On The Bookshelf ception —At The e ite Nitt5t lAeCti 00 Citalltr4P- • 0 los stool FAZ2 I N `For The Relief Of Unbearable Urges Out with his first book and comparisons to Roth, Singer and Malamud, Nathan Englander is the Jewish writer of the moment. One Man Show May 2-23, 1999 Danielle Peleg Gallery SPECIALIZING IN MODERN FINE ART 4301 Orchard Lake Rd., Crosswinds Mall • West Bloomfield 248.626.5810 Hours: Mon-Sat 10:30-6:00, Sun 12:00-5:00 Mother's Day Gift Ideas Putting her best foot forward, artist Raine offers a delightful commentary on art, culture and taste with her collection of just The Right Shoe. New Spring Collection Just Arrived Art Gifts Home Accessories Custom Framing Art Exhibits Many styles to choose from priced from 14.00 29 I 73 Northwestern, Southfield 248-3 56-5454 4 / 30 1999 92 Detroit Jewish News www.everythingart.com • e-mail: chezpg@aol.com the stuff writers dream of. The 29- year-old, whose name was unknown not long ago, has been published in The New Yorker and reviewed enthusi- hile in the back seat of a astically by major newspapers and Manhattan taxicab, magazines. He is reported to have Charles Luger, a received an advance of more than Protestant financial ana- $200,000 for the collection of stories lyst, discovers that he's suddenly and a novel. As seems inevitable when become Jewish, in Nathan Englander's a promising Jewish writer emerges, he story, "The Gilgul of Park Avenue. has been compared to Philip Roth, "Jewish, here in the back," he tells Isaac Bashevis Singer and Bernard the driver, who reacts to the sudden Malamud. While he shares their story reincarnation of the man's soul with telling talent, his voice the smugness of a New Above: Nathan Englander is distinctive. York cabby who's seen left the Orthodox fold, but Englander's stories everything, twice. he says, "I don't know how are artfully written, The story of Luger's many religious people spend with grace and humor transformation is one of as much time wrestlin g nine stories in Englander's with Jewish issues as I do." and narrative power. Most are set in Royal first book, For the Relief of Hills, a neighborhood Unbearable Urges (Knopf; that resembles Borough Park, and $22), just published to much acclaim. Jerusalem; these are places where reli- The first story, "The Twenty-seventh gion dominates daily life, and the sec- Man" takes place in Stalinist Russia, ular world is never far away. when a group of leading Jewish writers The title story, "For The Relief of are arrested, along with one aspiring Unbearable Urges," is about an writer who finally finds literary recog- Orthodox man who gets special nition as one of the condemned. pensation from his rebbe to visit a The other stories are peopled with prostitute, as a way of saving his mar- Chasidim and Orthodox Jews, the riage when his wife refuses to sleep kind of people who'd be quite sur- with him. In "Reb Kringle," a Chasidi prised to find their lives and passions man reluctantly goes along with his portrayed in fiction. wife's idea that he get seasonal work as Englander's fairytale-like debut is a department store Santa Claus, with Sandee Brawarsky is a New York- his authentic long, white beard. based Jewish book critic. SAN DEE B RAWARS KY Special to The Jewish News " - c/ N