|
|
 |
 Institute Publications |
|
Failure's Opposite: Listening to A.M. Klein
A.M. Klein has remained an enduring but elusive presence in the Canadian literary consciousness since his death in 1972. Klein's legacy has been mixed, his literary achievement sometimes overshadowed by his reclusiveness and withdrawal
from the literary world.
Failure's Opposite presents a fresh perspective on Klein's reception and legacy, exploring why he has remained a compelling figure for critics and readers. His experimentalism drew upon strong traditions and fluency in several languages – English, French, Yiddish, and Hebrew – allowing him to develop a multilingual, modernist Jewish voice that is a touchstone for understanding Canada's multicultural identity. His struggle with the emotional and historical dimensions of diaspora is of considerable importance throughout his work and is investigated through the lenses of translation, voice, and his relationship to other Jewish writers. Contributors also re-evaluate Klein's connection to Montreal and the original ways in which he captured the atmosphere of his "jargoning city."
Failure's Opposite reflects the many ways A.M. Klein is being remade, refashioned, and reconstructed in the twenty-first century, both as a bridge to the past and a model for contemporary critical and creative work in Canadian literature.
Norman Ravvin, chair of the Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies, is a fiction and non-fiction writer and editor. His books include A House of Words: Jewish Writing, Identity, and Memory.
Sherry Simon is the author of numerous books, including Translating Montreal: Episodes in the Life of a Divided City. She teaches in the French Studies Department at Concordia University in Montreal.
The
Rich Man
 |
by Henry Kreisel
Introduction by Norman Ravvin, Concordia University Chair of Canadian Jewish
Studies Fiction/General
ISBN 0-88995-339-2
paper • 5 x 7 1/2”
296 pages
CDN 18.95
|
The Rich Man
by Henry Kreisel
Introduction by Norman Ravvin,
A Classic of Canadian Jewish Literature Back in Print
About The Rich Man
This new
edition of a classic Canadian Jewish novel tells
the story of Jacob Grossman, a middle-aged immigrant
tailor who travels from Toronto to pre-World War
II Europe. The novel’s action opens in 1935,
with a striking portrait of Toronto’s working-class
Spadina Avenue district. Kreisel’s narrative
leap of genius is his depiction of Grossman’s
decision to return to reacquaint himself with his
family in Vienna.Wearing a new white suit, an extravagance
bought especially for the trip, he is mistaken
for a rich man, and the charade he undertakes to
maintain this image complicates an already difficult
visit. Grossman finds Vienna transformed by the
rise of Nazism and the slow, inexorable deterioration
of Austria’s prominent Jewish community.
Kreisel’s insights into the forces that would
lead the world to war are uniquely revealing. His
portrait of prewar Jewish life in Europe and Canada
helps us better understand the oncoming Holocaust.
Henry Kreisel’s The
Rich Man was among the
first books by a Jewish writer on Jewish themes
to be published in Canada.
About Henry Kreisel
From prisoner in an Allied internment
camp on Canadian soil to Officer of the Order of
Canada, Henry Kreisel (1922–91) wrote from a depth of experience.
Born in Vienna, he fled the Anschluss, only to
be imprisoned by the British as an “enemy
alien” and shipped to Canada. Despite this,
Dr. Kreisel completed his education and rose in
the ranks of the University of Alberta, joining
the Faculty of Arts in 1947 and becoming the Chair
of English (1961–67) and Comparative Literature
(1967–87). From 1970–75 he also served
as the University of Alberta’s Vice-President
(Academic). A highly respected teacher, scholar
and novelist, he received the Order of Canada in
1988 for his contributions to Canadian literature.
With a new introduction by series editor Norman
Ravvin.
Published by Red Deer
Press •
www.reddeerpress.com
Distributed by Fitzhenry &Whiteside
195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario
L3R 4T8
Toll-Free Tel: 1-800-387-9776
|
The
Canadian Jewish Studies Reader
Winner of a 2006 Canadian Jewish Book Award
 |
Edited by Richard Menkis
and Norman Ravvin.
ISBN 0-88995-295-7
paperback
496 pages
$24.95 (CDN)
 Click
here to download details
|
The Canadian Jewish Studies
Reader
Edited by Richard Menkis and Norman Ravvin.
Canadian Jewish Studies is a
young field, often in the shadow of its American
older sister. In The Canadian Jewish
Studies Reader, editors Richard
Menkis and Norman Ravvin demonstrate that what’s
going on in Canada, critically and artistically,
is every bit as interesting as the work being
done in the United States. Essays included here
address literature, visual arts, historical writing
on such issues as the Holocaust, feminist research,
ethnic studies, among other fields. Their aim
is to address the way these different areas contribute
to the way we understand Canadian Jewish identity.
Among the subjects examined in
detail are writers Matt Cohen and Eli Mandel;
early Jewish heroes and their relation to mainstream
Canadian figureheads; the role of Yiddish in Canadian
Jewish identity; postwar developments in ethnic
relations; scandals like the little-known Yom
Kippur Balls; the role of Jews in Quebec history
and culture; and much more.
