Fic­tion

Goldie’s Lox and the Three Bagels: Frac­tured Jew­ish Fairy Tales

Jef­frey and Lila Dubinsky
  • Review
By – January 27, 2012

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. 

Tami Kamin-Mey­er is a licensed attor­ney who would rather write than fight. Her byline has appeared in a vari­ety of pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing Bet­ter Homes and Gar­dens, The Rotar­i­an, Ohio Super Lawyers, Ohio Lawyers Week­ly, Ohio Mag­a­zine, Cleve­land Jew­ish News, the Jew­ish Tele­graph­ic Agency, and www​.chabad​.edu. She is also an award-win­ning Hebrew school educator.

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