Vent and Request-- Good Frum Writers!

ILOVELIFE

Sun, Jan 24 2010, 1:48 am

There are so so few but we need each one to keep writing and producing good stuff. Let's try to keep this thread with limited bashing and focus on what's good and what can be improved on a major level. Feel free to answer only some of the questions and elaborate as much as you can.

1. Who is your favorite frum book author?
2. Who is your favorite frum magazine writer?
3. Who is your favorite frum writer for kids/teens?
3. Which genre does the frum world do best in?
4. Which genre has the frum world produced the WORST material in?
5. Is it true that we have better frum male writers than female writers?

What do you like about the writers you recommend? While pursuing my writing career, I am often tempted to read all the secular stuff out there and I have read the classics but at the same time I'm trying to limit my exposure of secular literature. I'm curious as to what you enjoy best in the frum world.

shiradye

Sun, Jan 24 2010, 10:14 am

I like Libby Lazewnick, Nachman Seltzer, Yair Weinstock, Eli Shechter, the author of Sun Inside Rain as far as novels go. Yonasan Rosenblum does a good job on bios.
For magazines, Barbara Bensoussan and Tziporah Koslowitz are my faves.
Nowadays I don't read much besides the frum stuff; there is so much available that I don't need secular. It does disturb me that there are words which are incorrectly used in many books, but I don't think that is exclusive to frum writings.
I'm sure there are some I'm leaving out but these are to start with.

Congrats on writing and keep up the good work!

sunny90

Sun, Jan 24 2010, 12:17 pm

1. I like Ruthie Pearlman's books, also Sun Inside Rain by M. Bassara, Libby Lazewnik--because the plots are good and the writing is good (although I find RP describes food a LOT--I'm always hungry after I read one of her books!)--both are very important to me! I can't STAND badly-written books! Also, Yair Weinstock is very good although you can tell its been translated.
Also there was this book--I can't remember the name--going back and forth in time ending up showing how there was this couple who was meant to get married but didn't, and each future generation somehow connected until present day--anyone remember the name? That was great!
I want to write more but DS is complaining. I'll try to finish later.

Isramom8

Sun, Jan 24 2010, 12:32 pm

Regarding genre, please understand that the main interests of any well written secular book revolve around s e x, birth, violence and death. We can deal with these topics in a non-explicit way, but not in an explicit way. Or very delicately hint at them.

Interestingly, some of the best secular authors write in very subtle terms about these topics - it takes true talent. Can we do it well? Because if we skip over these topics, we are missing the elements of what readers want - because people want to hold up a mirror to what makes the world most meaningful.

What I want to know is: What is the best scene in a frum book you have read that deals with any of the above topics? I find that the best of our authors are the ones who are the most direct and biographical, and when you read into their words you understand that they are just scratching the surface. Like Ruchoma Shain writing about dating, love and marriage in her family, Lieutenant Birnbaum writing about liberating the camps and about soldiers visiting nightclubs, and Avraham Schwartzbaum a"h writing about sensitive adoption topics.

If someone frum could pull off a mamash quality, refined intimacy in marriage scene, that would be a true contribution. The one I tried to write once was a pathetic attempt, worthy of being immediately and forever deleted.

penguin

Sun, Jan 24 2010, 12:40 pm

Rachel Pomerantz is a very talented writer.
Henya Meyer who wrote Exiles of Crocodile Island and The Sun God is finally doing something new in a serial.

My observation is that the best writers are baalei teshuva and geirim, which does not reflect very well on our school systems, which do not seem to produce the best writers. But possibly it's just that to really write well you must be widely read, which our typical Bais Yaakov graduates are not, in general.

life'sgreat

Sun, Jan 24 2010, 6:55 pm

penguin wrote:

I didn't know Henya has another book out. I must get my hands on it.

