Everyone celebrates Yom Kippur differently. In my family we read - and we always have a light in the room so that we can all gather together at night.
While we are all reading something else, we are all involved in our own personal universe. At the same time, reading together connects us. The occasional squeal or laugh, the sound of a rumbling belly (already?!), or the feeling of my mother's calf against me punctuates the passages of each book I choose to read this Yom Kippur.
If, like me, you find that literature helps you overcome earthly desires, here are six books by Jewish authors that you can start and finish in 25 hours. After all, some of the best books put wisdom in small packages and allow the reader to absorb that wisdom.
"Home is a Stranger" by Parnaz Foutan (224 pages)
A Jewish man from Fortuna, California, left Iran when he was 7 years old. Eighteen years later, after her father's death, she returns to her homeland with hope... It's complicated. Foutan's journey is a woman's coming-of-age story, as her unstoppable love for life brings her into conflict with the country's theocratic regime. Readers may enjoy Forotan's depiction of the horrific experiences and realities of life in an oppressive society.
Quote: "I said no. I can do it." Puya knelt down and looked me in the eyes and said, “Sometimes you have to give others a chance to do good.
"The Wanderer in the City" by Alfred Kazin (192 pages)
Kazin's memoir is simple in its plot but full of powerful descriptions. It traces how the author's predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Brownsville, Brooklyn, has changed since he lived there as a child. Finally, the book is not only an expression of love for the city he lives in, but also an examination of time.
Quote: "Everything here now seems so small, old, crumbling, more dilapidated than I remember, but with deep familiarity at every door it makes me think I can welcome something new. I feel so much for Brownsville that "I" am a sleepwalker."
"Lucy" by Jamaica Kincaid (176 pages)
When 19-year-old Lucy leaves the Caribbean for the United States and works for a white host family, she is surprised to learn that it can be cold outside even when the sun is shining. Many surprises follow as a headstrong young woman navigates romance, racism, and the challenges of finding a place in black American life as an immigrant. But as she explores this new world, Lucy confronts haunting memories of her homeland and her complicated relationship with her mother, to whom she sends a rebellious letter.
Quote: "All I grew up with reminded me that I wasn't mean." I will then give a brief account of my personal life, offering every detail as proof that my upbringing was a failure and that my rude life was actually very comfortable, thank you very much.
"Kaddish and Other Poems" by Allen Ginsberg (130 pages)
Five years after US customs officials seized Ginsberg's "Scream and Other Poems" as obscene, the poet has released his second collection. In a style that reflects the turmoil of the mid-twentieth century, the autobiographical poems here explore grief, coping with mortality, and the devastating psychological impact of the Holocaust on American Jews who learned about the news.
Quote: "For the mind is only the sun that shines once, only a spark of existence that no one has ever known?"
"Seven Stories" by Gina Berriault (176 pages)
More than two decades after Berialt's death, Penguin Random House recently republished the late Jewish writer's short stories. The stories in this collection deal with children and adults with disabilities, sometimes their own and sometimes not. Although set primarily in San Francisco, the stories are imbued with a charm that takes them out of time and place.
Quote: "When she felt like a centenarian, she finally realized that the person who had touched her most in her memory was not the one she loved the most, but the one she understood the least."
"Race People" by Paul Fleischmann, illustrated by Judy Pedersen (112 pages)
For young readers (and older readers, why not?), this story of an urban garden in a diverse immigrant community is sure to be fascinating. 13 different voices come together to tell the garden's story, the first year of its creation as a powerful and indispensable symbol of hope.
Quote: “You can't see Canada across Lake Erie, but you know it's there. It's the same with spring. Especially in Cleveland, you have to have faith. Snow in April always breaks your heart.
