Books & Authors
85 posts found
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Future Shock: Albert Brooks' novel "2030"
“2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America†(St. Martin’s Press) is Albert Brooks’ novel (in all senses of the word) take on our not-so-distant future. Anyone familiar with Brooks’ films, such as “Defending Your Life†or “Modern Romance,†will not be surprised that his debut novel is clever and entertaining. But it is also thoughtful, insightful and inventive about issues as diverse as health care, transportation, aging and politics. And funny — let’s not forget funny. “2030†is… -
The Passions of a Nobel Laureate
Given that I haven't been posting much lately, I thought perhaps I would fill the gap by publishing an interview I did for Andy Warhol's Interview back in the early 1980s with Isaac Bashevis Singer, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. As I recall he was prickly but quite game -- qualities evident in the interview below, with the man I came to think of as "The Yiddish Yoda." The Passions of a Nobel Laureate: Isaac Bashevis Singer… -
Rethinking Kasztner
"Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt With Nazis," a new documentary, portrays filmmaker Gaylen Ross' attempt to understand why Reszo (Rudolf) Kasztner, a Hungarian Jewish leader who saved more than 1,600 people in war-time Budapest - more than Oskar Schindler - on the so-called Kasztner train, remains so controversial to this day. In the course of the film, Ross tells several interrelated stories, including that of Kasztner's rescue efforts during the Holocaust, as well as the stories of his life… -
Shadows of the Sun
When the German forces surrendered to the Allies in May 1945, World War II in Europe ended. However, for the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, the trauma of what they endured wasn't over. For many, the effects lingered on in ways large and small, noticeable and not, often in ways their families came to know. Rita Lurie was one such person. She survived the war in hiding, a young child hidden for two years in a Polish farmhouse attic with… -
Spies, Celebs, Classics and More — Good Reads are Coming Up
Among the most daunting questions I’m often confronted with is: “What should I read next?†Recently, I traveled to the depths of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York for BookExpo 2009, the annual American Bookseller’s gathering, where I crisscrossed the convention floor, Indiana Jones-like, to gather publishers’ catalogues and advance-reader copies of so many books that when I headed back to Los Angeles, American Airlines threatened to make me check my so-called “carry-on luggage.†“These are books!  -
Defender of Faith
If the bestseller charts are any indication, it's become popular to condemn religion. Books such as Sam Harris' "Letter to a Christian Nation" and "The End of Faith," Richard Dawson's "The God Delusion," Christopher Hitchens' "God Is Not Great" and Bill Maher's soon-to-be-released film, "Religulous," would have us see faith as antiquated, illogical and dangerous. And let's face it, the arguments they make are not without merit: In the shadow of Sept. 11, religion seems at the root of much… -
The Immortal Mr Gold
August 12, 2008 Herb Gold, elder statesman of the Beat Generation, writes on By Tom Teicholz "Still Alive! (A Temporary Condition)" by Herbert Gold (Arcade, $25). Herbert Gold, who at 84 is among the elder statesmen of the Beat Generation, has a new book out, his 28th, a memoir titled "Still Alive! (A Temporary Condition)." It is not an autobiography so much as a series of recollections of encounters with people who have been part of his life -- neighbors,… -
Waxing Roth
The movie, "Elegy," which opens Aug. 8 and stars Ben Kingsley as David Kepesh and Penelope Cruz as the object of his desire, is the latest film to be adapted from the writings of Philip Roth. This one is based on his novella, "The Dying Animal." Despite Roth's long, successful career in American letters, his track record on film has been far spottier. Yet "Elegy," directed by Isabel Coixet, who is Spanish, has created a certain buzz: Could it be… -
Making Book on LA
BookExpo, the annual convention of booksellers and book publishers that took place in Los Angeles one recent weekend, is the book industry's annual get-together, alternating among the publishing hub of New York and various other cities, such as Miami, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Perhaps it's the state of the book industry, the economy or just the cost of gas, but this year's convention was not as well attended as in past years. The last time BookExpo was in… -
Where the booklovers are
Dutton's Brentwood Books, among the best-known and best-loved of Los Angeles' independent bookstores, will close on April 30. It is hard not to take this as a sign of the times. Over the past few years many local independent bookstores have gone the way of the local movie theater, the local hardware store and the local stationery shop -- disappearing -- as much victims of a changed retail and commercial real estate environment as a victim of our changing consumer… -
Dreaming of a blue future (Roger Director)
Let me state, for the record, that I know nothing about sports. I don't watch them; I don't follow them. My parents didn't. I never did as a kid. I don't now with my family. Occasionally in the finals of a season, a few names flutter into my consciousness and then, just as quickly, disappear. I'm not proud of this. I watch, rather wistfully, as sports informs the conversations of a wide range of folks, as I watch families and… -
Michael Chabon's Amazing (Jewish) Adventures
On the occasion of the first annual "Celebration of Jewish Books" at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, the Jewish Journal asked me to engage Michael Chabon in a (brief) conversation about the Jewish flavor of his work. Herewith the results: Novelist Michael Chabon has an agent, Steven Barclay, who handles his speaking engagements and who scheduled my interview with Chabon for 8:15 a.m. on the morning of Halloween. When I asked Barclay what self-respecting writer does interviews at…