Roots schmoots PDF
Preview Roots schmoots
«T > wKk $23.95 Roots Schmoots Journeys Among Jews H owar a Jacotson “Like affairs of the hearty childhoods set themselves to music. Mine turned at 78 r.p.m. to a gramophone record of the Jewish tenor, Leo Fuld, singing a sob¬ bing song of diaspora and homelessness—“Tell me where can I go? Every road is closed to me . . / ” Whether one understands it as flight or restlessness, as ancient punishment or promise, the compulsion to travel is at the heart of historical Jewishness. Wher¬ ever there is a Jew, there is a journey, and for a Jew to go in search of his roots is doubly Jewish. As Howard Jacobson sets off in search of his Eastern European roots, he does so not with the sentimental hope of repossessing the sensation of belonging, but fully expecting to repossess nothing. As the journey takes him via the Catskills, Manhattan, Tucson, L.A., Eilat, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Haifa, to say nothing of Stamford Hill and Llandudno —although there are shorter routes to Lithuania—he finds there is more to being Jewish than schmaltz and self-ridicule. Roots Schmoots is as fast, funny and furious as Howard Jacobson's fans would expect, but beneath its surface there is a profound and moving exploration of what it is to be a Jew in the late twentieth century. Howard Jacobson’s journey is the subject of an ac¬ claimed BBC/PBS documentary, “Roots Schmoots.” 0194 Roots ScLnioots BY THE SAME AUTHOR FICTION Coming from Behind Peeping Tom Redback The Very Model of a Man NON-FICTION Shakespeare’s Magnanimity (with Wilbur Sanders) In the Land of Oz Roots Sell moots Journeys Among Jews THE OVERLOOK PRESS WOODSTOCK • NEW YORK First published in 1994 by The Overlook Press Lewis Hollow Road Woodstock, New York 12498 Copyright © 1993 Howard Jacobson All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jacobson, Howard Roots Schmoots / Howard Jacobson, p. cm. 1. Jews—Identity. 2. Jacobson, Howard—Journeys I. Title. DS143.J323 1994 910.4'089924-dc20 93-31471 CIP ISBN: 0-87951-521-X First Edition To the memory of my father * ■
The list of books you might like
