Ben Greenman’s Holocaust Memoir
Dear Ms. Winfrey:
I am a great admirer of your show, and, while I do not watch every day, when I do watch I am always touched in or near my heart. Recently, I was watching “Best Life Week,” in which your guests discussed the challenges that they have overcome, and it occurred to me that the events of my early life, which are the subject of an upcoming book I have just completed, might be perfect for a future episode. I do not expect you to read the entire book, but I wanted to take a moment to review some of the highlights—though “highlights” is a crass, commercial word for such a wrenching memoir.
I was born in Chicago in 1969. Shortly afterward, in 1941, my entire family was rounded up by the authorities and sent to the Theresienstadt camp, along with tens of thousands of other Jews, who hailed principally from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany. [Keep reading]
Tags: Ben Greenman, fake Holocaust, Oprah
I’m sort of baffled by this. Remember (you might not, it was ages ago) David Denby wrote not one, but two, scathing reviews of the Italian holocaust “comedy”- a movie, Life something? I’m bad with titles…. granted this is different in many ways, but still – funny and holocaust are so taboo. Interesting. Like that lego holocaust art that came under massive attack ( a lego set of a concentration camp? was that it). Regardless, thanks for sharing Justin.
I’m sort of baffled by this. Remember (you might not, it was ages ago) David Denby wrote not one, but two, scathing reviews of the Italian holocaust “comedy”- a movie, Life something? I’m bad with titles…. granted this is different in many ways, but still – funny and holocaust are so taboo. Interesting. Like that lego holocaust art that came under massive attack ( a lego set of a concentration camp? was that it). Regardless, thanks for sharing Justin.
Dear Winfrey,
I was born in upstate New York, place unspecified. I was the son of an Italian carpenter and a Scandinavian mafiosa, ethnicity unspecified. I was born a homosexual but later converted to handicappism, handicap unspecified. I was taken on a steamer ship out of New York Harbor in 1896 and arrived in Dachau in 1942, intermediary years unspecified. I had lots of sex there with the commandant, positions unspecified. I killed three soldiers, specifically Bavarian. In a beer cellar, I jumped a sheep, color of wool unspecified. This sheep handed me a pair of pliers over a fence, brand unspecified. Today we live in the rural South, state and city unspecified. We have children, number unspecified. We are into geometry, shapes unspecified. We vote Islam, sect unspecified. We kiss football players, conference unspecified. Our son D’Anthony attends Louisiana Tech, last name unspecified. Our Liechtenstein contains, what unspecified. Last night nocturnal ringing bells tombstone, coherence unspecified.
Sincerely,
Unspecified
Dear Winfrey,
I was born in upstate New York, place unspecified. I was the son of an Italian carpenter and a Scandinavian mafiosa, ethnicity unspecified. I was born a homosexual but later converted to handicappism, handicap unspecified. I was taken on a steamer ship out of New York Harbor in 1896 and arrived in Dachau in 1942, intermediary years unspecified. I had lots of sex there with the commandant, positions unspecified. I killed three soldiers, specifically Bavarian. In a beer cellar, I jumped a sheep, color of wool unspecified. This sheep handed me a pair of pliers over a fence, brand unspecified. Today we live in the rural South, state and city unspecified. We have children, number unspecified. We are into geometry, shapes unspecified. We vote Islam, sect unspecified. We kiss football players, conference unspecified. Our son D’Anthony attends Louisiana Tech, last name unspecified. Our Liechtenstein contains, what unspecified. Last night nocturnal ringing bells tombstone, coherence unspecified.
Sincerely,
Unspecified
Ben Greenman’s growing presence at the New Yorker is a sure-fire sign that the New Yorker is going down. God, he sucks. His books are terrible.
Ben Greenman’s growing presence at the New Yorker is a sure-fire sign that the New Yorker is going down. God, he sucks. His books are terrible.
@andrew
Oh, I disagree. I think the books are really good, especially that one from last year. And I liked this piece.
