About this Item
Eighth printing. Inscribed and signed by the author on the title page: "For Jan-- / With Best Wishes-- / Nathan Englander." The book is square, and unmarked; corners sharp, spine ends unbumped. The dust jacket is not price-clipped (original price $22.00); Brodart protected. Seller Inventory # 002924
Bibliographic Details
Title: For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Publication Date: 1999
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Near Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
About this title
Their acceptance as acrobats was a stretch, a first-glance guess, a benefit of the doubt granted by circumstance and only as valuable as their debut would prove. It was an absurd undertaking. But then again, Mendel thought, no more unbelievable than the reality from which they'd escaped, no more unfathomable than the magic of disappearing Jews.Another story, "Reb Kringle," is almost breezy by comparison. Each year, one Brooklynite dreads his holiday job from hell, playing Santa Claus in a Manhattan department store: "There were elves posted on each side of Itzik; one--a humorless, muscular midget--wore a pair of combat boots that gave him the look of elf-at-arms. His companion might have been a twin. He wore black high-tops but had the same vigilant paramilitary demeanor." Itzik can put up with the children's accidents and greed, with his sciatica, and even with a mischief maker's attempt to cut off his beard. But when one boy admits that what he really wants to do is celebrate Hanukkah, "the infamous Reb Santa" loses it. Though this is undoubtedly the collection's lightest piece--proof positive that you have to be a saint to be a Jewish Santa--it is no less piercing an examination of identity and obligation than Englander's more heavyweight entries. --Kerry Fried
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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