Beyond Sambation

Beyond Sambation
Author: A.M. Klein
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 1046
Release: 1982-12-15
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1442638605

The broad range of A.M. Klein’s interests, ideas, and activities is reflected in this selection of articles, editorials, and reviews – a selection that also displays the qualities that distinguished all his creative writing and the highly idiosyncratic nature of his style. The writings in this volume span a most critical juncture in human affairs; a period that witnessed the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Nazism, and communism, the Second World War, and the emergence of the State of Israel. As a journalist, Klein did more than record the events – he gave expression to the feelings of his people and helped shape their responses. His wide reading, sensitivity, and intelligence made him a perceptive observer and keen analyst, while his command of language, his passion, rhetoric, and wit, made him an eloquent spokesman. These qualities enabled him to carry out the responsibilities, as he saw them, of chronicler and champion. Though Klein’s major concern was with the Canadian Jewish scene, his interests were part of the mosaic of Canadian history and his work forms a chronicle and a commentary on events of world-wide significance. Klein’s journalism relates frequently, in both substance and language, to his poems and fiction, and thus provides a context for the study of his creative writing. It also reveals aspects of his personality, values, and commitments, contributing to our understanding and appreciation of one of Canada’s foremost writers.

My Poems

My Poems
Author: Oskar Klausenstock, M.D.
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2014-07-29
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 149174149X

In his collection of poetry, the author recalls the events and emotions of his life, from arriving in the United States and seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time to standing beneath a wedding canopy and whispering, "I do." His verses explore his joy of finally being accepted in America and his pride at graduating from several universities, earning the title of doctor of medicine. Reflecting the memories and dreams of a life well lived, this collection shares the poetic stories of one man's life.

Third Solitudes

Third Solitudes
Author: Michael Greenstein
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 241
Release: 1989-04-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0773561854

Canadian-Jewish literature, Greenstein argues, is characterized by the sense of homelessness and exile which dominated the writings of the father of Jewish-Canadian literature, A.M. Klein. Greenstein finds the paradigm for this sense of loss in Henry Kreisel's short story, "The Almost Meeting." Using the theme of this story as a base, Greenstein describes how the Jewish-Canadian writer is divided between life in Canada and a rich European past - between life in the New World and the strong traditions of the Old. The Jewish-Canadian writer may look for a home in both these places, but neither is fulfilling as both are necessary parts of the individual. The writer thus straddles two incompatible worlds and must expect the loss of one or the other. In the struggle to overcome these difficulties and maintain a true dialogue with others and themselves, such writers experience missed or "almost meetings" as they cope with the homelessness that characterizes diaspora and Canada's "third solitude."

Second Scroll

Second Scroll
Author: A. M. Klein
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 1985
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0910395152

Written soon after the founding of the state of Israel, The Second Scroll is A.M. Klein’s most innovative and visionary work. The five “books” of the novel are a modern testament of Jewish experience to which are appended “glosses” or commentaries in the form of drama, epistle, poetry, and psalm. The action centres on a young writer from Montreal, whose search for his legendary Uncle Melech becomes a journey of revelation through Italy, Morocco, and the Holy Land. Dissident and exile, reformer and scholar, Melech is a messianic figure who enacts the destiny of his people and embodies the spiritual yearnings of everyman. The Second Scroll, Klein’s only novel, combines the lyric genius of his poetic works with compelling reportage to create one of the most eloquent and original works in Canadian fiction.

From Cohen to Carson

From Cohen to Carson
Author: Ian Rae
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2008
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0773574921

"From Cohen to Carson provides the first book-length analysis of one of Canada's most distinctive fields of literary production. Ian Rogers argues that Canadian poets have turned to the novel because of the limitations of the lyric, but have used lyric methods - puns, symbolism, repetition, juxtaposition - to create a mode of narrative that contrasts sharply with the descriptive conventions of realist and plot-driven novels." "Detailed case studies of novels by Leonard Cohen, Michael Ondaatje, George Bowering, Daphne Marlatt, and Anne Carson, as well as sections on A. M. Klein and Anne Michaels, reveal how these authors framed their early novels according to formal precedents established in their poetry. In tracking the authors' shift from lyric to long poem to novel, Rae also investigates their experiments with non-literary art forms - photography, painting, and film. He argues convincingly that the authors discussed have combined disparate genres and media to alter notions of narrative coherence in the novel and engage the diverse but fragmented cultural histories of Canadian society." --Résumé de l'éditeur.

