Bøker av Devorah Baum

A compulsively readable, startling, and philosophically rich book about marriage, from an acclaimed critic and filmmaker

'Devorah Baum is a visionary writer. Her intellectual depth, her emotional precision and her searing insight can only be gathered under an old fashioned word: wisdom' Zadie SmithA shining exploration of why we marry from writer and academic Devorah BaumStraight, queer, coupled or uncoupled, none of us live outside the cultural influence of marriage, and all of us are written into its story. But what are we really talking about when we talk about marriage? Is it an act of love, a framework for family, a hedge against being alone? Or could its traditional cover conceal something a bit more radical?Drawing on philosophy, fiction, psychoanalysis and pop culture, Baum explores what we are really doing when we say, 'I do'. Entertaining, illuminating, candid and consoling, On Marriage considers the joys and sorrows of matrimony - and its effects on us all.'A hugely thought-provoking, witty, warm tour around every significant writer and thinker on love to have emerged since Adam and Eve' Alain de Botton

BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORKER AND KIRKUS 'Devorah Baum is a visionary writer. Her intellectual depth, her emotional precision and her searing insight can only be gathered under an old fashioned word: wisdom' Zadie SmithA shining exploration of why we marry from writer and academic Devorah BaumFor better or worse, for richer for poorer, till death us do part ¿ we¿ve always done it and we¿re still doing it. Of all our cultural institutions, marriage is the most ancient, but also the most puzzling.In this compelling and delightful book, Devorah Baum examines the many meanings we have given to marriage, interweaving the personal with insights from a host of writers, artists and thinkers.From Freud to Ferrante, and One Thousand and One Nights to Fleabag, she looks at marriage in all of its forms ¿ from act of love to leap of faith, and asks: what are we really doing when we say `I dö?Both celebration and critique, On Marriage is a guide like no other to the landscape of marriage.'A hugely thought-provoking, witty, warm tour around every significant writer and thinker on love to have emerged since Adam and Eve' Alain de Botton

Comedy is full of famously funny Jews, from Groucho Marx to Larry David to Sarah Silverman. This smart and funny book includes tales from many of these much-loved comics, and will appeal to their broad audience, while revealing the history, context, and wider culture of Jewish joking. The Jewish joke is as old as Abraham, and like the Jews themselves it has wandered over the world, learned countless new languages, worked with a range of different materials, been performed in front of some pretty hostile crowds, and yet still retained its own distinctive identity. So what is it that animates the Jewish joke? Why are Jews so often thought of as ';funny'? And how old can a joke get? With jokes from Lena Dunham to Woody Allen, as well as Freud and Marx (Groucho, mostly), Baum balances serious research with light-hearted humor and provides fascinating insight into this wellknown and much loved cultural phenomenon.

John Offenbach's wonderful collection of portraits, boldly and bluntly entitled Jew, could not be more timely. In a period when antisemitism and racism are rife, when ignorance and prejudice prevail, here is a captivating tale of the unexpected. A portrait of Jewish people which defies cliché and stereotype. From Brooklyn to Azerbaijan, from the homeless to the homeland, all human life is here. - Alan Yentob - BBC Some years ago John Offenbach decided to embark on a series of portraits of Jews from different ethnicities, such as those from India and China and Ethiopia. Not just the great and the good, it had to include the homeless Jew, as well as the rich Jew. The incarcerated Jew, and the heroin addict.Offenbach took inspiration from People of the Twentieth Century, the series of portraits of German people of the 1920's by the Cologne-based photographer August Sander, but unlike Sander, he decided not to include the background or the setting for any of portraits, as he didn't want this collection to be documentary in style or intention; so, a weaver in Ethiopia is sitting in exactly the same light as a financier from Wall Street. Half way around the world to each other but surprisingly close.Offenbach travelled to thirteen countries, including Argentina, Azerbaijan, India, Ethiopia, China and Ukraine and took are approximately 150 black-and-white portraits of jews. The objective of the series is to look at Jewish faces and see the similarities and the differences. A snapshot of world Jewry today. On one level simply, that Jews come from all parts of society, and in all shapes and sizes.The prints are all 76 cm x 64 cm, printed on Zerkall mould paper. The image is injected like an ink jet, however consists purely of liquid carbon. The prints have an exquisite and beautiful quality. They are 100% archival and rather like a pencil drawing, consist of no chemicals at all, except paper and carbon.

In this sparkling debut, a young critic offers an original, passionate, and erudite account of what it means to feel Jewish-even when you're not.