The volume also includes exciting
visuals, for which the editors provide careful
descriptions. This book will be of interest to
anyone who cares about the way Canadian communities
define themselves, both on their own terms and
in relation to the mainstream.
Distributed in Canada
and the United States by Fitzhenry & Whiteside,
1800-387-9776
Published by Red Deer
Press,
(403) 220-4334
www.reddeerpress.com
|
The
Little Underworld of Edison Wiese
 |
Author: Cary Fagan
ISBN: 0-88947-413-3
Price: CAN $9.95 |
A waiter
who aspires to greatness must make it the sole
occupation of his life. We are here to be minor
players in the dramas of others, not to dwell
on our own. It is a sacrifice, but worth everything
to make.
Edison Wiese's
thoughts are evidence of his romantic delusions.
Working in a café in an underground mall
beneath a sixty-three story building, he dreams
of making a difference in the lives of his hurrying
customers. But one New Year's Eve, his café
becomes the last refuge for those with nowhere
else to go. And for a brief moment, it seems that
something extraordinary might happen.
This is the
first title in a series devoted to Canadian Jewish
writing, published by Hungry I Books
44
pages
Published by: Hungry I Books
Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 8760
E-mail: hungryibooks@hotmail.com
Mail: 1590 Dr. Penfield Avenue, Room 215, Montreal,
QC, H3G 1C5.
|
|
Mordecai
& Me : An Appreciation of a Kind
 |
by Joel Yanofsky
ISBN 0-88995-266-3
CAN $34.95
USA $24.95 |
When Mordecai
Richler died, there was a tremendous and perhaps
unexpected outpouring of affection for him. It
was as if the adulation Richler had always rejected
- from readers and critics, Canadian nationalists
and Canadian Jews who claimed him as their own
- had finally found its way free. In Mordecai
& Me, Joel Yanofsky offers a personal,
sometimes irreverent and sometimes affectionate
look at the man.
Proposing
that Richler was the most interesting character
Richler himself never wrote about, Yanofsky provides
a critical appreciation of Richler's career, as
well as a memoir from the point of view of someone
who was a colleague, critic and fan of Richler's
work for three decades. The appearance of Mordecai
& Me marks the first extended examination
of Richler's sometimes misunderstood legacy.
Hardcover, 336 pages
Published by Red Deer Press
Distributed by Fitzhenry &Whiteside
www.fitzhenry.ca
Toll-Free Tel: 1-800-387-9776 |
| |
Not
Quite Mainstream: Canadian Jewish Short Stories
Photograph
courtesy of Edward Hillel |
Edited by Norman Ravvin
ISBN 0-88995-246-9
CAN $18.95
USA $16.95 |
Not Quite Mainstream
Stories brings together a substantial collection
of Canadian Jewish short fiction, in a gathering
of stories that fulfill the demands of the form
with energy, grace, and often humour. But Not
Quite Mainstream also provides a sense
of the short story's development in Jewish Canada,
from the early works, of Yaacov Zipper and Chava
Rosenfarb (translated from Yiddish), to the
recent works of young writers such as Cary Fagan,
Claire Rothman, and Robyn Sarah. Writers better
known as novelists, such as Matt Cohen and Mordecai
Richler, and those better known for their poetry
and journalism, including Tom Wayman, Ken Sherman,
and Elaine Kalman Naves, fill out our sense
of the tradition. The stories collected here
are to be savoured for their craft and appreciated
for the way they represent how we have addressed,
avoided, or rethought Canadian Jewish identity.
246 pages
Published by Red Deer Press
Distributed by Fitzhenry &Whiteside
www.fitzhenry.ca
Toll-Free Tel: 1-800-387-9776 |
| |
Afterimage
: Evocations of the Holocaust in Contemporary
Canadian Arts and Literature
 |
Edited by Loren Lerner
ISBN 0-88947-390-0
CAN/USA $30.00 |
Afterimage:
Evocations of the Holocaust in Contemporary Canadian
Arts grew out of the exhibition and conference
held at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre.
The publication consists of two parts. The first
considers the exhibition Afterimage, which included
works inspired by memories of the Shoah as expressed
through the personal voices of women artists who
were born near the end or after World War II,
and were affected by the war and the Holocaust.
The artists include are Sorel Cohen, Katja Macleod
Kessin, Mindy Yan Miller, Marie-Jeanne Musiol,
Wendy Oberlander, Sylvia Safdie, Yvonne Singer,
and Marion Wagschal.
The second
part of the publication is a collection of essays
and creative writings. Visual and performing artists,
creative writers and cultural historians were
invited to the conference to consider the impact
of the Holocaust on recent Canadian art and literature.
