Kadish
The left must be so disappointed. The mainstream media will have to pretend it is shocked and saddened. I’m not surprised by yesterday’s event. Many will view the shooter as a martyr to a just cause, not a creep who killed two innocents. Will someone say the attack was staged to boost poll numbers? Each side accuses the other of violent rhetoric. It’s hard not to weep for this great country.
RIP Richard Simmons, 76, who died of what seems natural causes. Born in Louisiana, he earned a BA at Florida St.. He was obese many years, topping out at 268 pounds, before turning to fitness, opening centers and making exercise videos on all formats. His appearances at shopping malls led to two TV shows, most notably The Richard Simmons Show, which received seven Daytime Emmy award nominations, winning several. He was a frequent guest on talk shows on both TV and radio. There are 20 titles under his name at IMDb in the category of actor, including 74 of General Hospital, where he played himself, as he frequently did. He did several voiceovers for animation projects. Wiki lists twelve books in his name. Here’s a quote attributed to him: “Everyone in this world is somehow connected. So why not just be nice to everybody.” Yeah, he was flaky, but he was one of life’s good guys. Thanks for the laughs, Sir. Photo from Google Images:
A graduate of Princeton, Rachel Kadish earned an M.A. from NYU, then received grants that enabled her to pursue writing. She has had fiction and non-fiction published in magazines of note. Her first novel, From a Sealed Room, published in 2006, recently came my way. Set largely in Jerusalem, briefly in NYC, it is the story of a female American college student doing a semester in Israel in 1993, just after the end of the Gulf War, during which citizens took to sealed rooms as SCUD missiles were launched at them. The title has a broader meaning — humans living in the sealed chamber of the inner self, a mystery even to those with whom they are closest. A major theme of the book is dealing with the suffering that comes with existence, be it everyday annoyance or large scale such as the Holocaust or the constant potential of violence. It is a remarkable first novel despite its being grossly overwritten and occasionally unfocused. Then again, Kadish is much smarter and more successful than I, so who am I to say? The young protagonist moves in with a suffering (insufferable) artist — in a Hasidic neighborhood where their presence is frowned upon. An old woman, the only member of her family to survive a concentration camp, lives in an apartment below. Never married, always alone, her mind is fragmenting, constantly dwelling on her experiences, her beloved older sister/protector and the potential marriage to a gentile who loved her, who was killed during the war. She sees the American woman as salvation, similar to the forces who liberated the camp. Her jumbled thoughts are featured throughout the narrative, at times redundant, others riveting and heartbreaking. As usual, I cherry picked excerpts I found particularly meaningful. “What could I possibly do to deserve this much love? And what did it mean that my love was so muted compared with his?” And: “There’s never been any such thing as a strong person. There are only strong actions, and any of us can take them at any time.” And: “I offer you the magic of my suffering.” And: “But there is no fixing the past… Only the future.” And: “We didn’t understand each other well; still, we loved enough to lie to each other.” The works I respect most feature such existential angst. Some people seek answers despite knowing the mystery of life will never be unraveled. While reading, I found the gulf that existed between the characters maddening. Fortunately, the story ends on a mild positive note. …Sealed Room is a tough read but more than worthwhile. The 358 pages of the hardcover edition read like more. 185 users at Amazon have rated it, forging to a consensus of 3.8 on a scale of five. I’d say that’s spot on. Kadish, who lived in Israel for awhile, has followed with two other novels and a novella, the last in 2017. She is married, a mom of two. It is her real last name, which translates to a “prayer recited in the daily ritual of the synagogue and by mourners at public services.” Photo from GI:
Headline from nypost.com: “New app uses AI to dumb down, whitewash classic books.” Whitewash this, jerkoffs.
Still hot and humid. Fortunately there was a slight breeze blowing through the shade on Avenue Z, lessening the toil of the Anti-Inflation Book Shop. My thanks to the woman who bought Dirty Blonde by Lisa Scottoline and to the couple who bought a Frozen pictorial and four books in Russian; and to those who stopped to chat about yesterday’s tragedy.
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