A Blessing on the Moon

by Joseph Skibell and Joseph Skibell

Book Overview

Joseph Skibell's magical tale about the Holocaust--a fable inspired by fact--received unanimous nationwide acclaim when first published in 1997. At the center of A Blessing on the Moon is Chaim... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565121791
• ISBN13: 9781565121799
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Magical!

It is nothing short of magic to be swept inside a book. `A Blessing on the Moon' captured both my heart and my imagination. Starting from the point where most stories of the holocaust end, Skibell takes the reader into a spiritual world mixed with realism and fable, warm humor and the ugliness of hatred and ignorance. Within the first few lines of the book, the main character is killed. But Skibell does not end the character's life there. That is where the story is just beginning. Skibell takes the character and the reader on a journey of the soul. It's an exploration into compassion and grief, love and the depth of hate. I didn't want to put the book down and when I did, I found myself thinking about and worrying about the characters. They seemlessly worked their way inside me. Brilliant and insightful writing. Thank God for a book that is imaginative, intelligent and that offers hope in the worst of despair.

Wildly inventive, haunting and magical...

One of the best books I have ever read and perhaps the most effective embodiment of the holocaust in fiction ever accomplished. Combining magic realism, chassidic folktales and narrative inventiveness beyond anything I've read, this is nothing short of a masterpiece. I eagerly await whatever Joseph Skibell comes out with next. For another inventive read, try WAS by Geoff Ryman.

A great book and a gripping page-turner

After his murder by the Nazis, Chaim Skibelski finds himself giddy and ecstatic, despite lying dead in a pit with all of his neighbours. He begins a fantastic quest, searching to be reunited with his family and community, and to find the peace of the World To Come. But in the meantime, he wanders "the earth like an audience at intermission waiting for the concert to resume , unaware that the musicians have long since departed for home ?". In this imaginative work, Joesph Skibell succeeds magnificently in conveying the tragic scope of the Holocaust. But he never succumbs to the sentimentality or self-righteousness of other holocaust memoirs. With humor, a fine ear for dialogue, and a piercing wit he weaves his allegory. Truly, I laughed and I cried - but never felt manipulated. This is a an important work in its own right and a major step forward in the breadth of artistic expression that the Holocaust has inspired. A great book and a gripping page-turner, this novel will appeal to many who would not otherwise pick up anything from the Holocaust genre.

A masterpiece!

Joseph Skibell has written that rare book that I couldn't put down. Telling the story from the viewpoint of a Jew shot to death in the Holocaust who must roam the earth dead before going to the World-to-Come, "A Blessing on the Moon", while a story of the agony of the Jews in the Holocaust, is at times funny, sardonic, tender, horror-filled--there just aren't enough adjectives. This Christian found it to be more revealing to me of the Jewish mind, religion, and the atrocities committed against the Jews than any other book I've ever read. The only thing that made me sorry was my lack of understanding of some of the Yiddish words and expressions. However, I will read this book again and again, and recommend it to anybody who appreciates well-crafted writing.