Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

That latest novel we added to the library’s collection is Steve Stern‘s The Frozen Rabbi. The boko’s falp starts with these two intriguing questions: “How does a nineteenth-century rabbi from a small Polish town en up in a freezer in a suburban Memphis home at the end of the twentieth century? And what happens when a teenage boy thaws him out an miraculously brings him back to life?” Based n this you can already guess that this is a humorous book that mixes a number of themes. What do the reviews say?

• The book’s 370 pages are packed to bursting with epic adventure and hysterical comedy, with grim poignancy and pointed satire, as Stern repeatedly shifts time and tone to craft a wildly entertaining tale of the 20th-century Jewish experience and the paradox of tradition. [...] In all, it’s a fine performance: Stories are told, points made, conventions flayed, and the reader comes to care about what will happen to poor Bernie, earnestly seeking transcendence from a fallen prophet. - The Washington Post
• Throughout “The Frozen Rabbi,” Stern demonstrates an alchemical power to transform lumpen failures like Bernie, barely curious enough to gaze at their own navels, into young men and women with noble missions. He does this by heaping impossible responsibilities on their shoulders; their subsequent maturation is so rapid they seem subjected to some kind of ferocious growlight. [...] Yet along with the difficult question of just what is lost when assimilation is gained, Stern also raises the hope that even the most unwitting among us cannot fully escape the passions of our ancestors. - The New York Times
• Whether his latest novel, “The Frozen Rabbi,” will finally propel him into mass recognition is impossible to say, but it ought to, because it is, like his previous books, a funny, profound and virtuosic work. [...]for those willing to enter this unfamiliar space, to be tossed between centuries and realities, between this world and the Other Side, what awaits is a rare enchantment. - San Francisco Chronicle
• The Frozen Rabbi is as much fun to read as it sounds. Peppered withYiddishisms and lively, colorful prose, even as strange as it gets sometimes it’s quite delightful. And it does get strange, especially towards the end. – Boston Bibliophile

I had to share reviews as I didn’t read the book. This also means that as of this moment the book is in the library, you can borrow it, come Sunday. Or if you can’t wait for it you can start reading the book in serialized version here. The whole book is there in 46 installments.