This charmer’s title offers a strong hint about the contents of this unique creation.
Subtitled Fractured Jewish Fairy Tales, the book features nursery rhymes and fairy tales sprinkled with splashes of Yiddish and a generous helping of delectable humor.
The book’s first story, “Shlepping Beauty,” sets the work’s silly and joyous tone. The book’s vignettes are those from our childhood, so their characters are generally well known as are the plots of each story. But with the added twists of Yiddish phrases, characters both new and some familiar and lots of zaniness, the reader is in for a real treat.
However, the book is not without its flaws. The major lump of coal in this work is that the book has no dictionary to explain the Yiddish contained in each story. If you only know a bissele of Yiddish, like me, not only can the stories be difficult to understand, a heft of humor is lost in translation, too.
Still, the book’s fifteen stories are light, humorous, and fun. If you don’t mind not quite understanding every word you’re reading, or perhaps enjoy the challenge of deciphering the Yiddish, this is a breezy, enjoyable work.
