gillpolack @ 2015-12-23T13:03:00
Thanks to Farah Mendlesohn posing the question for books in general, I found myself asking on Facebook about Australian or NZ children's books that have Jewish characters and are not about the Shoah. From the answers, I'm not the only one with a fudgy memory. A few good books have been recommended, some of which I knew about but had forgotten. I shall give it a few days in case other people's memories call forth more books and I shall expand from children's to YA and children's (for Goldie Alexander reminded me of a book of hers, and we'd talked about it last March, so I want it in my list). Once I have a list and have checked them to see if there are actually Jewish characters and they're not about the Shoah, I can put the list up here and on my other blog, if there's anyone interested.
This exercise reminds me of how much writing I don't have time to read. It also reminds me that, though the Jewish communities here are way big compared with my childhood (and in my childhood they were way big compared with my mother's childhood) we're still a quite small and often-connected minority. Goldie, for example, was a close friend of my late aunt, who was Michael Gawenda's sister. Morris Lurie was my cousin and Arnold Zable is a family connection (as I keep explaining, if you read Jewels and Ashes, my family member apparently married the guy who made a living as a carnival attraction). And so on. Except that I don't live in the borsht belt and never have, so the only person I know from this list is Goldie (my mother knows people - she is my go-to person for who is related to whom and how - except I just remembered and am adding this in, I knew Jean Holkner, for she taught my mother creative writing, and, of course, I know her grand-daughter! Two wonderful people. The Australian writing world is better for both of them.). This is one of the reasons I need to read all the books now, on top of the 200+ books I'm otherwise reading in January.
Another reason for reading is that I want to understand, now that we're finally getting a literature, what that literature looks like. I don't know if I'll write it up or not, it depends on if there's an interest. I will definitely blog a booklist if even one person wants it, however.
This exercise reminds me of how much writing I don't have time to read. It also reminds me that, though the Jewish communities here are way big compared with my childhood (and in my childhood they were way big compared with my mother's childhood) we're still a quite small and often-connected minority. Goldie, for example, was a close friend of my late aunt, who was Michael Gawenda's sister. Morris Lurie was my cousin and Arnold Zable is a family connection (as I keep explaining, if you read Jewels and Ashes, my family member apparently married the guy who made a living as a carnival attraction). And so on. Except that I don't live in the borsht belt and never have, so the only person I know from this list is Goldie (my mother knows people - she is my go-to person for who is related to whom and how - except I just remembered and am adding this in, I knew Jean Holkner, for she taught my mother creative writing, and, of course, I know her grand-daughter! Two wonderful people. The Australian writing world is better for both of them.). This is one of the reasons I need to read all the books now, on top of the 200+ books I'm otherwise reading in January.
Another reason for reading is that I want to understand, now that we're finally getting a literature, what that literature looks like. I don't know if I'll write it up or not, it depends on if there's an interest. I will definitely blog a booklist if even one person wants it, however.
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