G198 Book Review of Yom Kipppur as Manifest in an Approaching Dorsal Fin by Adam Byrn Tritt
Name of Book: Yom Kipppur as Manifest in an Approaching Dorsal Fin
ISBN: 978-1-62927-001-2
Publisher: Smithcraft Press
Year it was published: 2013
Overall theme:
There is a sense of loss throughout the stories
Author: Adam Byrn Tritt
About the Author:
(from goodreads.com)
born
in Brookline, Mass., The United States
gender
male
website
genre
influences
Isaac Asimov, E.E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams, Hafiz, [a:Bill B...more
member since
April 2012
Adam Byrn Tritt is an international bestselling and award winning poet, essayist, screenwriter, teacher, social activist, and humorist. Tritt is the author of The Phoenix and the Dragon: Poems of the Alchemical Transformation, several works of nonfiction, Tellstones: Runic Divination in the Welsh Tradition; and his newest book, the delightful (and slightly disturbing) Bud the Spud.
Adam won the 2006 EPPIE Award for Poetry in an Anthology, and his first children's book, Bud the Spud, won the P&E Award for best Children's Book of 2012. In 1995 he was awarded an honorary doctorate for his work in religious tolerance and for the creation of TurningPoint, a nonprofit program providing alternative medicine to low-income individuals. He continues that passion today in the healthcare clinic he and his wife, Lee, dreamed of and created together--the Wellness Center.
He is equally at home speaking in lecture halls, giving public readings in bookstores, and visiting elementary school classrooms, where he can be found surrounded by children begging him to read Bud the Spud just one more time (while their parents and teachers beg him to stop).
Adam lives and writes--often simultaneously--in Palm Bay, Florida, with a dingo, and a ridiculously large alligator, all under a very big tree. You can find his stimulating blog--mostly essays, creative non-fiction, and poetry -- at adamtritt.com
1. 3:10
Message:
Written in a poem form about the author thinking and wrestling with G-d as well as wondering about the difference between him and atheists.
2. Yom Kippur as Manifest in an Approaching Dorsal Fin
Message:
A tale in first person narrative of how he and some of his friends attend Kol Nidre,as well as a reflection on how years actually feel.
3. Burial
Message:
A poem of how his grandmother passed away and of what he was feeling when he and his brother were burying her.
4. Funeral, Expurgated
Message:
In first person narrative the author relates a brief history of his paternal? grandmother and how she treated his side of the family, as well as what she denied to herself. There is also arguing over proper versus what she would have wanted and the funeral and its effects.
5. Passover and the Industrial Revolution
Message:
Its in a form of a poem of the author recalling the handmade matza he makes as well as what's happening now and somehow there is a visit to New York Delancey Street.
6. The Harmony of Broken Glass
Message:
The author and his wife open up a bookstore and try to keep it running, unsuccesffuly. The author relates to the time he held Kabbalah classes there and how it caused the building to move two inches, as well as having a small crack in the glass.
7. Fifty Years
Message:
Its written as a poem about what the author's world might have been like fifty years ago prior to the Nazis conquering.
8. Yahrzeit
Message:
The author recounts the story of the way his mother passed away as well as what happened at the funeral and so forth. Its quite different than the Funeral story.
9. What do Jews do on christmas?
Message:
A poem about what Jews eat and do when there's christmas.
Personal Opinion
I really liked the first few stories, one about Yom Kippur and the other is Burial, which I felt were very powerful and connected to me in a deep way. The other stories, unfortunately, barely connected to me. The whole book was about loss; of grandmothers, business, traditions, mother, and passage of time. I didn't really understand why the poems seemed to be disconnected. Its a good book to read, meditate and reflect upon.
Quick notes: I won this book on goodreads.com thus this review will appear in its entirety on goodreads as well as the blog
4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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