artsandevents: bookstalks

Witness Equipment
Reviewed: Angel Wagenstein's Isaac's Torah

Book Reviews

Angel Wagenstein, an octogenarian screenwriter from Bulgaria who recently turned to writing novels, first gained attention in the English-speaking world with his 2007 novel Farewell, Shanghai, a fascinating ensemble piece about German and Austrian Jews fleeing Nazism for the relative safety of China. Thanks once again to translators Elizabeth Frank and Deliana Simeonova, English-language readers have access again to this gifted storyteller. With Isaac’s Torah, Wagenstein resurrects a Jewish literary archetype—the virtuous “fool”—yet endows the character with sagacity instead of saintliness; seemingly dim-witted but inwardly shrewd, Isaac Jacob Blumenfeld often finds that the only way to survive danger is to play the idiot. Armed with Yiddish lore and the wide-ranging advice of a colorful brother-in-law who is alternately a rabbi and an atheist, this simple tailor’s son from the shtetl of Kolodetz tries to navigate a course through the great terrors of his age. Indeed, despite Isaac’s general indifference to the world, the vicissitudes of the 20th century turn his life upside down: “I wasn’t very interested in politics, while politics itself was showing a growing interest in me.” Within the space of a few decades, Kolodetz passes from the Austro-­Hungarian Empire to Poland to the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany and back to the Soviet Union. Isaac’s own relocation to Vienna marks the conclusion of a harrowing odyssey, as the subtitle puts it, “through two world wars, three concentration camps and five motherlands.” Along the way, he experiences the “all-devouring and blood-thirsty Moloch” that is the Soviet justice system as well as Germany’s descent into barbarism. In a Nazi concentration camp not de... Continued

  • Witness Equipment
    Reviewed: Angel Wagenstein's Isaac's Torah
    Book Reviews
  • Empire Falls
    Reviewed: Geoff Ryman's The King's Last Song
    Book Reviews
  • Night of the Living Living
    Reviewed: Jose Saramago's Death With Interruptions
    Book Reviews
  • Lisbon Large
    Reviewed: Antonio Lobo Antunes' What Can I Do When Everything's On Fire?
    Book Reviews
  • Information Pleas
    Reviewed: David Carr's The Night of the Gun
    Book Reviews
  • 2008 Falls Arts Guide: Books
    Arts & Events
  • Tome Rule
    Toy Styles makes her move to rule street lit from a strip mall in Oxon Hill
    Cover Story
  • More Depression
    Reviewed: Amanda Petrusich's It Still Moves
    Book Reviews

Books Picks

  • Adam Gopnik
    Wednesday, Dec. 10, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art
    The great photographer Richard Avedon was known to New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik simply as Dick. Just as Avedon’s photos enabled a viewer to truly understand his subject—be it a powerful politician,...
  • Annie Leibovitz
    Monday, Dec. 8, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Tuesday, Dec. 9, at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue
    Annie Leibovitz’s At Work is partly a guide for aspiring photographers, though lots of her advice won’t be much use to the amateur. (If you must manage a photo shoot at the White House, do try to...

Event Calendar: This Week in Books

Fri. Nov. 28, 2008 - Thu. Dec. 4, 2008

  • DAVID BALDACCI
    discusses and signs copies of Divine Justice.
    Borders,, 5871 Crossroads Center Way, Baileys Crossroads. Thu., 12/4, 7:30 p.m. Free. (703) 998-0404.
  • BRENT DECKER
    discusses and signs copies of Global Filipino.
    Barnes & Noble,, 2800 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington. Thu., 12/4, 7 p.m. Free (703) 248-8251.
  • James Grippando
    discusses and signs copies of Born to Run.
    Borders,, 5871 Crossroads Center Way, Baileys Crossroads. Tue., 12/2, 7:30 p.m. Free. (703) 998-0404.
  • ANNETTE HAWS
    discusses and signs copies of Waiting for the Light to Change.
    Barnes & Noble,, 2800 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington. Sat., 11/29, 2 p.m. Free. (703) 248-8251.
  • TONI MORRISON
    discusses and signs copies of A Mercy: A Novel.
    Sixth & I Historic Synagogue,, 600 I Street NW. Thu., 12/4, 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.
  • KATHERINE NEVILLE
    discusses and signs copies of The Fire.
    Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sun., 11/30, 5 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.
  • JEFFREY PERRY
    reads from and signs copies of his works.
    Busboys & Poets,, 2021 14th St. NW. Tue., 12/2, 6 p.m. Free. (202) 387-7638
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