One topic that is entirely taboo within the frum world and its publications of any kind is real issues that happens within the frum world. Many books are with the happily ever after ending and totally unrealistic in concept. There are no real good books on a child from divorced parents, blended families (I can call you Ima, which is a translated book is one), children from dysfunctional homes, those who grew up neglected, children with parents who are not emotionally healthy etc...

And no frum publication will want to write on that. There's this need to always try to paint a perfect picture of our world, which is unfortunately far from perfect, just like the rest of the world.

PinkFridge

Sun, Jan 24 2010, 10:09 pm

life'sgreat wrote:

penguin wrote:

There are a lot of books with dysfunction in it, Innocent Deceptions, a book by Chaim Eliav I read years a go (can't remember which one but by p. 30 I remember wanting to bang someone's head against the wall), some Ruthie Pearlman books, Triangle of Despair, Reva Pomerantz's books, A Promising Past...it's downright chic these days.

life'sgreat

Mon, Jan 25 2010, 12:48 am

PinkFridge wrote:

I haven't read any of the above mentioned books, which is interesting because I was an avid reader a few years back. But what are their basic plots? Because any book that I have read on these topics is usually so unrealistic and pretend.

PinkFridge

Mon, Jan 25 2010, 11:50 am

life'sgreat wrote:

PinkFridge wrote:

Innocent Deceptions is a book wherein no deceptions were innocent. A girl with serious unaddressed mental issues gets married to someone totally not for her. Lots and lots of dysfunction.

Ruthie Pearlman wrote Daniel My Son about going through the social welfare system in fostering a child, and some other books that might deal with kids who went off the derech or took serious detours, Against the Wall, I think.

Haven't read Triangle of Despair but from what I've seen it may fit the bill.

Can't remember the Reva Pomerantz books but I'm pretty sure she's done some.

A Promising Past - Dov Haller - was quite good. You have to wonder - if he could have got away with describing other sorts of abuse re the kid in camp if he would have.

And as for the stilted writing, maybe some of the really gifted writers (like Meir Uri Gottesman [though he did write a book years ago that's tickling the back of my brain - A Face at the Window?]) just have different stories to tell.

PinkFridge

Mon, Jan 25 2010, 12:01 pm

Isramom8 wrote:

True, stilted may not be the author's fault. I heard that when Chaim Shapiro wanted a frum publisher to publish Go My Son, he was originally told there was too much inappropriate stuff in it. Then a secular publisher told him to put in more of that or he couldn't publish it!

There's a difference between stilted writing and inappropriate stuff. Unfortunately, a lot of the squeaky clean Judaica is full of stilted writing.

life'sgreat

Mon, Jan 25 2010, 4:09 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

Having read books like the first one you described, I am not sure it would pass. I'll try to get my hands on these mentioned though. Even if just to be sure that what I'm saying is true. Most of these books, even if it touches on the issues, cannot and will not be realistic. They can't and won't write about the dysfunctional home with dysfunctional relationships and children trying to just survive. There's chutzpa involved, as well as other 'unpretty' things. Which CH"V the frum world should face.

Raisin

Mon, Jan 25 2010, 4:31 pm

life'sgreat wrote:

penguin wrote:

I think sarah birnhack's books (search my heart, family secrets) are excellent, and they certainly are not full of happy ever after stories. Plenty of dysfunctional families and parents in there.

ILOVELIFE

Mon, Jan 25 2010, 5:49 pm

life'sgreat wrote:

PinkFridge wrote:

Of all the ones mentioned above the most well written and best portrayed was Triangle of Despair and that was cuz it was TRUE!!! Innocent Deceptions was true to life but extremely messy in its plot and didn't have a normal ending (a lot of loose ends) Haller's Promising Past was fantastic so was his "In Black and White"

the world's best mom

Mon, Jan 25 2010, 6:29 pm

I think the best Jewish book I've ever read was Family for a While. I've read it a number of times and it makes me cry my eyes out each time.

The only Jewish author who I've seen who is skilled at using good English is Hanoch Teller. His books are quite enjoyable. They are short stories, some based on truth, others totally true.