Born To Kvetch CD: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods | 
|  | | | Title: | Born To Kvetch CD: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods | | Author: | Michael Wex (Reader) | | Publisher: | HarperAudio | | Type: | Book / Audio CD | | Publication Date: | 01 March, 2006 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0061131229 / 9780061131226 | | List Price: | $34.95 | | You Save: | $8.91 | | Amazon Price: | $26.04 | |
 This audio CD is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $20.78. |
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
As the main spoken language of the Jews for more than a thousand years, Yiddish has had plenty to lament, plenty to conceal. Its phrases and expressions paint a comprehensive picture of the mind-set that enabled the Jews of Europe to survive persecution: they never stopped kvetching about God, gentiles, children, and everything else. In Born to Kvetch, Michael Wex looks at the ingredients that went into this buffet of disenchantment and examines how they were mixed together to produce an almost limitless supply of striking idioms and withering curses. Born to Kvetch includes a wealth of material that's never appeared in English before. This is no bobe mayse (cock-and-bull story) from a khokhem be-layle (idiot, literally a "sage at night" when no one's looking), but a serious yet fun and funny look at a language. From tukhes to goy, meshugener to kvetch, Yiddish words have permeated and transformed English as well. Through the fascinating history of this kvetch-full tongue, Michael Wex gives us a moving and inspiring portrait of a people, and a language, in exile.
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Customer Reviews:
• My Turn To Kvetch 30 June, 2006
Publisher's Weekly has it right. I found the author's voice annoying almost to the point to not being able to listen. But I stuck with it because the book is full of valuable information. And then just when I thought I couldn't stand it any more, he came up with a zinger that I found hilarious. So, my advice is if you can ignore or get used to the whiney voice, try to listen for the content and humor.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3Q9Q6S0Q6JT1B
• Very Well Written 12 January, 2007
this is a scholarly, as well as entertaining, book. I always say that if I'm not complaining, check my pulse. Well now I know why.
You'll laugh, and most importantly, you'll gain understanding.
Even my husband the shaygitz enjoyed it.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2WAVWILGD4KDX
• Great Book - But Reading Is Hard To Bear 11 July, 2007
Like most previous reviewers, I loved this book. I did want to mention that the audio version, narrated by the author, is problematic. On the positive front, the author pronounces Yiddish correctly! The problem is in how he pronounces English. He has a very odd way of speaking, with the last word of each sentence articulated very slowly (str-e-e-e-etched out) and about three notes lower than every other word in the sentence. Every sentence ends with a melodic downturn. I found it quite maddening and really had trouble enjoying the book because of it. You may want to be careful if you plan to buy the audio book because his diction is really rather odd.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1NPXCVJ73ENR7
• Publisher's Weekly Was Right - Great Book, Horrible Audio 12 June, 2006
This may be a brilliant and insightful book, but as an audio CD it is impossible to listen to. I wish I had paid attention to the PW review, because it is all too apt. ("The Canadian author's bizarre, somewhat hypnotic reading style--with its randomly elongated vowels--is a cross between Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man character and a classic Yiddish whine.") Imagine what it would sound like if English were chanted like a Hebrew prayer by a computer generated voice . I still plan to read this highly praised book, but for me the audio version has been a complete disaster. I have given up on it.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A33L5W90M2HCQV
• So, What's Not To Like? 31 December, 2006
First of all full disclosure, possible conflict of interest: I know Michael Wex and think he is a genius. I would buy anything he writes, records, I don't care. His shopping lists are probably more exciting than half of the stuff in print today. So, I don't pretend to be neutral.
Recently I spent four days listening to him lecture at the annual Klezkamp get together. I couldn't stop laughing. My sister sat next to me. She was laughing so hard I thought she might need emergency medical care.
The material is potentially beyond dull. Wex's genius is that he makes it dance and makes me beg for more. Granted, I am a Yiddishist and love the language and culture. Also, I come from a similar background having sat in a yeshiva (rabbinical seminary) for several years, so I identify with much of what he discusses. However, as the old commercial for Levy's rye bread went, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's." Anyone with the least interest in European Jewish culture will find this work to be a gold mine.
Why? Because what he says ( writes in his book) is, as far as I know, totally original. There is so much sentimental nonsense written about Yiddish and European Jewry. This book totally strips that away. Here you get the real, unvarnished thing.
Some people complain about his voice. For me, it is the perfect voice for this book. It is the quintessential Eastern European Jewish voice with a beautiful Canadian undertone. The tone, the flow, the candence are all classic kvetch with a generous contribution from Leonard Cohen. I grew up with many people who spoke this way. I find it totally wonderful that the publisher would have Michael read his own work; it is a stroke of genius. I listened to the entire set in my car. At times I laughed so hard I was afraid the police would pull me over. " Your honor, I was overcome with an eruptive kvetch. What can I say?"
Now I'm listening to it again. And then I'll probably do it again, and again.....
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2GWUSDTZT2VUS
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