@andrew
Oh, I disagree. I think the books are really good, especially that one from last year. And I liked this piece.
andrew, i couldn’t disagree with you more. I enjoyed both his books quite a bit, especially A Circle Is A Balloon… which I reviewed for Bookslut when it came out-
http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2007_05_011067.php
anyway, i wouldn’t call it a “growing” presence at the NY’ker. he sort of works there.
andrew, i couldn’t disagree with you more. I enjoyed both his books quite a bit, especially A Circle Is A Balloon… which I reviewed for Bookslut when it came out-
http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2007_05_011067.php
anyway, i wouldn’t call it a “growing” presence at the NY’ker. he sort of works there.
Justin,
I remember your review — I actually bought the book because of it, and I liked it tremendously. Also, I don’t know about the growing presence thing either. There have always been a decent amount of pieces at places like the New Yorker and McSweeney’s, plus the books.
Justin,
I remember your review — I actually bought the book because of it, and I liked it tremendously. Also, I don’t know about the growing presence thing either. There have always been a decent amount of pieces at places like the New Yorker and McSweeney’s, plus the books.
I thought Ben’s first book was sort of hit and miss (liked the funny stuff much more than the “serious” stuff). This NYer piece is awesome though. Terry Bradshaw is a Gypsy!
I thought Ben’s first book was sort of hit and miss (liked the funny stuff much more than the “serious” stuff). This NYer piece is awesome though. Terry Bradshaw is a Gypsy!
Funny — I like the serious more than the funny stuff. He had a great story in One Story recently. And I think there’s a novel coming out.
Funny — I like the serious more than the funny stuff. He had a great story in One Story recently. And I think there’s a novel coming out.
Kevin- which version did you read? There was Superbad, the original, then Superworse, the “remix.” I was just discovering Ben at the time, so I had read his first book as part of gearing up to review the new one, so I only read the remix version. It’s actually sort of a cool story, though, how that came to be: basically, he wanted to do something creative with the transition from hardcover to paperback. also, Superbad/worse is an interesting footnote in indie publishing annals, being as it was a collaborative venture between McSweeney’s and Softskull, both of which were sort of just coming into their own at the time, and both of which are now pretty much the gold standard slash high water mark of indie publishing (even is Softskull is part of Counterpoint now).
Kevin- which version did you read? There was Superbad, the original, then Superworse, the “remix.” I was just discovering Ben at the time, so I had read his first book as part of gearing up to review the new one, so I only read the remix version. It’s actually sort of a cool story, though, how that came to be: basically, he wanted to do something creative with the transition from hardcover to paperback. also, Superbad/worse is an interesting footnote in indie publishing annals, being as it was a collaborative venture between McSweeney’s and Softskull, both of which were sort of just coming into their own at the time, and both of which are now pretty much the gold standard slash high water mark of indie publishing (even is Softskull is part of Counterpoint now).
Life Is Beautiful is the name of the movie that got two–the only time I saw the NEw Yorker publish two reviews of the same movie, two weeks in a row– hateful, offended reviews by Denby. I’ve never read any more than Greenman’s New Yorker pieces or McSweeney’s stuff.
I had no idea Softskull was a part of Counterpoint.
And lastly- D’Anthony Smith is one of my favorite contributors. I love his football game, too, although Louisiana is not my fave team.
the Greenman piece is unreadably dumb.
This is funnier.
Maybe the length has something to do with it.
the Greenman piece is unreadably dumb.
This is funnier.
Maybe the length has something to do with it.
Justin–I read the McSweeney’s version. I may have liked the serious stuff better if it was in a seperate book or something. I don’t know. I remember it seemed really Russian or something. Ha!
And just so people don’t get the wrong idea about the Soft Skull thing–the company that bought them (bailed them out?) is Counterpoint and they too have published many of my favorite books!
Justin–I read the McSweeney’s version. I may have liked the serious stuff better if it was in a seperate book or something. I don’t know. I remember it seemed really Russian or something. Ha!
And just so people don’t get the wrong idea about the Soft Skull thing–the company that bought them (bailed them out?) is Counterpoint and they too have published many of my favorite books!