bills with sports journalism in The
Boys of Summer, the story of the
Dodgers and Jackie Robinson. In
Memories of Summer, Kahn's
subject, says the New York Times,
"isn't so much the game as the
way it was perceived."
Literature Or Life
By Jorge Semprun; translated by
Linda Coverdale; Viking; $24.95.
The son of a Spanish Republi-
can. diplomat, Jorge Semprun im-
migrated to Paris after Franco's
victory in the Spanish Civil War
and joined the French Resis-
tance. Literature of Life is his
memoir of surviving two years in
Buchenwald and a lifetime of at-
tempting to understand his "pas-
sage through death" through
memoirs, poetry, novels and
screenplays.
The Reichmanns: Family,
Faith, Fortune and the Em-
pire of Olympia and York
By Anthony Bianco; Times
Books /Random House; $30.
From Hungary to Tangier to
Canada to New York, the yeshi-
va-educated, ultra-Orthodox Re-
ichmann family built an empire
and then lost billions. At their
height, impressed Presbyterian
brokers in Toronto were report-
ed to spend their lunch hour
studying Talmud in the hope of
cracking the Reichmanns' secret.
Caraseu: A Holocaust Re-
membrance
By Martin H. Lax with Michael
B. Lax; The Pilgrim Press;
$16.95.
More than half a century after
the Holocaust, more and more
survivors are publishing their
memoirs. In his, Martin Lax in-
terweaves his childhood as one
of the few Chasidic Jews in his
tiny village, his personal tale of
tragedy and a travelogue of re-
turning with his son in 1974 to
Caraseu, the small Romanian-
Hungarian village in which he
was born.
Their journey continues
through Auschwitz, Mau-
thausen, Gusen and Gun-
skirchen, the camps in which Lax
suffered. Among his memories: a
seder in his home in 1943, which
was attended by two German sol-
diers who were billeted with his
family. "They shared in the con-
versation and behaved like gen-
tlemen."
— Compiled by
Lynne Konstantin
'The Book of Jewish Food:
An Odyssey From Samarkand To New York'
By Claudia Roden; Knopfi $35.
M
ix a healthy measure of
root-searching history
with a large portion of
nostalgic reflection. Add
a dash of humor and a sprinkle
of anecdotes. Combine with an
array of taste-tempting recipes
and serve. This will satisfy nu-
merous readers of Claudia Ro-
den's cookbook, which literally
takes us from Afghanistan to zuc-
chini.
It is an entertaining journey
through the Diaspora with re-
flections, travel tales and recipes
for dishes far beyond those in a
traditional kosher cookbook.
The introductory section pre-
sents a look at past Jewish com-
munities with Ms. Roden's family
as a point of reference. She also
covers the laws of kashrut, food
of the Bible and dishes for the hol-
idays. The major division in the
book is between Ashkenazi and
Sephardi; the differences in the
two styles of cooking reflect the
climate and local produce of the
two "worlds."
In each section, Ms. Roden pro-
vides insights as to how particu-
lar foods became popular. For
example:
Sy Mallen° is a frequent
dabbler in gustatory delights.
* Appetizers and salads — (from Turkey, Egypt and Italy)
Cream cheese: There were many to meats, soups and vegetables.
small dairies in rural towns ... in All make for a plentiful, pleasant
Lithuania goats were called na- Passover with new flavors.
The book would be a perfect
tional Jewish cattle.
* Fish — Jews first farmed addition to a cookbook collection
and would be a great gift for
carp in Poland in the 17th
a history buff
century.
REVIEW
* Meat — There is a
— Sy Monello
delightful two-page dis-
cussion of New York delis.
In the Sephardi sec-
tion, the areas settled
by Jews (Yemen,
Salmanca, Iraq, India,
etc.) are followed by
representative recipes.
The lists of ingredi-
ents are readily avail-
able in both metric and
standard measure;
they are easy to read
and to follow.
If you have your
copy handy at Pesach,
you can enjoy an ex-
planation of the holiday
with mention of cus-
EWISH aoo FOOD
toms in many Jewish
■
world communities. In
addition, throughout
the book are Passover
recipes for everything
from cakes (Walnut
and Orange is the cake Claudia Roden's cookbook features over 800
in Istanbul) to charoset Ashkenazi and Sephardi recipes.
M•,P
,E,C pE5
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Readers' Pic ks
Name: Nancy Handelman
Occupatioin High School Com-
pletion Program Teacher
Residence: West Bloomfield
ve read almost all of the books
rAle4iig
•;. ; .jzfeautifiiily wn
,
arnoff Schiff (the most
I Become My Par-
lad the pleasure
er at the [Jewish
tind her books to
things to think
clst
to take . a long iiiteiniiSSibif' '
Name: Jeffrey Eisman
Occupation: Chiropractor
Residence: West Bloomfield
"I recommend The Color of Wa-
ter by James McBride. It's a very
intriguing book: the story of a black
writer, I believe from the Wash-
ington Post.
lie decides to interview his
mother for a Mother's Day article,
and it turns out she's the daugh-
ter of an Orthodox Jewish man
from the South. She leaves home,
goes to Harlem and marries a
black man. You get to see the per-
spective of black journalist who's trying to tell a story, and a moth-
er who is ostracized from her community.
"The writer is almost being apologetic: His mother is light-
skirmed, but he never knew she was white, and she's very anti-
Semitic. Very short, very quick read."
Name: Paulette Bonin
Occupation: Vohmteer
Residence: West Bloomfield
"Right now I'm reading
Katharine Graham's book, Person-
al History. I find it fascinating. She's
the publisher of the Washington
Post; I was able to hear her at a lun-
cheon.
And, I do like biographies in gen-
eral, so this is a wonderful book for
me."
Reading a good book?'"On. The Bookshelf' would lak e
your recommendations with our readers. Send a photo
along with a daytime phone number, to Lynne Konstantin,
Bookshelf, 27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034. If you
want your photo returned, you must include a self-addressed
stamped envelope.
:
41111111111111111111.101111101111.011MINSOMMINisw iitamoo