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Product Description
From Amazon
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting look at Young America's Values (not unlike Y2K+),
By Scaliwag (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Jew of New York (Paperback)
Well, first of all, I have to say I'm really surprised by the people who don't like this book. Certainly I don't expect it to be universally loved, but I really disagree with the reasons I've read below. For example, one reviewer criticized it by calling it a "book of ideas." Yes, exactly! And not your run-of-the-mill ideas either. I found it very inventive, original, thought-provoking, and culturally/historically accurate. That's a lot to pull off in less than 100 pages--pages that are largely taken up by drawings. Pictures do say 1,000 words. Second, I completely disagree with the reviewer who noted that you have to know something about Jewish stereotypes. I'm a black African female living in 21st century America, and I had no difficulty understanding the stereotypes or warped values behind them. Maybe it would be safer to say that you need to understand or have been exposed to some type of stereotype in your lifetime. But I have to think that most people who would even pick up this sort of book, would be literate enough to know that the stereotypes depicted, are exactly that. I even disagree that the page layouts were difficult to read. I think if you have ever read sequential art, it's pretty straight-forward. And if you haven't, the process of figuring it out--and it really does become intuitive very quickly--adds to the telling. You *do* find the significance of certain details by kind of puzzling over the images and layout. So I guess if you need hand-holding narratives, then this probably isn't the book for you. But this is the first work by Katchor that I've read, and I am very impressed by his ability to say so much in so few words about capitalism, nature conservancy, race relations, religiosity, sexuality, theatre, etc. and how these things comprise /conflict with "progress" and the belief every age has that it is the epitomy of advanced human development.I first heard of Katchtor when reading The Narrative Corpse, a story told by 69 artists and edited by Art Spiegelman. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people who had a negative reaction to it, had similar comments as can be found here. That the "story," as such, wasn't linear, etc. But again, I feel like those readers really missed the point. Anyway, I'll save that review for that book, but if you're not so hung up on context, that one is that you might enjoy as well, though the two books couldn't be more dissimilar.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A world that never existed, or did it or should it have?,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Jew of New York: A Historical Romance (Hardcover)
Ben Katchor's magical, sketchily precise illustrations lead us through a grey other world where people face problems none of us will ever know. Or fathom. But who cares! Every step of the way is uniquely Katchor's, grounded in a strange logic that seems to make perfectly good sense... at least to his characters. A wealth of invention infuses every page, conjuring exotic maladies, bizarre business enterprises and wierd obsessions.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Everybody except me either loves or hates this book,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Jew of New York: A Historical Romance (Hardcover)
I'm a big fan of Julius Knipl, so I looked forward very much to _The Jew of New York_. When I saw that all the Amazon.com reviews of it were either adoring or vituperative, I knew I had to buy it right away. Why had that happened?Well, now I know. This is a book with prerequisites, and if you don't have 'em, you're going to find the book very difficult. You need to know something about Jewish life in America, particularly the panoply of stereotypes to which they've been subjected (one that gets a lot of play in the book, the idea that Jews somehow smell bad, is not quite so current as it once was). And it helps to know something about the 19th century American brand of crackpot people and crackpot groups. Finally, you need to know how to read Ben Katchor. If you expect a linear read you'll be frustrated. Each panel needs to be scrutinized carefully, and pages will pass before you catch the significance of certain details. You'll need to learn to like that centered panel that one reviewer hated so much...it's used for reasons, sometimes esthetic, sometimes dramatic. In the end, I was disappointed in _The Jew of New York_ because I'd hoped for a book first about people and feelings rather than about ideas. The author's aim (my informed guess here) is to show how the majority can simultaneously fetishize minorities and hold them in contempt, certainly a notion with relevance to 1999. But I wish he could have told me about that with more emotion; instead, we get a range of exceedingly eccentric characters, whose hearts we don't really get into. Anyway, I don't regret my purchase, but if I weren't a Katchor fan, I might.
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