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Nov. 25, 2005
Writers of great wisdom
Jewish book festival starts this weekend, so head to the JCC.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
The 21st Annual Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival starts on
Sunday morning. One of the main reasons to attend the five-day event
is the chance to meet some of Canada’s most accomplished Jewish
writers. Here are excerpts from the works of three such authors:
Rick Salutin, George Szanto and Michael Kaufman.
Insights into man
Salutin is a Toronto-based columnist, playwright and novelist. His
novel A Man of Little Faith, about a Jewish educator who
migrates to Canada from Nazi Germany, won the Books in Canada best
first novel prize. Salutin won the National Newspaper Award for
his work in the Globe and Mail and, in 1991, received the
Toronto Arts Award in writing and publishing. His many plays include
Les Canadiens, which received the Chalmers award for best Canadian
play in 1977. There is little doubt that Salutin is an excellent
writer and his most recent book, The Womanizer: A Man of His
Time, is no exception.
The Womanizer is a man’s reflection on his life, as
marked by some of the many women with whom he has had sex and/or
longer-term relationships. At the same time, it is a humorous and
intelligent economic, political and social commentary. There are
innumerable insights within its pages. For example, near the end
of the book, protagonist Max Weber contemplates change:
“When he was young, it was about money: you give the man behind
the counter metal or paper and he gives you comic books or gum.
This changes to that. It’s confusing because he also gives
you ‘change’ or ‘makes change.’ He’s been
an economist most of his life and the mystery has scarcely begun
to yield. Yet he’s always trying to change the world, a bit
at a time. Why would someone who doesn’t believe in change
try to change the world? Why does anyone do anything? Doctors are
afraid of getting sick. Teachers don’t understand. Economists
can’t divide the bill at a restaurant. You choose what you
do to overcome who you are. Change transfixes him, maybe it’s
at the heart of his repetitive sexual behavior. Change daunts him,
so he pursues it. And change by an individual is even more awesome
than collective change. In a group, you encourage one another. Other
groups give you models, the past inspires you – none of it
is on you alone. But how does one person move from here to there?”
Salutin reads from The Womanizer on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 7
p.m., in the Esther and Ben Dayson Boardroom.
About human rights
Born in 1940 in northern Ireland, Szanto is the son of Viennese
refugees who fled Hitler and anti-Semitism. After receiving his
doctorate from Harvard University in 1967, he taught at several
universities before retiring in 2000 to write fiction full time.
He currently lives on Gabriola Island.
Szanto’s novel Friends & Marriages won the Hugh
MacLennan Prize for Fiction in 1995. The Condesa of M. is part three
of his Conquests of Mexico trilogy. It explores Mexico’s darker
religious underworld, both in the present and in a parallel story
set 250 years ago. In one scene, two present-day characters are
drinking tequila and tipsily discussing the Church and human rights
in Mexico:
“ ‘Thank you. Do I hear’ – he looked my way
– ‘human rights? But how – important is this right?
Here are many people, many – new babies every day. What is
one more human person?’
“Rissa leaned toward him. ‘And your oath, Felicio? Each
living person has rights. In medicine. And freedom to write. To
speak.’
“ ‘Freedom of speech? Freedom for the human spirit?’
Felicio bent her way and clinked her glass. ‘Drink, my beautiful
– Rissa. We have so – few years, we must drink.’
She sipped. ‘I save lives. My – spirit is tequila.’
He blinked. ‘And single – malt Scotch.’
“ ‘But for each person to – ’
“ ‘Do you wish to make an – argument for the soul?’
“ ‘No, I just mean everyone’s right –.’
She stopped.
“Felicio chuckled. ‘Every soul has the right to live out
its – poor days on earth? And each day the Church takes –
pesos from its poorest. For the bishop’s new – Buick.
For the individual soul to live, is this essential? A woman –
bears six-eight-twelve babies. One-third die. Many – new little
Mexicans. With rights? The right to starve in the barrios of –
the capital? Of malnutrition on dried-out soil? ‘More babies!’
the – popish priests cry. Many babies, many priests, many Joaquìns.
So, Jorge, don’t waste your last – day with us on the
caca king [priest].’
“ ‘Stay here instead, drinking?’ I couldn’t
find my chair.
“ ‘What is better?’ ”
Szanto will read from his trilogy (The Underside of Stones, Second
Sight and The Condesa of M.) on Nov. 30, 8 p.m., in the Dayson
Board Room.
Looking for love
Kaufman is not only an award-winning author, but is recognized for
his work promoting gender equality and working to end violence against
women. He has written five non-fiction books that focus on gender
issues and development studies. He is founder and global ambassador
of the White Ribbon Campaign, men working to end violence against
women, and he is 2004 laureate of the United Nations Development
Fund for Women Canada. He lives in Toronto.
Kaufman’s first novel, The Possibility of Dreaming on a
Night Without Stars, won the 2001 Jewish Book Award. It is about
the quest of Eli Schuman, a divorced father of two teens, to find
out whether an old hitchhiker’s story about Marilyn Monroe
being alive and living on the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio, is true.
More than that though, it is about Eli finding love again:
“I had always assumed that building a life together was about
the future. Wasn’t it about having a sense of certainty that
this other person would be there, that we would continue to share
moments and experiences? Really, though, a life together existed
almost exclusively in the past. A life together is something that
has already been built. The accumulation of experiences big and
small: A swim in a stream. An argument on the sidewalk. A mother’s
death while in bed. Building a life together is the accumulated
wealth of habits and shared expressions – those times when
she says something and you know it could be you saying it: such
are her words, such is her tone of voice. As for the future, it
is only a possibility, a guess, a desire for moments which, all
too quickly, will become the building blocks of the past.”
Kaufman takes part in the Dec. 1, 7 p.m., closing night presentation,
John Burns in conversation with David Homel and Michael Kaufman.
Burns is the Georgia Straight book editor and David Homel is a journalist,
editor, literary translator, screenwriter and teacher living in
Montreal. Admission to the event is free, however, tickets should
be reserved in advance by calling the Hadassah-Wizo office at 604-257-5160.
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