Posts Tagged ‘The Boy Walker’
SERIOUSLY FUNNY
Last Friday, I invited readers and Facebook friends to You Tube to see the stand-up comedy act I performed in 2013 at San Francisco’s Purple Onion as research for my novel The Boy Walker. I spent many hours writing that nine-minute set. Was it because I was a neophyte? Jill Maragos, a professional funny woman,…
Read MoreTRUMPING THE DONALD
I don’t support saying negative things about people. The Rabbis consider lashon hara—evil speech—one of humanity’s great sins. But let’s get real. Negativity can be part of a grand strategy to achieve something necessary. Something great. That’s why American political life revolves around attack ads. So I’m adding my own wisdom to the political scene:…
Read MoreTURNING SEVENTY
Psalms 90:10, which serves as an epigraph to my novel The Boy Walker, advises, “The span of our life is seventy years.” That makes “The Big 7-0” seem ominous. I know. I turned seventy on Wednesday. Fortunately, the psalm holds out hope of additional life by adding, “or given the strength, eighty years.” Then it…
Read MoreJEWISH DOGS IN FICTION
Can a novel be too ethnic? More particularly, can it be too Jewish? These are reasonable questions given that this Sunday I’m launching my new novel The Boy Walker. A 12-year-old English Bulldog narrates. He’s not the first dog to narrate a novel, but he’s certainly one of a very few Jewish dogs to do…
Read MoreLAUGHING AT THE ANGEL OF DEATH
Death appears frequently in this week’s Torah portion, Va’yishlach (Genesis 32:4–36:43). It’s only fitting. I’ve been thinking about death lately. Also humor. They go hand in hand. As it says on the back cover of my upcoming novel The Boy Walker (available around the first of the year; I’ll keep you posted): death is nothing—and…
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