Suddenly A Knock On The Door (Hebrew 2010; English Translation 2012) By Etgar Keret

I had the pleasure of seeing Etgar Keret in lecture about a year ago, and raved about it endlessly. He was back in town recently to kick off a book tour promoting his latest collection of short stories, giving a lecture at the Chicago Sinai Synagogue.  I unfortunately had a scheduling conflict, my loss. I however have now read the new book, my gain.

Etgar Keret is a much acclaimed Israeli author, currently teaching a creative writing course at the University of Illinois at Champaign.  This new book is his fourth collection of short stories to be translated into English.  His stories are irreverent and priceless.  The cover blurb on The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God captures the essence of his work perfectly: “warped and wonderful short stories.”

The title story from Bus Driver is a completely “wonderful” fable, and the “warped” description fits The Son of the Head of the Mossad perfectly.  Totally off the charts however is Kneller’s Happy Campers.  It tells the tale of several characters that have “offed themselves” by committing suicide – but, instead of going to heaven or hell, they are assigned to a suburb of Tel Aviv.

The first collection I read was The Nimrod Flipout, which includes a marvelous little story called Eight Percent of Nothing.  The Girl on the Fridge opens with the one paragraph, mega attention-getting, short story titled Asthma Attack, and includes a totally sad but funny story titled A No Magician Birthday.

The new release, Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, includes another mythical place: Lieland.  It is a world where all of the characters that one has ever incorporated into one’s little white lies reside in their lied about state: i.e. I can’t come to work today because my grandmother fell and broke her hip.  And my favorite fable, which is too short to summarize: Guava.

Almost as warped as some of the stories are the covers of two of these books:  The Bus Driver features a smiling suicide; while Nimrod’s Flipout features an Elmer Fudd-like character in an orange rabbit suit.

All of the 133 stories in these four collections were originally published in Hebrew.  You can order one of these books, but you might as well save yourself the trouble and order all four ... because you will want all four.

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria (2006) By Justin Pollard and Howard Reid

Complete this title:  The Rise and Fall of …

Most likely your answer was “the Roman Empire.”  World history, after all, is all about those people or countries known for their brute strength, i.e. Ghenghis Khan, Napoleon or Alexander the Great. 

But, history does offer other measures of greatness.    

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria, Birthplace of the Modern World provides one such alternative.  While Alexandria may be named after the epitome of military strength, its importance to the history of the “civilized” world is based on knowledge. 

Recently I read a great book titled The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt, about how so much of ancient Greek culture was lost to the world.  It is largely the legacy of Alexandria that much of it also survived. The city, through the express design and force of will of its Ptolemy rulers (the Greek Dynasty) choose to collect the knowledge of the world in one place.  The Rise ... details: the selection of this northern Egyptian port as Alexander the Great’s chosen foothold on North Africa, how after his death it rapidly became the world’s first truly multi-cultural city and a practitioner of religious tolerance, it’s Wonders -- The Great Library, and The Great Lighthouse – and its many living legends, not the least of whom was Cleopatra.  The Fall ... details: not one sudden catastrophe, but dozens of causes, including the advent of religious fundamentalism, of the Christian kind.

Great stuff if one is a history buff, and completely readable.

A Single Man (1964) By Christopher Isherwood

This book begins with a strikingly familiar scene, perhaps too close to home:  George, a man in his late fifties awakes and goes through his morning routine.  He stares into his bathroom mirror and sees in it little reminders of the various stages of his life, hidden within its current self.  “What it sees there isn’t so much a face as the expression of a predicament.”  He is a single man because he is the survivor of a long term relationship with a man named Jim.

His singularity has multiple sources.  First and foremost, he is alone because few people ever acknowledged their relationship, despite its obvious existence.  He is alone because he can no longer self-define as half of a couple, though he has not a clue how to define his current state.  And, he is alone because is a gay man living an existence a decade before the sexual revolution. 

The book is written by Christopher Isherwood (1904 – 1986) who is best known for Berlin Stories, the source of the movie Cabaret.  I’ve recently begun reading his other works, and I am touched by the staying power of his observations.  Like Berlin Stories, A Single Man, has also been turned into a movie.  It scored a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Colin Firth.  I waited until I finished the book, before watching the movie last night.

Although the Director has taken some artistic license with the script, he has not harmed the impact of Isherwood’s story.  In fact, I will argue that some of the chapters perhaps worked even better on film – the flashbacks telling of George’s relationship with Jim in particular.   The role of his close friend Charley was somewhat enhanced to take advantage of the stature of actress Julianne Moore, but fortunately no attempt was made to assign them a relationship beyond what was in the book. And the role of Kenny, a college student, was somewhat downgraded, unfortunate because actor Nicholas Hoult clearly could have handled the character’s complexity.

As always, my recommendation would be read the book, but knowing that most people will not, let me say the movie is also a recommended – both however, would be better.