Sing With Me at the Edge of Paradise: Stories

by Joe Baumann

"A collection of short stories surrounding queer men of various ages trying to temper their expectations of the world with their lived experience"--

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Jewish, Anthologies, Queer, LGBT, Adult

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 14, 2023

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh gosh you guys. Why aren't more of you reading this book?!

The first sentence of the book's description says it better than I can: The sixteen stories in this collection surround queer men of various ages―teenagers, young adults, men in middle age―trying to temper their expectations of the world with their lived experience. Using the lens of the bizarre and fantastic, these stories explore discontent, discomfort, and discovery.

The stories all contain people in slightly strange and extraordinary situations. A man who can slip through walls begins to pull his boyfriend in with him, another who can identify other queers by the blue glow eminating from their hands, and a lover who regrows his grieving boyfriend's recently deceased father in his backyard. Houses randomly vanish into thin air, taking the families who are inside with them. Heads of households begin to grow fruits and vegetables under their skin when the ground can no longer produce them. Garden of Eden's begin to appear in unexpected locations, complete with their own Trees of Knowledge.

In Joe's deft hands, we are thrust straight into the heart of each of these tender and somewhat fantasical stories, sharing the characters' fears and confusion, suffering their rejections, experiencing their joys...

It was just wow. The blurring of reality and fantasy was just * chef's kiss *. An early favorite for me, and if you're into queer magical realism, you've got to trust me, it will be a favorite of yours as well.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baumann has a really lovely prose style and intriguing fabulist concepts. But many of the stories feel too similar in their narrative arcs (several sets of stories here hew pretty closely to one another without offering much variation in the final destination and what the story prompts readers to think about), and most of them use the "unearned literary ambiguity ending" that I find frustrating rather than awestriking or poignant. But I want to read more from Baumann because what is on the page is indeed interesting; it's been months since I enjoyed a short story collection all the way through like this because so many the ones I've tried lately have been boring, and I never felt bored here!

3.5/5

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to be positive here but I truly could not come up with something I enjoyed or will remember from this book. Not because I hated it, but because it was just boring.

My wanting to be positive is merely because the stories reminded me of the days when I had a writing group to workshop ideas and critique each other's work. The versions found here would definitely be the unedited drafts, though, and I could not let myself sink into any of them.

The settings were mundane, the characters outside of the narrator were all mostly the same in how they came across, the narration itself had no variety to keep me focused or interested, and the few speculative elements seemed wildly at odds with everything else happening. Were I in a writing group, I'd say the author needed to either go all in on the supernatural and absurdist, or find the unsettling atmosphere in the purely mundane. The combination of both ends up neutralizing what could have been interesting in each theme. If combining both sides was the intent, then the stories come off as half-baked, at least to me.

[Kathie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.6/5 - I was left wanting more, but not necessarily in a good way.

While I do believe that a short story says as much through what it omits as what it explicitly says, I think Baumann leaves almost a bit too much to the imagination. Sometimes I just want to know what happened to a set of characters or how a certain magical conceit is fleshed out, but the story ends just as it's getting good.

I loved Baumann's prose and his creative set-ups, but ultimately I felt like I read a bunch of promising expositions with too-soon endings.

[Scott Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queer people fit well in tales of magical realism. Baumann’s strange worlds are incredibly enticing and most of these stories left me wanting more.

[Christy Copeland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It truly brought these biblical women to life

[Miriam Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toledo native Rabbi Marla J. Feldman compiles a fascinating collection of biographical sketches of Biblical Women from the Old Testament. Written for readers with all levels of Jewish / biblical knowledge, this is a must-have for anyone interested in the lives of women in the biblical era.

Feldman brings together verses from the Torah (the five books of Moses), Midrash, and Biblical commentaries to flesh out the lives and accomplishments of ten women including Keturah, Leah & Rachel, Miriam, Pharaoh's daughters. Using some contemporary and some traditional commentaries, these women come to life along with lessons gleaned from their place within the Torah. Each chapter stands on its own. The author, through the sources, provides talking, discussion, and thinking points on our lives today.

Each woman's life is presented in four stages, through biblical verse, through Modern Midrash, Classical Commentary and Midrash, and then the author's Commentary or POV. The biographical sketch is drawn partly from the texts and partly from context, and the author, sparingly, uses fictional license to make the woman's life relatable today.

This is the perfect text for a year-long study group, for one-on-one study, for sermons, and for casual reading. The author provides footnotes to the original sources for more in-depth study and a bibliography for expanding one's reading list.

Thanks to the author for providing an ARC to read and review. It was the perfect read / study for the High Holy Days and promises to be wonderful inspiration for study throughout the year.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Literary short stories

I found this book more interesting than Hot Lips but still not completely fulfilling. There are similar supernatural / superhuman themes, and likewise, not all of the stories (in fact most) arrive at real conclusions. Because of his novel, I remain a fan of this author but I don’t think his short stories are for me.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

There has been an explosion of midrash – stories that explain or amplify the tales found in the Bible – particularly ones that focus on the voices of biblical women. As Rabbi Marla J. Feldman notes in “Biblical Women Speak: Hearing Their Voices Through New and Ancient Midrash” (The Jewish Publication Society), there are two primary types of midrash: one explores the legalistic aspects of Judaism, while the other focuses on the narrative part of the text and seeks to explain the actions of the characters. A great deal of contemporary midrash looks at the biblical women whose names and thoughts were generally ignored in the text. Feldman not only offers her own midrash on 10 biblical stories, but also explores traditional rabbinic versions.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...

[Christina Everhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal! This was my first introduction to midrash, and I will definitely be seeking out more to read.