Fables

Fables for Our Time in Maya Sonenberg’s “Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters” – Chicago Review of Books

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Fables for Our Time in Maya Sonenberg’s “Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] In her essay “Fairy Tale Is Form, Form Is Fairy Tale,” Kate Bernheimer balks at critics who pan fairy tales, fabulism, and other genres where magic insinuates itself in everyday experience. Bernheimer instead points out that the fairy tale’s grimness and infinite possibilities energize even writers of literary realism and every fiber of their … Read more

Poetic Fables and Guarded Secrets in “The Lost Shtetl” – Chicago Review of Books

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Poetic Fables and Guarded Secrets in “The Lost Shtetl” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Deep in the forests of eastern Poland, the town of Kreskol lies forgotten. Through an improbable combination of bureaucratic negligence, unfriendly relations with other Jewish towns, and favorable geography, the Jews of Kreskol — the world’s last shtetl — have escaped the great onslaughts of the twentieth century (the Great War; the Holocaust; Polish … Read more