Goodbye Evil Eye

by Gloria Devidas Kirchheimer

The stories revolve around the tensions between Sephardic Jews and US urban life. With their superstitions, myths, and contradictions, the characters fight to retain the old ways or struggle to free... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0841914044
• ISBN13: 9780841914049
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Holmes & Meier Publishers
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Literate, insightful, and highly recommended.

In Goodbye, Evil Eye, writer, editor and translator Gloria Kirchheimer has compiled a superb collection of short stories showcasing Sephardic Jewry with its multi-lingual roots stemming from such diverse cultures as the Middle East, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Spain, and as it manifests itself in the contemporary American experience. Kirchheimer's characters are embedded with superstition, folklore, contradiction, and paradox as they struggle to retain old traditions -- or break free of them! Within these stories are to be found illustrative and engaging experiences of Sephardic women, immigrants, and a diverse Jewish experience within the context of a modern, pluralistic, secular society where there are men, women, and families attempting to perpetuate and adapt emotional, ritualistic, and faith-based traits of an ancient Jewish subculture. Goodbye, Evil Eye is enthusiastically recommended, literate, and insightful reading that will linger in the mind and heart long after the book is closed and laid back upon the shelf.

If You love Grace Paley, This book is For YOU!

Gloria K. is an artist of the detail, of life in Sephardic Jewish New York, of the family and the community of ideas, of the intonations of the way we talk in New York, in Judaica. This gem of a book should not be neglected just because it does not have a Big Name publisher behind it. Au contraire. This book works small miracles and are unforgettable. I heard Ms. Kirshheimer read at the New York Public Library and her voice stays with me as I read these interwoven fictional tales. They are so reminiscent of the best of Grace Paley. This gal has that same gift of language, of immigrants, of the piquant moment caught with the writer's eye... the good, not the evil eye. Buy or borrow it ASAP. This is a completely Honest review written by a bibliophile. I rarely give books 5 stars. This deserves it. Have I not convinced you???