reviews - Jewish Book Council

59 TH NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS
Finalists:
FAR FROM ZION: IN SEARCH OF A
GLOBAL JEWISH COMMUNITY
Charles London
William Morrow
Ayeka? Where are you? That is the
question Charles London seeks to
answer in his thoughtful and compelling
book Far From Zion. By seeking out Jewish
communities in the farthest reaches of the
Diaspora, culminating in a trip to Zion
itself, London explores the ways Jewish
identity transcends geographic and political
boundaries, while also examining his own Jewish identity as stirred
by his experiences in these outposts of Jewish life. While it has become
common to speak of the importance of Jewish journeys, London gives
new meaning to the phrase by introducing us to
places and people who powerfully remind us that the
great experiment of Jewish existence continues in
laboratories of life throughout the world. In responding
to the question Ayeka? London answers with a
resounding—Hineini! We are here and, as London
points out, ‘here’ is everywhere.
JEWCENTRICITY: WHY THE JEWS ARE
PRAISED, BLAMED, AND USED TO
EXPLAIN JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING
Adam Garfinkle
John Wiley & Sons
In his well-written book, Jewcentricity:
Why the Jews Are Praised, Blamed, and
Used to Explain Just About Everything,
Adam Garfinkle makes a novel, logically
constructed argument about the world’s
apparent obsession with all things Jewish.
He begins by looking at the historical and
cultural roots of anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism, from Hellinism to
Napoleonic France to the American Civil War, and comes up with a
simple matrix that can be used to identify and explain the four quadrants
of interest in Jewish life. Through this matrix he is able to de-mystify
the perennial question, Why the Jews? or, depending on the reader’s
perspective, Why Us? His analysis uncovers both positive and negative
exaggerations, and helps the reader to look more objectively at the reasons
Jews seem to be blamed or adulated for everything from war, to
scientific advancement, to global financial health. Garfinkle’s compelling
style makes his book easy to read and absorb, even as he tackles
ultimately disturbing realities. The tone is at times humorous, at times
poetic, and always scholarly. He weaves in metaphors
for the Jewish condition, from the burning bush that
is continually aglow yet never consumed, to flotsam
on the sea which is able to control neither the weather
nor the tides. Jewcentricity is grounded in history,
logic, and insight making it an important addition to
the literature explicating Jewish life.
10 Jewish Book World Spring 5770/2010
FICTION
JJ Greenberg Memorial Award
Winner:
GRATITUDE: A NOVEL
Joseph Kertes
Thomas Dunne Books
The experiences of Jews under Nazi
rule have often been represented in
spare, fragmentary narratives that reflect
the utter incomprehensibility of the Third
Reich’s brutal policies. In Gratitude, Hungarian-Canadian
novelist Joseph Kertes
approaches the catastrophe very differently,
chronicling the ordeal of an extended
family of Hungarian Jews between March
1944 and Mach 1946 in vivid, classically realistic detail. Yet his novel
expresses as clearly as the tersest testimony the horrors perpetrated in
those years, and the courage of those who resisted and persevered.
The Nazi invasion of Hungary shocks the prominent Beck family,
stripping them of their wealth and professional positions as mayor,
doctor, dentist, or lawyer. The war forces some of them into hiding,
summons others to acts of generosity, spurs others to heroism. Kertes
depicts with equal precision the bravery of Paul, who
works alongside the Swedish humanitarian Raoul
Wallenberg to save Jews, and the mounting despair
of his sister Rozsi. Compelling in its drama and
astonishing in its breadth and polish, Gratitude represents
the darkest years of modern history responsibly
and unforgettably.
Finalists:
THE LAST EMBER
Daniel Levin
Riverhead
Jonathan Marcus, a young American
lawyer and a former doctoral student in
classics, has become a sought-after commodity
among antiquities dealers. But when he is
summoned to Rome to examine a client’s
fragment of an ancient stone map, he stumbles
across a startling secret: a hidden message
carved inside the stone itself. The discovery
propels him on a perilous journey
from the labyrinth beneath the Colosseum to the biblical-era tunnels of
Jerusalem in search of a hidden 2,000-year-old artifact sought by empires
throughout the ages. As Marcus and a passionate UN preservationist, Dr.
Emili Travia, dig more deeply into the past, they’re stunned to discover
not only an ancient intelligence operation to protect the artifact, but also
a ruthless modern plot to destroy all trace of it by a mysterious radical
bent on erasing every remnant of Jewish and Christian
presence from the Temple Mount. With a cutting-edge
plot as intricately layered as the ancient sites it explores,
The Last Ember is a gripping thriller spanning the highstakes
worlds of archaeology, politics, and terrorism in
its portrayal of the modern struggle to define—and
redefine—history itself.
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