Fans of Joseph Epstein's best-selling Snobbery: The American Version will recognize the same wit, insight, and incisive social examination in Fabulous Small Jews, Epstein's first collection of stories since 1992's The Goldin Boys. In these pages are artists, writers, a commodities trader, a concert pianist, lawyers on the make, all at various crossroads and turning points in their lives. These are classic stories with universal themes: the rights of talent, the attempt to shake one's identity, the desperation of strangled impulses, the complexities of family love. But, as always with Epstein, the magic, the charm, and the humor are in his lavish details. The stories in Fabulous Small Jews are small worlds writ large, and Epstein's observant eye and engaging voice bring them alive on the page.
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From Publishers Weekly
Switching gears after his nonfiction hit, Snobbery, Epstein has compiled a collection of short stories as thoughtful and arresting as its title (from a poem by Karl Shapiro). Whether they are in a nursing home, recovering from the loss of a spouse of 50 years, or looking back at marriages, shortcomings or missed opportunities, Epstein's characters are quirky, witty, resentful, fearful and cautiously hopeful as they face their future, or whatever they have left of it, in a world in which all the rules have changed. What distinguishes them as Jews in this universal situation is a certain wry outlook, a vernacular turn of phrase that carries the tang of its Yiddish origin, and a tendency to philosophize about the deeper questions of existence. "Coming In with Their Hands Up" is a touching tale of a bloodthirsty divorce lawyer who encounters heartbreak in his own marriage. In "Postcards," Seymour Hefferman, an acidulous and malicious failed poet, anonymously castigates cultural eminences when they offend his sensibilities, signing a Jewish name instead of his own; he finally gets his comeuppance. The eponymous Felix Emeritus, a cautious Buchenwald survivor who has never asked much of life, meets in an old-age home a bitter man who can't surmount his dark view of human nature. Mostly settled in Chicago, these 17 characters are no heroes, only reflective personalities-little people with big opinions-who have made their share of sacrifices. Like his emotionally candid, low-key protagonists, Epstein is intrinsically honest. Gratifying and genuine, this collection examines all sorts of responses to the encroachment of old age on human dignity.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Whether he's writing piquant criticism such as Snobbery: The American Version [BKL Jl 02] or fiction, Epstein brings zest and clarity to his ardent inquiry into how we attempt to make sense of life and peace with death. His fictional turf is Jewish Chicago, a vibrant domain in dramatic transition in this robust and involving short story collection. Epstein's narrators tend to be tough, hardworking, and solitary men who have survived poverty, the Holocaust, ruthless competition, and impossible domestic situations only to confront old age and a jittery new world that to their pragmatic eyes seems neurotic, flimsy, indulgent, and vacuous. Yet Epstein's heroes--guys like salesman Moe Bernstein, dry-cleaner mogul Artie Glick, a bartender, a scamming ex-con, and a few soulful academics--do not despair. They maintain their sense of humor, they take chances, they open their hearts, and they find life sweeter than ever before. As rich in clever banter as in philosophic musings, Epstein's funny and wise stories celebrate independence, the inner life, generosity of spirit, and rolling with the punches. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
What's not to love?? Humor, wit, pathos. Epstein delivers. The wonderfully written short stories are as relevant to the human conditon as they are to the Chicago Jewish experience.
If you liked the Goldin Boys, you will definitely like this one.
If you liked the Goldin Boys, you will definitely like this one.
Format:Hardcover
The title was in poor enough taste to draw my attention. The writing quickly drew me in. And once drawn in, I found it hard to put this book down. What is it? A collection of dark, brooding stories about old guys (mostly) facing loss, disillusionment and despair. Most of these guys have never had a meaningful long-term relationship. If they married, it didn't work out. If they had children, they typically abandoned them. If they did have good marriages, they lost them.
Most of the characters are old or aging men, most of the action takes place in Chicago. Most are Jewish, in a Seinfeldian, cultural sense, and have little relationship to Judaism, the religion. They are often uncomfortable with or embarrassed by their Jewish origins. Still, they display that typical Jewish penchant for ruminating, philosophizing, wondering who they really are.
Author Joseph Epstein is an extremely talented writer. He does a great job with these stories, injecting bits of manic humor into these otherwise gloomy tales. Still, there is something troubling about the collection, something that leaves--well--a certain unpleasant aftertaste. The stories that start out with so much punch, that are so entertaining, almost always seem to end with a whimper, with nothing learned, nothing gained, nothing to hope for. Sometimes those endings seemed contrived, as though the author simply didn't know how to end the story.
Still, even with its shortcomings, this is a most entertaining collection, and I can certainly recommend it. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
By DS
Format:Hardcover
A small work of distasteful stories that exploits the underbelly of human experience. This is a book for the dispirited and those without hope. It is no more than a breadcrumb trail of dispair masquerading as nourishment--it substitutes irony for redemption, craft for insight. The title tells it all-small stories of a self-hating author. If you want to be depressed and pretend you are thinking, better get a mediocre bottle of scotch and smack it a against your head instead of spending time with this little book.
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4.6 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bellow it's not
Fiction about old Jewish guys in Chicago is Saul Bellow territory, and to say that Joseph Epstein isn't Saul Bellow isn't fair criticism, because who is? Read more
Published on Aug 25 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars
Old-fashioned stories of high quality
Epstein's work is old-fashioned in the best sense of the term. There is no "writers' school" trendiness here. Read more
Published on Aug 23 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars
Epstein's Collection is indeed fabulous...
How I Spent my Summer Vacation...well, at the top of the list will be reading this fine collection of short stories, almost all of which take place in Chicago. Read more
Published on Aug 15 2003 by Robert Wellen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chekhov in Chicago
I have enjoyed reading Joseph Epstein's essays, and there are two kinds that I especially admire. The first are the personal essays that are autobiographical and often very funny,... Read more
Published on July 21 2003
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