Arts & Entertainment

About

Love & Literature

"Growing up, I wanted to be a fiction
writer, but I feared I wasn't good enough.
Then, after college, I worked for a maga-
zine where I read fiction submissions.
Most of the submissions were terrible, and
I was curiously encouraged: If other peo-
ple were willing to try and fail, I should be
willing to try and fail, too. I believe this is
one of the most important lessons a writer
can learn. You must always be willing to
risk failure:"
So writes Joshua Henkin, the author of
two novels, 1997's Swimming Across the
Hudson, which took him three years to
write, and 2007's Matrimony (Pantheon;
$24.95), which took him 10 years to write.
Matrimony spans a 15-year period,
beginning in 1987, as Julian Wainwright,
aspiring writer and WASPy son of New
York City old money, meets beautiful,
Jewish Mia Mendelsohn in the laundry
room at Graymont College in western
Massachusetts. A love affair begins that,
spurred on by family tragedy, takes Julian
and Mia across the country and back,
through several college towns — includ-
ing Ann Arbor, where Henkin earned his
MFA and once taught.
The grandson of an Orthodox rabbi and
the product of an Orthodox Jewish day-
school education, Henkin lives in Brooklyn
and teaches in the creative writing pro-
grams at Sarah Lawrence College and
Brooklyn College.

Beverly Hills.
He will speak 8
Tickets are $25-$75.
p.m. Friday, Nov.
(248) 855-6070 or
16, at Adat Shalom
comehearcmsd.org .
Synagogue in
Farmington Hils,
Meaningful
following 6 p.m. ser-
Messages
vices and a 7:15 p.m.
dinner (cost for din-
Gail Zimmerman
A FOX - 2 TV half-hour
ner: $20 for individu-
Arts Editor
special featuring psychic
als; $36 for families).
medium Rebecca Rosen
Call for dinner reser-
airs 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, and 9:30
vations: (248) 851-5100.
a.m. Sunday, Nov. 18.
He also will read from and sign copies
Hosted by FOX-2's Monica Gayle,
of his book 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, at
Messenger of Light will include video
Borders Grosse Pointe, 17141 Kercheval.
excerpts from two of Rosen's recent audi-
(313) 885-1188.
ence readings in Metro Detroit, a one-on-
one interview with Gayle and interviews
Supreme Strings
with three local female friends (two of
whom are Jewish) who all have lost sons
The Juilliard String Quartet has long
who have come through with messages
been recognized as the quintessential
during readings with Rosen.
American string quartet.
In the 2007-08 season, as ardent
Black Humor
advocates of composer Elliott Carter's
complex and visionary string quartets,
No matter the stupidity, the illogic or the
violinists Joel Smirnoff and Ronald
injustice, comic Lewis Black, the "most
Copes, violist Samuel Rhodes and cellist
exasperated man in America;' tells his
Joel Krosnick have been offering special
audiences all about it — whether on stage
programming in recognition of Carter's
or from his perch in the "Back in Black"
100th birthday.
spotlight on Comedy Central's Daily Show.
The quartet performs Haydn's Quartet
Hear him live as he brings his "Red,
in E-Flat Major, Carter's Quartet No.
White & Screwed" tour to town in two
2 and Verdi's Quartet in E Minor in a
performances: 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18, at
Chamber Music Society of Detroit con-
the Wharton Center in East Lansing and 8
cert at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, at the
p.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, at the Fox Theatre
Seligman Performing Arts Center in

in Detroit. Tickets, at $47.50 and $37.50,
are available at the box offices, at all
Ticketmaster locations and through
www.livenation.com .

Simon Says

"What if they took a shower together
— Aunt Blanche and Nora? If I could walk
in and see that I'd thank God and become
a rabbi."
So says playwright Neil Simon's semi-
autobiographical character Eugene Morris
Jerome in Simon's 1983 play Brighton
Beach Memoirs, part of the "Eugene
Trilogy" — that also includes Biloxi Blues
(1985) and Broadway Bound (1986) — in
which the playwright creates a touching
portrait of an individual, his family and
the world intersecting with the milieu of
the New York working-class neighbor-
hoods where Simon grew up.
Eugene will be making several local
appearances in the next few months.
Wayne State University's Hilberry
Theatre in Detroit premieres its produc-
tion of Biloxi Blues in which 20-year-
old Eugene finds himself away from home
for the first time as he heads to an Army
boot camp in Mississippi — on Nov. 16. It
runs in repertory through March 22 (show
times and tickets: (313) 577-2972
or www.hilberry.com).
On the same day, the Spotlight Players of
Canton will open Brighton Beach Memoirs,
in which Eugene experiences puberty, sex-

—

S

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Past is Prologue

As I write this, it looks like the
Writers Guild of America strike will
be a long one.
The guild and the
association repre-
senting film and
TV producers are
far apart on the
amount of money
that writers will
receive for materi-
Al Jolson
al later distributed
via "new media"
like DVDs and streaming video on
the Internet.
Neither the guild nor the produc-
ers association keeps stats on the
ethnic and/or religious background
of their members. However, it's my
educated opinion that a very large
percentage of both the writers and
producers are Jewish and that this
strike may be the "most Jewish"

C4

November 15 • 2007

American labor conflict since the
1930s, when mostly Jewish garment
factory owners faced off against
heavily Jewish garment worker
unions.
The WGA really began in 1933
when 10 Hollywood screenwriters
met to create a union "with teeth."
Among the founders was Samson
Raphaelson (1894-1983). He co-
wrote a lot of great movies (includ-
ing Shop Around the Corner and
Heaven Can Wait) and also wrote
the play that became the basis for
1927's The Jazz Singer, the first
important talking movie.
Now in stores is a new, three-disc
deluxe edition of the original ver-
sion of The Jazz Singer, starring
Al Jolson as the son of a cantor
torn between tradition and show-
biz. Eighty years after its release,
Warner Brothers is still making
money from The Jazz Singer via
new technology.
If Samson is "looking down," no
doubt he is cheering on the guild's

current stand.

Film Notes

Opening in theaters on Friday,
Nov.16, is Beowulf, based on the
ancient Anglo-Saxon poem about
the warrior Beowulf, who battles the
monster Grendel. The screenplay
is by Neil Gaiman, the author of
bestselling graphic novels and com-
ics. Beowulf is directed by Robert
Zemeckis (Forrest Gump).
Also open-
ing on Nov. 16 is

Mr. Magorium's
Wonder Emporium,

a fantasy-comedy
starring Natalie
Portman as an
awkward and
insecure manager
Ronald Harwood
of a wonderful
toy store. But
when Mr. Magorium, the 243-year-
old eccentric who owns the store
(Dustin Hoffman), bequeaths the
shop to her, she doubts whether she

has enough "magic" to run the shop
by herself.
Currently scheduled for release
the same day is Love in the Time of
Cholera, from the novel of the same
name by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It
tells the story of a love triangle that
goes on for 50 years, from 1880 to
1930. Liev Schreiber has a support-
ing role, and the screenplay is by
Ronald Harwood, the British screen-
writer-playwright who won an Oscar
for his script for The Pianist.

TV Notes

Jerry Adler, 77, who looks like he
has the map of Israel written on his
face, has become the "go-to" actor
for "old Jewish guy roles." Among
others: Hesh Rabkin, the Jewish
mafia associate on The Sopranos;
Jules Ziegler, the father of Jewish
White House aide Toby Ziegler on
The West Wing; and Sidney Feinberg,
a Jewish fire captain on Rescue Me.
The writers' strike has delayed
the premiere of Adler as yet another

