The Reading Life Review - September 2018

September Authors 

By Rows, left to right

Row One

1. Machado de Assis -  Brazil - by consensus leading author, chronicler of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century

2. Orla McAlinden - Ireland - Author of The Flight of the Wren, an amazing debut novel as well as an award winning collection of short stories, The Accidental Wife

3. Abraham Karpinowitz - born Vilna, Lithuania, spends WW Two in Russia, in 1949 he moves to Israel.  Best remembered for his stories about Vilna.  Wrote in Yiddish 

4. Blume Lempel - born in the Ukraine, moves to Paris for then years, then in 1939 to New York City. Author of many great short stories.  She was fluent in English, Russian and French but she wrote in Yiddish to defy those who would destroy Jewish Culture.

Row 2 

1. Ida Fink. - born in Poland, after WW Two moves to Israel.  Prolific writer in Yiddish

2. Mavis Gallant - Born in Canada, moved at age 28 to France

3. Peter Chapman- born in London, author Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World. A must read for autodidactics

4. Ephraim Kaganovski (variations on spelling)- born Warsaw, spends Seven years in Post Revolutionary Russia then moves to Paris.  Best remembered for his stories about Warsaw Between The Wars. Wrote in Yiddish 

Row Three

1. Banana Yoshimoto - Japan. Prolific author

2. Rosa Palatnik - born in Lublin, Poland - after a stay in France moved to Rio de Janeiro. She was a very prolifc Yiddish language author.

3. Nina Lichtenstein - Denmark, author Seraphadic Women’s Voices: Out of North Africa.  New book Destined to be a classic

4. Sholem Aleichem- born in the Ukraine, then Russia, died in New York City. By far most famous now Yiddish writer.  His work was the source for Fiddler On the Roof.  I hope to begin reading much more of his work soon.

5. Shirley Hazzard. Born Australia, world traveler, died in New York City. Author The Great Fire, Transit of Venus and much more 

Row Four

1. Valerie Boyd - U.S.A - author of very good bio on Nora Zeale Hurston

2. Anzia Yezierska.- born in Poland, with her family as a child moves to New York State.  Very successful writer, sold a novel to Hollywood and became a screen writer.  Wrote in English 

3. Kate Grenville - Australia- author seven novels including the Secret River Trilogy, wonderful novels about early Australia 

4. Elizabeth McDonald.  Ireland. Author of marvelous Short Stories 

5. Sebastian Barry. Ireland. Highly regarded author.

6. Chava Rosenfarb (9 February 1923 – 30 January 2011) (Polish: Chawa Rosenfarb, Yiddish: חוה ראָזענפֿאַרב‎) was a Holocaust survivor and Jewish-Canadian author of Yiddish poetry and novels, a major contributor to post-World War II Yiddish Literature. Rosenfarb began writing poetry at the age of eight. Moved to Toronto after WW Two.   You will see her again.

Featured were 6 men and 13 women.

Eight are living, 11 not so much.

Half were featured on my blog for the first time.

Birth Countries 

Poland 6

Ireland 3

Ukraine 2

Australia 2

Canada 1

U.S.A 1

Japan 1

Denmark 1

Lithuania 1

Brazil 1

Because of the anti-immigrant hysteria gripping the U.S.A and much of Europe. I have begun to track Immigration by authors i feature.

All nine of the Yiddish language writers featured immigrated. Move or die were their options. 

Mavis Gallant and Shirley Hazzard left their homelands for their own reasons.

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Top visitor countries

U.S.A, The Philippines, India, Germany, Canada, Russia, Indonesia, France and the Ukraine 

Books I read but did not post upon.

1. Exile at Last:Selected Poems by Chava Rosenfarb 

2. The New Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten

3. Born to Kvetch:Yiddish Language and Culture in All its Moods by Michael Wex

4. One for the Books by Joe Queenan 

5. Seraphadic Women’s Voices: Out of North Africa. By Nina Lichtenstein

Future Plans.  I will be doing a post on my reading plans for the next few months soon.

I offer my thanks to Max u for his kind provision of Amazon Gift Cards

To those who leave comments, you help keep me going.

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