"Yiddish Excitement Quarterly"
Oct. 19th, 2008 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sergebroomWhen I acquired Michael Burstein’s soon to be released story collection I Remember the Future from Apex Book Company's web site, I noticed another book from that publisher that piqued my curiosity on the strength of its title. I mean, HebrewPunk?
I get the impression that what Lavie Tidhar has done is to write stories that could have appeared in the pulps in their glory days, with, among other things, a Tzaddik facing off against a vengeful angel, and a shapeshiter called the Rat fighting lycanthropic Nazis. As far as I can tell, the author plays it straight although the blurb by Paul Di Filippo makes it sound like something from the minds of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder.
I got the book in the mail a couple of days ago. There are a few other books I must first read, besides Burstein’s and Philip Reeve’s Larklight. I am currently going thru Catherynne Valente’s In The Night Garden, which, by page 27, has had one main character tell a tale about a prince who encounters an old woman, who recounts how, when she was a girl, she was imprisoned with her grandmother, who reveals the story of her apprenticeship to a witch who explains how the Universe was born. Beautifully written too.
I get the impression that what Lavie Tidhar has done is to write stories that could have appeared in the pulps in their glory days, with, among other things, a Tzaddik facing off against a vengeful angel, and a shapeshiter called the Rat fighting lycanthropic Nazis. As far as I can tell, the author plays it straight although the blurb by Paul Di Filippo makes it sound like something from the minds of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder.
How well I recall, as a lad aged some ten years, circa 1937, reading Lavie Tidhar's stirring adventures in such pulps as THRILLING HEBREW TALES and YIDDISH EXCITEMENT QUARTERLY. Even then, these tales possessed a fascinating air of archaic menace and occult power. Now, some seventy years after their original publication, they positively radiate the uncanny sensibilities of a bygone era. What a cast of characters--the Rabbi, the Rat and the Tzaddik, as memorable as Doc Savage and his crew!
I got the book in the mail a couple of days ago. There are a few other books I must first read, besides Burstein’s and Philip Reeve’s Larklight. I am currently going thru Catherynne Valente’s In The Night Garden, which, by page 27, has had one main character tell a tale about a prince who encounters an old woman, who recounts how, when she was a girl, she was imprisoned with her grandmother, who reveals the story of her apprenticeship to a witch who explains how the Universe was born. Beautifully written too.
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Date: Oct. 20th, 2008 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2008 12:10 pm (UTC)Part of me wonders if I should be worried at the idea of Groucho, Chico and Harpo as defenders against Things that go bump in the night.
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Date: Oct. 20th, 2008 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2008 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2008 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2008 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 22nd, 2008 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 22nd, 2008 06:03 pm (UTC)