's because i always look to identify with jewish people in books and this was just… disappointing. but regardless the reason, i left this with a weird taste in my mouth, which was really, really too bad.
me reading books like this feels like that famous margaret atwood quote from the robber bride: "You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur." all i can think about is how non-jewish people will react to it and how it will influence them, rather than having an actual genuine experience with the book myself. (this isn't with all jewish lit, as my goodreads shelf will surely show, so it's part of why this is detracting from my rating.)
and i wanted to like it!!!!! i’m so SO sick of reading books where the jewish people are just haunted by the holocaust and their entire existence is framed around it, as if the centuries and centuries of culture and history before 1939 didn't exist! i’d LOVE to read more books about diaspora jews!! so maybe this was just too many generations off and it felt alienating. i'm not sure. i’m 3rd generation, and the narrator here is 5th so that could have contributed. or maybe it's because i always look to identify with jewish people in books and this was just… disappointing. but regardless the reason, i left this with a weird taste in my mouth, which was really, really too bad.
cbking's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not quite sure if I liked this book or not, but I did want to keep reading until it was done, so that's something. Auslander is a terrific writer and storyteller, but I think the absurdist element of this novel was not quite for me. I kept cringing as I read, almost wanting to look away from the page because Kugel's decisions were so clearly wrongheaded. And yet, I plowed ahead, enjoying the prose if not the plot.
susanw's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this one. I've love Auslanders other works and this doesn't change my opinion. He made me laugh at things that really shouldn't be laughed at... Death, the holocaust etc. Recommend
ltg584's review against another edition
4.0
This is a story about hope, against all odds.
Solomon Kugel is an optimist, despite his best efforts to be otherwise. He is obsessed with death and dying, keeps notebooks filled with his ideal last words, and struggles with life. Who among us don't struggle with it a little, right? Well, Kugel's problems put all of ours to shame.
Shalom Auslander writes with tragic humor. Although I certainly laughed, I almost felt guilty for doing it, constantly looking over my shoulder for holocaust survivors. Auslander toes the line more than once in this book, and I feel the need to say that the humor may not be for everyone.
I loved the style of writing. It flowed the way thoughts do, working on several ideas at once. And I loved that there was so much more going on in this story than what first appeared.
Auslander has so much to say about family, loyalty, and above all, hope.
FIRST READS GIVEAWAY
Solomon Kugel is an optimist, despite his best efforts to be otherwise. He is obsessed with death and dying, keeps notebooks filled with his ideal last words, and struggles with life. Who among us don't struggle with it a little, right? Well, Kugel's problems put all of ours to shame.
Shalom Auslander writes with tragic humor. Although I certainly laughed, I almost felt guilty for doing it, constantly looking over my shoulder for holocaust survivors. Auslander toes the line more than once in this book, and I feel the need to say that the humor may not be for everyone.
I loved the style of writing. It flowed the way thoughts do, working on several ideas at once. And I loved that there was so much more going on in this story than what first appeared.
Auslander has so much to say about family, loyalty, and above all, hope.
FIRST READS GIVEAWAY
borisfeldman's review against another edition
1.0
Perhaps the worst book I've read this year. Clever device (Anne Frank in the attic). But no plot development to speak of. All the characters were worthless. Writing, uninspired.
If the author's name were "Bob Gray," this would not have gotten published.
If the author's name were "Bob Gray," this would not have gotten published.
andrewrobins's review against another edition
5.0
*contains very mild spoiler*
This is one of the strangest books I have ever read. It is also excellent.
A rough precis of the plot is that Solomon Kugel moves his family to an old house in the country, and finds he has an octogenarian Anne Frank living in his attic (yes, that Anne Frank).
He then engages in mental self-torture trying to decide what to do about her. To give an idea of the moral maze he gets into, he starts thinking that, as a Jew himself, he can't possibly throw her out. But then again, she's a fraud, she's supposed to have died 70 years ago, she's also ungrateful, aggressive and unhygienic, and ruining his life.
He then finds out that the previous owner of the house was a fifth generation German American, who also knew she was there, and he didn't throw her out, so if a *German* let her stay, he as a jew can't possibly throw her out.
As well as the ongoing Anne Frank problem, he is also dealing with having his mother living with the family. His mother does nothing but hark back to her terrible experiences in the Nazi concentration camps, despite not actually having been born till after the war.
On top of this, Kugel also has a spiritual advisor, Professor Jove, who is a force for the negative (Hitler's major problem to him was that he was an optimist, and all hope is tragic).
On top of this, there's also a problem with a prolific local arsonist burning down farm houses, and a paying tenant who demands access to the attic and doesn't know about the Anne Frank problem.
This is a very, very strange, but extremely funny book indeed, highly recommended.
This is one of the strangest books I have ever read. It is also excellent.
A rough precis of the plot is that Solomon Kugel moves his family to an old house in the country, and finds he has an octogenarian Anne Frank living in his attic (yes, that Anne Frank).
He then engages in mental self-torture trying to decide what to do about her. To give an idea of the moral maze he gets into, he starts thinking that, as a Jew himself, he can't possibly throw her out. But then again, she's a fraud, she's supposed to have died 70 years ago, she's also ungrateful, aggressive and unhygienic, and ruining his life.
He then finds out that the previous owner of the house was a fifth generation German American, who also knew she was there, and he didn't throw her out, so if a *German* let her stay, he as a jew can't possibly throw her out.
As well as the ongoing Anne Frank problem, he is also dealing with having his mother living with the family. His mother does nothing but hark back to her terrible experiences in the Nazi concentration camps, despite not actually having been born till after the war.
On top of this, Kugel also has a spiritual advisor, Professor Jove, who is a force for the negative (Hitler's major problem to him was that he was an optimist, and all hope is tragic).
On top of this, there's also a problem with a prolific local arsonist burning down farm houses, and a paying tenant who demands access to the attic and doesn't know about the Anne Frank problem.
This is a very, very strange, but extremely funny book indeed, highly recommended.