Martin Weinstock is a Harvard Lecturer in Poetry who has lost his way. He doesn't feel that he belongs on the esteemed Faculty ("the best in the world"). He sees his position to be a type of death sentence. Meanwhile, is love life is dying and his parents redying. He feels as though he's surrounded by death wherever he turns. This is his story, (Winner of Hadassah Magazine's 1994 Harold U. Ribalow Prize for Best Work of Jewish Fiction.)

Shortly after his mother dies of breast cancer when he is ten years old, Michael Blumenthal discovers that she was not his biological mother, and that his aunt and uncle, immigrant chicken farmers living in Vineland, New Jersey, are really his parents.As fate would have it, his adoptive father, a German-Jewish refugee raised by a loveless and embittered stepmother after his own mother died in childbirth, has inflicted on his stepson a fate uncannily—and terrifyingly—similar to his ...

Through Michael Blumenthal’s eyes we gain a renewed, childlike wonder at everything from plants, trees, and relationships to the most fundamental word in our vocabulary: AND. Blumenthal uses the conjunction to unify this collection and create a chanting, sonorous rhythm to his work. The result is a book of poems-as-hymns-and-praises.Michael Blumenthal holds the Mina Hohenberg Darden Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Old Dominion University. His other books inclu...

Etan Yogev had had no experience in bed-and hardly any outside of it-and it was not without a strong feeling of awkwardness and insecurity that he had first allowed Daphna Flinker to guide his somewhat ambivalent member into her own body, and his lips against her lips. She enjoyed it-this teacherly role-it had been a very long time since she had been able to practice the art of sexual instruction, and there was something exciting and alluring about this-all that innocence in a single place...

Weinstock Among the Dying is a tragi-comic study of one man's attempt to recover from the griefs of his childhood and to enter into a life-giving adulthood of fatherhood and mature love. In it, Michael Blumenthal creates a moving portrait of the human struggle for psychological growth, as well as a witty satire of life at the top of the academic world. The book won the 1994 Harold U. Ribalow Prize for Best Work of Jewish Fiction. Judges were Elie Wiesel, Thomas Keneally, a...

What’s wrong with the contemporary American medical system? What does it mean when a state’s democratic presidential primary casts 40% of its votes for a felon incarcerated in another state? What’s so bad about teaching by PowerPoint? What is truly the dirtiest word in America?These are just a few of the engaging and controversial issues that Michael Blumenthal, poet, novelist, essayist, and law professor, tackles in this collection of poignant essays commissioned by West ...

"The former Treasury Secretary has shared his story in a memoir that is both an engrossing personal narrative and a thoughtful reflection on leadership" (Henry Kissinger, author of On China).In a life that has spanned nearly nine decades and has taken him around the world and back, W. Michael Blumenthal has borne witness to the world's convulsions and transformations during the twentieth century. Born in Germany between the two world wars, Blumenthal narro...

Marriage, Sex and Family in Judaism explores Jewish marriage from historical and contemporary perspectives, focusing on the religious and legal concepts of marriage, and the social impact of family in the Jewish community. The book does not advocate one perspective or another; instead, the essays range from conservative to liberal viewpoints, offering readers a well-balanced mixture of perspectives on Jewish marriage.

ONE OF THE THE ATLANTIC'S GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS OF THE PAST 100 YEARSPortnoy's Complaint scandalized-and forever changed-American literature." -The Washington Post“Deliciously funny . . . absurd and exuberant, wild and uproarious . . . a brilliantly vivid reading experience”—The New York Times Book Review"The novel that made Roth a literary superstar, and it remains his most contro...

A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are Christians to respond to such accusations? And how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of God portrayed in the two testaments?In this timely and readable book, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexin...

The stunning story of Russia's slide back into a dictatorship-and how the West is now paying the price for allowing it to happen.The ascension of Vladimir Putin-a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB-to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away from democracy. Yet in the intervening years-as America and the world's other leading powers have continued to appease him-Putin has grown not only into a dictator but an internati...

More than ever, Christians are bombarded with tough faith questions from their pluralistic friends and neighbors. Many of these emerge as "anti-truth claims" and slogans we are all familiar with:• Why not just look out for yourself?• Do what you want--just as long as you don't hurt anyone• Miracles violate the laws of nature• Aren't people born gay?Paul Copan has been answering questions like these for many years. In When God Goes to Starbucks, h...