Show 4D Standard-Examine- Sunday June 5 1988 r HorizonsBooks Jewish author talks admirably about the Three Stooges 10th Singer collection not too predictable Simple elegant stories seem to be parables doing their obligatory years as writers I never had ORLANDO Fla — Jack Mo- any desire to write a book yet it line is an irreverent rabbi full of came easy to me” collection The book is a yarmulke gags and circumcision Jewish-re- such on he brief but makes the of following spoofs jokes remark in all seriousness lated subjects as chopped liver“As a boy it was a source of BarBat Mitzvah Yiddish : Nagila” great pleasure to me to know the Of “Hava Nagila” Moline Three Stooges were Jewish” Maybe some Jews would rather writes: “Every catered affair Moline talk about Albert Einstein which has Jew-isguests must put than Moe Larry and Curly — at up with this vestige of Hebrew least in the context of towering School Jewish accomplishment The book includes Moline’s list But Moline author of “Growing of “People Who Shouldn’t Be? Up Jewish” (Penguin $495) is Jews But We’ll Never Get Rid oft more apt to talk admiringly of Them Because of Their Names” the Stooges the Marx Brothers On that list are Howard Cosell Burns Jack and George Henry Kissinger and Ed Koch Benny Moline has a companion list of other Jews who have enriched American comedy “People Who Ought to Be Jews’ “I was disappointed to learn But Aren’t — But We Can? that Laurel and Hardy were not Hope” These include Bill CosbyJewish” he said Kurt Vonnegut Jr and Bishop' n The book is a follow-u- p Desmond Tutu whose' con to another Penguin Paperback “GrowMoline handicaps as a “long shot” ing Up Catholic” Both are meant to amuse Though Moline is enough of a During a tour to promote the wise guy to have written such book Moline showed up for an material he’s capable of serious n interview in a jacket reflection on humor especially in’ sunglasses multicolored shirt and Jewish life He notes that Jews have used bright red suspenders His opening line: “Your directions were humor to stay sane in a world in terrible” Line two: “I got here which they have so often beent mistreated The large number of? anyway” n It’s the wise-gu- y comedians is(1 aspect of his personality that qualified Moline he theorizes a reflection of to write “Growing Up Jewish” willingness to play the The task was suggested by his clown in order to be accepted by cousin Karen Moline a literary the larger society Moline now the rabbi for a agent who knew his sense of humor and knew that “Growing Up congregation in Alexandria Va' Catholic” had been a hit has reservations about two Moline wrote the book in a year contemporary Jewish1 and a half working mainly in the comedians Woody Allen and? ' I evening and on his days off as Mel Brooks rabbi of a congregation in Dan“I see every Woody Allen movie and read everything he writes-anbury Conn He’s a little apologetic about the experience it’s wonderful” Moline said? “It was painless All these “but he’s the worst example of? friends of mine were out there Jewish lifestyle j By SAM HODGES Orlando Sentinel THE DEATH OF METHUSELAH AND OTHER STORIES By Isaac Bashevis Singer Straus Giroux 244 lip which formed a sort of horse smile The miracle worker shuddered and murmured an incantation which made the driver realize how dangerous this passenger was” In its concreteness the passage is evidence of what critic Irving Howe — appropriately quoted on the dustjacket — identifies as a quality of Singer’s work in which “everything trembles with the breath of actuality” Singer’s stories are inevitably engaged in a quest to understand the limits of human nature especially its darker side In “The Trap” a woman named Regina marries a humorless precise man named Boris Among other problems their sexual life becomes unsustainable Boris suggests bringing into their household a bright young nephew Douglas Regina says to the unnamed narrator “‘My first reaction when I heard the news was joy I could not stand the loneliness anymore God must have heard my prayers I thought But it soon became clear to me that Boris had contrived the whole plan in his conspiratorial manner Men like Boris are bound by their nature to make plans way in advance and execute them precisely They forget nothing Even though he excoriated Stalin and called him a y Asian and a Genghis Khan' of the twentieth century I often thought Boris was a Stalin himself We’ll never know what people like these think They always weave spiderwebs of vengeance Did Boris ?’” bring this boy to tempt me The answer to her question is yes and Regina not only responds to the temptation but falls into the trap Boris has set for her Imprisoned by values she cannot escape she leaps from a window in desperation The larger meanings implicit in the tangled relationships between men and women wind through many of the stories perhaps nowhere more so than in “A Peephole at the Gate” The narrator is a Yiddish writer like Singer himself invited to South America On the ship taking him to Argentina he pages $1795 Isaac Bashevis Singer's 10th collection of stories is not what we normally expect from short fiction but then Singer has never been a predictable writer Short on conventional characterization and plot the stories here seem because of their elegant simplicity to be parables But the similarity ends there A parable conks ou over the head with its religious or moral message Singer’s stories — while they have a definite purpose in dramatizing the eternal conflict be- tween good and evil — are tales of subtlety humor and often disillusionment The disillusionment however is usually overwhelmed by a human will to fight on Most of the stories unfold as memories and lessons from the distant and mysterious past but they are strangely contemporary And although they are about Jews and what it means to be Jewish they transcend their