The diversity of the presentations, which included
scholarly papers, video screenings and literary
readings, is reflected in these artistic, academic,
and personal writings. The authors are Doug Beardsley,
Lisa Marielle Bleyer, Irena Eisler, Tibor Egervari,
Gary Evans, Linda Rimer, Reesa Greenberg, Katja
MacLeod Kessin, Loren Lerner, Bernard Lévy,
Claudine Majzels, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Norman
Ravvin, Régine Robin, Yvonne Singer, Judith
Thompson, and Belarie Zatzman.
Afterimage
is the first book of its kind to consider Holocaust
Studies with a Canadian focus on arts and literature.
Loren Lerner
is Associate Professor in the Department of Art
History at, Concordia
University.
269 pages
Available through Hungry I
Books
E-mail: hungryibooks@hotmail.com |
| |
Of
Related Interest... |
| |
Language Acts: Anglo-Québec Poetry, 1976 to the 21st Century
|
Edited by Jason Camlot and Todd Swift
|
Language Acts brings together twenty provocative essays on the state of English-language poetry in Québec since 1976. Born and raised during this historically resonant period of Trudeauism, organized Québecois nationalism, language legislation, and profound demographic and cultural change, Anglo-Québec poetry has come of age in the 21st century as a literature with its own distinct arguments about itself, and its own poetical acts in language. Language Acts features essays on many important, even canonical, figures such as Robert Allen, Anne Carson, Leonard Cohen, Louis Dudek, D.G. Jones, Irving Layton, Michael Harris, Erin Mouré, David McGimpsey, Robyn Sarah, and Peter Van Toorn, and on a wide range of poetry activities including those of the Véhicule Poets and the Montreal Spoken Word scene. It includes Norman Ravvin's essay "Imaginary Traditions: Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen and the Rest of the Montreal Poets." This is the first critical collection of its kind to appear in over forty years and will set the terms used to discuss English language poetry in Québec for years to come.
About the Editors:
Jason Camlot is the author of two collections of poetry, The Animal Library and Attention All Typewriters. His poems and critical essays have appeared widely in journals and anthologies including New American Writing, Postmodern Culture and English Literary History. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford and is Associate Professor of English at Concordia University.
Todd Swift is the author of three critically acclaimed poetry collections, Budavox, Café Alibi, and Rue du Regard. He is the editor of Poetry Nation, 100 Poets Against the War, and Babylon Burning. Since 2004, he has been the Oxfam GB Poet in Residence. Born in Montreal, Swift lives in London, England.
Essays; ISBN-10: 1-55065-225-7 / ISBN-13: 978-1-55065-225-3
CAN $22.95; 5½ × 8½; paper; 466 pages; 4 appendices
Published by Véhicule Press, www.vehiculepress.com
Distributed in Canada by Lit Distco / 800.591.6250 / orders@litdistco.ca
Distributed in US by Independent Publishers Group / 800.888.4741 / orders@ipgbook.com
|
| |
| |
Through
the Eyes of the Eagle: The Early Montreal Yiddish
Press (1907-1916)
|
Translated by David Rome
Edited and introduced by Pierre Anctil
ISBN 0-55065-148-X
CAN $18.95
|
The output
of the Yiddish press published in Montreal, starting
in 1907, sheds a bright light on the mass migration
of East European Jews to the city at the beginning
of the twentieth century. In the period approximately
ten years following the appearance of the first
Yiddish paper, Der Keneder Odler (The Canadian
Eagle), Montreal Jews developed a dense network
of religious, cultural and benevolent institutions.
The number of Yiddish speakers at that time was
increasing very rapidly in certain neighbourhoods
in the city, and for the first time, one could
speak of a visible Jewish community.
Translated into English
for the first time by historian David Rome (1910-1996),
and edited by Pierre Anctil, these selections
from the early Montreal Yiddish press offer
a rare glimpse of the forces at play in the
community during its formative period. They
also afford the reader a sense of the intense
emotions that the Jewish newcomers grappled
with. Writing in Der Keneder Odler, Yiddish-speaking
immigrants reflected on their situation, made
plans for the future, and even laughed at themselves
in a unique and humorous vein. The Montreal
Yiddish press at the time also contained exceptional
descriptions of important strikes in the garment
business, Yiddish theatre at the Monument National
and even French Canada as seen through Jewish
eyes.
David Rome was the Director
of the Jewish Public Library from 1953 to 1972.
He became the National Archivist and then historian
of the Canadian Jewish Congress until his death
in 1996. His last years were devoted to the
compilation and translation of articles from
Yiddish sources.
Pierre Anctil has translated
from Yiddish into French the memoirs of Israel
Medres, Simon Belkin, and Hirsch Wolofsky. He
is currently President of the Institut québécois
d’études sur la culture juive and
Associate Professor in the Department of History
at the Université du Québec à
Montréal.
This volume is illustrated
with archival photographs selected by Janice Rosen,
Director of the Canadian Jewish Congress National
Archives and editorial consultant.
186 pages
Distributed by Véhicule
Press
E-mail: vp@vehiculepress.com
Website:www.vehiculepress.com
|
|
|
| |
|
|
