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Books > History > American history
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You Never Call! You Never Write! - A History of the Jewish Mother (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,880
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You Never Call! You Never Write! - A History of the Jewish Mother (Hardcover)
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In You Never Call, You Never Write, Joyce Antler provides an
illuminating and often amusing history of one of the best-known
figures in popular culture-the Jewish Mother. Whether drawn as
self-sacrificing or manipulative, in countless films, novels, radio
and television programs, stand-up comedy, and psychological and
historical studies, she appears as a colossal figure, intensely
involved in the lives of her children. Antler traces the odyssey of
this compelling personality through decades of American culture.
She reminds us of a time when Jewish mothers were admired for their
tenacity and nurturance, as in the early twentieth-century image of
the "Yiddishe Mama," a sentimental figure popularized by
entertainers such as George Jessel, Al Jolson, and Sophie Tucker,
and especially by Gertrude Berg, whose amazingly successful "Molly
Goldberg" ruled American radio and television for over 25 years.
Antler explains the transformation of this Jewish Mother into a
"brassy-voiced, smothering, and shrewish" scourge (in Irving Howe's
words), detailing many variations on this negative theme, from
Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint and Woody Allen's Oedipus Wrecks
to television shows such as "The Nanny," "Seinfeld," and "Will and
Grace." But she also uncovers a new counter-narrative, leading
feminist scholars and stand-up comediennes to see the Jewish Mother
in positive terms. Continually revised and reinvented, the Jewish
Mother becomes in Antler's expert hands a unique lens with which to
examine vital concerns of American Jews and the culture at large. A
joy to read, You Never Call, You Never Write will delight anyone
who has ever known or been nurtured by a "Jewish Mother," and it
will be a special source of insight for modern parents. As Antler
suggests, in many ways "we are all Jewish Mothers" today.
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