eShop USA > Books > Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.)
Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.)
List Price: $13.95Price: $4.78 You Save: $9.17 (66%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 439.109
EAN: 9780061132179
ISBN: 0061132179
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: August 01, 2006
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: August 15, 2006
Studio: Harper Perennial
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review: A delightful excursion through the Yiddish language, the culture it defines and serves, and the fine art of complaint
Throughout history, Jews around the world have had plenty of reasons to lament. And for a thousand years, they've had the perfect language for it. Rich in color, expressiveness, and complexity, Yiddish has proven incredibly useful and durable. Its wonderful phrases and idioms impeccably reflect the mind-set that has enabled the Jews of Europe to survive a millennium of unrelenting persecution . . . and enables them to kvetch about it!
Michael Wex—professor, scholar, translator, novelist, and performer—takes a serious yet unceasingly fun and funny look at this remarkable kvetch-full tongue that has both shaped and has been shaped by those who speak it. Featuring chapters on curse words, food, sex, and even death, he allows his lively wit and scholarship to roam freely from Sholem Aleichem to Chaucer to Elvis.
Perhaps only a khokhem be-layle (a fool, literally a "sage at night," when there's no one around to see) would care to pass up this endearing and enriching treasure trove of linguistics, sociology, history, and folklore—an intriguing appreciation of a unique and enduring language and an equally fascinating culture.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - great book
This is a great book; I was expecting just a fairly usual compendium of Yiddishisms, but Wex has shown how language is related to the philosophy behind the language, and how Yiddish is a window on the worldview of the Jews in their period of exile. But not as a dry academic treatise; at times I was, really literally, laughing out loud.
Rating:  - Mad Genius
Only a mad genius could create a work like Born to Kvetch. This book is a potpourris of just about everything but the kitchen sink. A rumination on the language and culture of Yiddish, Wex takes his time translating the Yiddish mindset in hilarious English prose, weighing the two languages against each other with examples from Shakespeare, the Bible,American TV, Yiddish fiction, newspapers, translations of the Bible. His deep knowledge of religious and popular culture shows through in his unlikely ... Read More
Rating: - You want Yiddish? I'll give you Yiddish!
Is the man a genius or what?
There is so much wit, wisdom and brilliant insight in this book that I am in awe of Wex's accomplishment. I have lived with Yiddish since I was a child. Wex has a very deep grasp of the neshomeh, the soul of the language and of Ashkenazi Jewry. I laughed so hard as I read and reread passages from Born to kvetch. The laughter of recognition.
Often I would find myself stopping and shouting, Ot azoy! ( Right on!) Finally, someone has not only gotten it but ... Read More
Rating: - It's like old times
Reading has been limited so far, but even in small bits it's enjoyable and memorable.
Rating: - Born to Kvetch by Wex
Kvetch is the art of complaining. The book is written in Yiddish rather
than standard German. The author explains how Jews take their Yiddish
with them into Slavic countries. Acceptance of Talmudic authority
distinguishes Jews from non-Jews. The Fasting of the Firstborn is
described on the eve of Passover in gratitude for G-d having spared
them.
Kosher foods are described in detail. These foods are considered fit,
proper or right. i.e. fish with fins and ... Read More
Related Categories:
|
