The Rabbi of Lud

by Stanley Elkin

Overview

 

A small-town Rabbi’s quiet life is turned upside down when his only daughter drops a bombshell The only long-term occupants of Lud, New Jersey, reside in its cemeteries,a fact that suits Rabbi Jerry Goldkorn just fine. Never particularly passionate about his religious calling, Rabbi Goldkorn spends his days officiating funerals and burying the dead in the local cemetery. His life is simple by design—until one day his daughter’s scandalous rebellion threatens to send his world spinning wildly out of control. Spiked with Elkin’s characteristic wit, The Rabbi of Lud is a poignant satire of religious culture—and the story of one man’s struggle with morality, mortality, and the meaning of life. This ebook features rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate and from the Stanley Elkin archives at Washington University in St. Louis.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781453204528
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	10/26/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	277
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Stanley Elkin (1930–1995) was an award-winning author of novels, short stories, and essays. Born in the Bronx, Elkin received his BA and PhD from the University of Illinois and in 1960 became a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis where he taught until his death. His critically acclaimed works include the National Book Critics Circle Award–winners George Mills (1982) and Mrs. Ted Bliss (1995), as well as the National Book Award finalists The Dick Gibson Show (1972), Searches and Seizures (1974), and The MacGuffin (1991). His book of novellas, Van Gogh’s Room at Arles, was a finalist for the PEN Faulkner Award.

Editorial Reviews

Elkin ``defies death with a glistening tale that is laugh-out-loud hilarious as well as poignant,'' praised PW . He introduces a ``voluble, acerbically witty and deliciously irreverent'' rabbi whose business is officiating at the funerals of people he has never met in the necropolis of Lud, N.J. (October)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This is typical Elkin, a blackly humorous character study very ethnic in tone. Jerry Goldkorn, who barely made it though his own bar mitzvah, is the rabbi of Lud, New Jersey, noted primarily for its many cemeteries. Indeed, the rabbi's chief function is to preside at the funerals of people he never knew. He clearly recognizes the basic absurdity of his role but seems content with his lot. Not so his daughter, who rebels by claiming to talk with the ``Holy Mother'' and St. Myra Weiss, patron saint of kids whose dads get transferred. In a lengthy digression dealing with the rabbi's leave in Alaska, one senses that Elkin somehow lost his way. The book has its moments but in the end leaves one feeling a bit unsatisfied. David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.

Library Journal

"[Elkin] defies death with a glistening tale that is laugh-out-loud hilarious as well as poignant." -- PW

Dalkey Archive Press

From the Publisher