Never Better!: The Modern Jewish Picaresque by Miriam Udel Yiddish Learning When an ill-advised boast draws

When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate

Petrovsky-Shtern brings this golden age to life

Two recent books--- Alice Nakhimovsky’s and Roberta Newman’s

Zalmen Reyzen and Nokhem Shtif

from the courtyard to the courthouse

Never Better!: The Modern Jewish Picaresque by Miriam Udel Yiddish Learning When an ill-advised boast draws2016 National Jewish Book Council Award Winner It was only when Jewish writers gave up on the lofty Enlightenment ideals of progress and improvement that the Yiddish novel could decisively enter modernity. Animating their fictions were a set of unheroic heroes who struck a precarious balance between sanguinity and irony that author Miriam Udel captures through the phrase never better. With this rhetorical homage toward the double voiced utterances of