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Melvin Jules Bukiet

Auteur de Neurotica: Jewish Writers on Sex

11+ oeuvres 369 utilisateurs 5 critiques

A propos de l'auteur

Melvin Jules Bukiet is the author of five other works of fiction, most recently "Signs & Wonders". He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College & lives in New York City. (Bowker Author Biography)

Œuvres de Melvin Jules Bukiet

Neurotica: Jewish Writers on Sex (1999) — Directeur de publication — 86 exemplaires
Nothing Makes You Free: Writings by Descendants of Jewish Holocaust Survivors (2002) — Directeur de publication; Contributeur — 66 exemplaires
Strange Fire: A Novel (2001) 46 exemplaires
After (1996) 44 exemplaires
Scribblers on the Roof: Contemporary Jewish Fiction (2006) — Directeur de publication — 30 exemplaires
Undertown (2013) 27 exemplaires
Signs and Wonders: A Novel (1999) 23 exemplaires
A Faker's Dozen: Stories (2003) 10 exemplaires
Stories of an imaginary childhood (1991) 10 exemplaires
Sandman's Dust (1985) 2 exemplaires

Oeuvres associées

The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (1998) — Contributeur — 131 exemplaires
The Jewish Writer (1998) — Contributeur — 52 exemplaires
Who We Are: On Being (and Not Being) a Jewish American Writer (2005) — Contributeur — 26 exemplaires
The Review of Contemporary Fiction 1996: The Future of Fiction (1996) — Contributeur — 21 exemplaires
Promised Lands (2010) — Contributeur — 11 exemplaires

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Critiques

Melvin Jules Bukiet writes in his introduction to Nothing Makes You Free:

"How do you cope when the most important events in your life occurred before you were born? What does this do to your sense of time? Of authenticity? As they were ghosts in history, you’re a ghost in your own safe little suburban bedroom with cowboy lampshades. All you know is that you’ve received a tainted inheritance, secondhand knowledge of the worst event in history.“

Bukiet has compiled an anthology of writing (both fiction and non-fiction) by what he terms the “Second Generation” or 2G, that is, children of Holocaust Survivors. As someone who has read 2G works since Helen Epstein’s 1979 book “Children of the Holocaust” and obsessively searched out others such as Thane Rosenbaum, Art Spiegelman, Carl Friedman and Yossi Klein Halevi, I was eager to read this book.

The works of 2G writers are often angrier, more strident and more acerbic than those of their parents. There is a sense of desperate futility in that rage because many 2G’s were subconsciously attempting to “save” their parents retroactively – and there are definitely trends in how that was done – much of which is conveyed in the 2G literature. With a few exceptions, the parents, the actual survivors (including the ones who wrote about the Holocaust) seemed more sorrowful, sometimes bitter but seldom enraged. They were also determined, at least superficially, to establish themselves and to rebuild their lives. It was, I think their way of proving that they were the victors, not (only) the victims. The children, were living, breathing proof of their victory.

What I particularly liked about the anthology was its international scope - many of the included works are translations. Some of the pieces are quite moving, but on the whole, I do prefer these authors' full-length works; they tend to be more nuanced. Most of the pieces convey the underlying paranoia and suspicion imparted by the parents. That paradoxical combination of suspicion and their parent's determination to build (at least the facade of) a new and thoroughly ordinary life fundamentally defined who the 2G’s were and who they became. If there is a running theme in the works in this anthology it is growing up with this paradox.
… (plus d'informations)
1 voter
Signalé
plt | Jul 19, 2015 |
 
Signalé
suziannabean | Apr 2, 2013 |
Re-read so as to remember for book group next month. Saw more themes & appreciated stories more than on first reading. Quality did not seem as divergent as at first reading.
½
 
Signalé
suesbooks | 1 autre critique | Jul 22, 2009 |
short stories of varying quality. some, like the seven fat brides, are like old fables, which are just ok. some, like looking for the answers and the eight day, were somewhat pointless. many were about sad relationships, such as gifts and elvis, axl, and me. my favorite were pu-239, the hall of meteorites, stone, what must i say to you, mrs saunders writes to the world, and mr. mitochondria. they're mostly realistic and provide characters to ponder.
½
 
Signalé
suesbooks | 1 autre critique | Jun 29, 2009 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
11
Aussi par
6
Membres
369
Popularité
#65,264
Évaluation
½ 3.3
Critiques
5
ISBN
28
Langues
3

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