Posted on November 27, 2007 by Steve Pollak
When I first heard about Max Apple's "The Jew of Home Depot and Other Stories
," I thought it might be a book about Bernie Marcus or Arthur Blank.
But, after reading the L.A. Times review of this book of short stories, I'm pretty sure the company's co-founders do not play a significant part in any of the narratives. The review, written by author Tod Goldberg, lets you know that the book's title comes from the last story in the collection in which a rabbi's son gets a job at Home Depot because the girl he loves also works there.
Goldberg says Apple has kept a low profile for quite a few years. Here's an excerpt from the review:
For a writer hailed as one of the finest satirists of the late 1970s for his iconic collection, "The Oranging of America," Apple's absence from literary circles has sadly made his fiction less and less known, to the point that he's more often used in comparison than actually read.
Apple made his name skewering pop culture and finding relevance in the mundane and the absurd of Jewish life.
The aims of his new collection, "The Jew of Home Depot and Other Stories," are no different in that regard, but significant anachronistic stumbles ensue.
Goldberg focuses on one anachronistic stumble in particular: Apple's reference to Osama Bin Ladin in a story set in the mid-1980s. Such a hiccup ordinarily would not ruin things if the story ended with "a satisfying conclusion, both emotionally and structurally," Goldberg writes. But, Goldberg says this particular story — like many in the book — ends with such a simple epiphany "that it leaves the reader grasping for the very reason we've gone on the journey at all."
That may sound pretty rough but Goldberg notes that there are some bright spots in the book, including the title piece.
Here are some other recent reviews and Jewish links from around the Web:
• The New York Times ran a review of Meir Shalev's "A Pigeon and a Boy." Here is an excerpt from the review, written by Sarah Fay:
Though the Israeli author Meir Shalev attracts a primarily Jewish readership in the United States, his new novel, translated by Evan Fallenberg, is less concerned with the intricacies of a particular religion than with the question of what any person needs in order to be happy. “A Pigeon and a Boy” may be filled with references to Jewish traditions, but it’s told from a distinctly secular point of view — that of Yair Mendelsohn, an Israeli tour guide who sees himself as a casualty of modern life.
• Also in the Times this weekend, a review of Mort Zachter's "Dough: A Memoir." Anne Mendelson, who is the author of “Stand Facing the Stove: The Story of the Women Who Gave America ‘The Joy of Cooking’” wrote the review and calls the book "a memoir that is as miraculously loving and nonjudgmental as it is cleareyed."
• Elsewhere on the Web, the Toronto Star says "Yiddish is made for political analysis."
• And lastly, the Jerusalem Post ran a review of "Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America," by Edward K. Kaplan. The review was written by Jack Riemer, a rabbi and co-editor of "So That Your Values Live On: A Treasury of Ethical Wills" and editor of "The World of the High Holy Days."
Here's an excerpt from the JPost.com piece:
The primary problem in this book is that Kaplan is so determined to make this a work of objective scholarship, and not of uncritical adulation, that he sometimes errs too much on the side of technical scholarship and copious documentation and fails to give voice to the enormous reverence and admiration for his teacher that he most assuredly feels.
I disagree with that assessment. I have not read this book but it's always been my assumption that biographers want to be objective and avoid displays of "reverence" and "admiration" for their subjects.
Who's going to trust your scholarship if you're openly biased?