specifics Anyone ought to be able to identify with the plights of the people who wander through Singer’s pages And in their ability to evoke a scene in a minimum of words the stories are models for the idea that less is more Consider for example the opening paragraph of the first story “The Jew from Babylon” about an aging Polish faith healer “The Jew from Babylon as the miracle worker was called traveled all night in a wagon that was taking him from Lublin to the village of Tarnigrod The driver a small man with broad shoulders was silent throughout the journey He nodded and cracked his whip at the horse which walked slowly step by step The old nag would cock her ears and look back with large eyes that expressed human curiosity and reflected the light of the full moon She seemed to wonder at her strange passenger dressed in a velvet coat lined with fur a fur hat on his head She even lifted her black upper sharp-edge- d well-chos- Best sellers Here are the best sellers for the week ending June 3 compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide Paperback mass market Presumed Innocent Scott 1 Turow Warner Books $495 2 Misery Stephen King NALSignet $495 3 The Haunted Mesa Louis L’Amour Bantam $450 4 The Sisters Pat Booth Bal-lanti- ne $495 5 Fine Things Danielle Steel Dell $495 6 Flight of the Old Dog Dale Brown Berkley $495 7 Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency Douglas Adams Pocket Books $450 ! 8 Over the Edge Jonathan Kellerman NALSignet $495 9 The Ladies of Missalonghi Colleen McCullough Avon $395 blood-thirst- Trade 1 Publishers Weekly en Something Under the Bed Is Drooling: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection Bill Watter-so- n Andrews & McMeel $695 2 The Closing of the Ameri- can Mind Allan Bloom Simon & SchusterTouchstone $595 3 You Can Heal Your Life Louise L Hay Hay House $10 4 Love Medicine & Miracles Bernie S Siegel Harper & RowPerennial Library $895 5 Dianetics Revised Edition L Ron Hubbard Bridge Publications $495 6 Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know ED Hirsch Jr Vintage $695 7 The Road Less Traveled M Scott Peck MD & Schuster $995 8 Calvin and Hobbes Bill Watterson Andrews & McMeel $695 9 Life and Death in Shanghai Nicn Cheng Penguin $895 Touch-stoneSim- Hardcover fiction 1 Danielle Zoya 96-pa- - and-“Ha- torture-by-accordio- meets a lonely passenger another displaced Pole who tells him his life’s story beginning with the deceit of his onetime bride-to-b- e Aging also is a constant thread throughout the book most obviously in the title - story when Methuselah aged 969 wants to die out of disgust at the world just as God is about to cleanse it with the flood and the old man’s grandson Noah is building the ark Methuselah as most of the other characters in the stories gets his wish and God is not particularly sanguine about the outcome of the human race despite his best efforts to rectify his earlier mistakes: “Man would manage somehow to crawl upon the surface of the earth forward and backward until God’s covenant with him ended and man’s name in the book of life was erased forever” If that is a dismal vision it is also an accurate representation of the potential fate of man in the last quarter of the century Singer is 83 now He has been widely and justifiably honored for the quality of his work and his lifelong devotion to it These stories sometimes lack Singer’s earlier vigor but they are no less wise One can hope that their author lasts longer than Methuselah He cannot of course but his work just might Knight-Ridde- 2 The Icariis Agenda Robert Ludlum Random House $1995 3 Rock Star Jackie Collins Simon & Schuster $1995 4 The Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe Farrar Straus & Giroux $1995 ich 2 te Nonfiction For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington Donald T Regan Harcourt Brace Jovanov- 1 Jewish-America- s highly-acclaime- d William Robertson Newspapers $2195 1 The 3 Cholesterol Cure Robert Kowalski Harper & Row $1595 4 Moonwalk Michael Jack-so- n Doubleday $1595 5 Trump: The Art of the Deal Donald J Trump with Tony Knopf $1895 Dela-cor- blue-jea- A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes Stephen W Hawkins Bantam $ 895 5 Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez 6 People Like Us Dominick Dunne Crown $1995 7 Tapestry Belva Plain $1895 8 Freaky Deaky Elmore Leonard MorrowArbor House $1895 9 Treasure Clive Cussler Simon & Schuster $1895 r ver--sio- Schwartz Random House $1995 6 Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive Harvey Mackay Morrow $1495 7 Love Medicine & Miracles Bernie S Siegel Harper & Row $1795 8 Washington Goes to War David Brinkley Knopf $1895 9 1999: Victory Without War Richard M Nixon Simon & Schuster $1995 The weight lossprofessionals ROY CENTER SOUTH OGDEN 1942 W 5700 S 776-245- 3965 Adams 0 392-470- NORTH DIET CENTER 1690 N Wash Blvd KAYSVILLE N Main 348 Mt Vista Professional Bldg 782-260- 0 Village Square Shopping Center 0 546-049- 1 j 9 iSpi fjsr Steel Dclacorte $1995 Get a salon discount certificate with any Men’s Department purchase 25 OFF don't usually rely on others to tell me how I summei discover die star student in your child This summer m hi "4 two hours a week S lean Learning Center w ill bring out the confident su essful student u ithin vuiir son or daughter It's fun and chi!iei'ru Vk about our guarantee Diagnostic Testing Indiv unsized Instriu tion Personal Attention Materials I tuque Reward Svsteni Now enrolling fi r Reading Math Nud Skills A’et'hra Sylvan Kan Readiness CLEAR Writing"1 Learning I should look But when somebody told me I could get a 25° o discount on the regular price ot a man's shampoo style and cut with any purchase in the JCPenney Men's Department I had to listen up Now I have a total fashion look Introductory offer! 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