Mister Nouse.
Book Blog of Paul Ingram
4 October 2004
Two great books on the hybrid Jewish language known as Yiddish have just been published. Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky tells the tale of the way the author saved nearly a million Yiddish books from destruction and neglect and in the process saved the memory of an entire culture. A beautiful very readable book for every reader who believes every book is precious. Algonquin Books continues to diversify their list of southern novels to include Judaica and all manner of wonderful stuff.
Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish by Dovid Katz is a more
straightforward history of Yiddish with plenty of linguistic material on Hebrew
and Aramaic. Katz is a terrific writer, a scholar with an anecdotal style. The
book is a delight from beginning to end.