Failure's Opposite

Failure's Opposite
Author: Norman Ravvin
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2011-05-20
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0773586644

Failure's Opposite presents a fresh perspective on Klein's reception and legacy, exploring why he has remained a compelling figure for critics and readers. His experimentalism drew upon strong traditions and fluency in several languages - English, French, Yiddish, and Hebrew - allowing him to develop a multilingual, modernist Jewish voice that is a touchstone for understanding Canada's multicultural identity. His struggle with the emotional and historical dimensions of diaspora is of considerable importance throughout his work and is investigated through the lenses of translation, voice, and his relationship to other Jewish writers. Contributors also re-evaluate Klein's connection to Montreal and the original ways in which he captured the atmosphere of his "jargoning city." Failure's Opposite reflects the many ways A.M. Klein is being remade in the twenty-first century, both as a bridge to the past and a model for contemporary critical and creative work in Canadian literature.

A.M. Klein: Complete Poems

A.M. Klein: Complete Poems
Author: A.M. Klein
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 1187
Release: 1990-12-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1487590938

It is for his poetry that A.M. Klein is best known and most warmly remembered. This collection includes all Klein's poetry, both original works and translations from Hebrew, Yiddish, Aramaic, and Latin. Many of them, coming from all periods of his careers, have never been published. The poems are arranged chronologically according to date of composition. This makes possible, for the first time, an appreciation of Klein's poetic development. The editor's introduction places this development in the perspective of Klein's life and time, and in particular explores Klein's lifelong struggle to reconcile his dual vocations as both a Jewish and a modernist writer. The textual apparatus identifies all authoritative versions for each poem and lists all emendations and all substative variants in both published and mauscript versions. The explanatory notes gloss obscure terms and references. They also provide a rich context for appreciation and interpretation by drawing connections with Klein's life, his wide reading, and his work as a whole. Wherever possible, Klein's own numerous, but scattered, comments on his poems have been cited.

Notebooks

Notebooks
Author: A.M. Klein
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 1995-12-15
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1442655690

Much of A.M. Klein's finest prose is to be found in the mass of uncompleted work that he abandoned at the time of his breakdown, and that became accessible only when his papers were deposited in the National Archives. Notebooks offers a generous selection of this work, revealing previously unsuspected facets of Klein's character and artistry. The fiction, criticism, and memoirs collected here focus on Klein's exploration of the role of the artist. The works illuminate crucial periods of his career, especially the early 1940s, when he was transforming himself into a modernist, and the early 1950s, when he was struggling to overcome the misgivings about his art that were to lead to his final breakdown. The semi-autobiographical text which Klein referred to as 'Raw Material' and the unfinished novel of prison life entitled 'Stranger and Afraid' cast a new light on Klein's often frustrating relationship with the Montreal Jewish community. In 'Marginalia' he discusses poetic form and technique and makes observations on the nature of poetry, thereby providing insights into his own concerns as a writer. In 'The Golem,' a profoundly ambiguous treatment of the act of creation, a self-portrait emerges of a storyteller who has lost faith in the power and value of his story. The volume includes a critical introduction, that places the material in the context of Klein's other works, as well as textual and explanatory notes.

Canada's Jews

Canada's Jews
Author: Gerald Tulchinsky
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 669
Release: 2008-05-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442691131

The history of the Jewish community in Canada says as much about the development of the nation as it does about the Jewish people. Spurred on by upheavals in Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Jews emigrated to the Dominion of Canada, which was then considered little more than a British satellite state. Over the ensuing decades, as the Canadian Jewish identity was forged, Canada itself underwent the transformative experience of separating itself from Britain and distinguishing itself from the United States. In this light, the Canadian Jewish identity was formulated within the parameters of the emerging Canadian national personality. Canada's Jews is an account of this remarkable story as told by one of the leading authors and historians on the Jewish legacy in Canada. Drawing on his previous work on the subject, Gerald Tulchinsky illuminates the struggle against anti-Semitism and the search for a livelihood amongst the Jewish community. He demonstrates that, far from being a fragment of the Old World, the Canadian Jewry grew from a tiny group of transplanted Europeans to a fully articulated, diversified, and dynamic national group that defined itself as Canadian while expressing itself in the varied political and social contexts of the Dominion. Canada's Jews covers the 240-year period from the beginnings of the Jewish community in the 1760s to the present day, illuminating the golden chain of Jewish tradition, religion, language, economy, and history as established and renewed in the northern lands. With important points about labour, immigration, and anti-Semitism, it is a timely book that offers sober observations about the Jewish experience and its relation to Canadian history.