Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods

by Michael Wex

Book Overview

As the main spoken language of the Jews for more than a thousand years, Yiddish has had plenty to lament, plenty to conceal. Its phrases, idioms, and expressions paint a comprehensive picture of the mind-set that enabled the Jews of Europe to survive a millennium of unrelenting persecution: they never stopped kvetching ---about God, gentiles, children, food, and everything (and anything) else. They even learned how to smile through their kvetching...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312307411
• ISBN13: 9780312307417
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

I Tip My Yarmulke to Michael Wex

Here's MY "kvetch": Till now I thought my book on Yiddish, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish" was the very best book on the subject. Who told Wex to write such a funny, brilliant, erudite, insightful book - did I need this kind of competition? But I "fargin" him - and all you lovers of Yiddish out there. Buy mine if you can but DEFINITELY buy Wex's masterpiece - I loved it!!!!! Rabbi Benjamin Blech

Die Emmeseh Zach

Not only is Mr. Wex funny, his book also has the ring of authenticity. This is not a book about literary Yiddish but rather, living Yiddish, replete with day-today expressions for what real people do: eat, eliminate, curse, and talk about other people having sex. Furthermore, to understand Yiddish, one must understand the Yid and the deep tie to Torah and observance. Mr. Wex writes as an insider, not an observer, and so comes up with the "real thing."

The intillectual humor of the Yiddish culture

Michael Wex has masterfully reproduced the Ashkenazi Jewish experience in a colorful and humerous language, incorporating the Yiddish thought process that has emerged over many centuries. While the book has the initial impression of being rather funny, the reader soon grasps the intillectualism that resonates throughout the book, delving into the human element. It connects many around the world, as one instinctively travels to the roots of a culture, intertwined with its ancestry as far as Biblical times. It is a fascinating book that should appeal to most people with an open and inquisitive mind, particularly when many of the phrases, the thought processes, and the humor which connects them have been used for so many decades. Kvetching, complaining so to speak, is more than a word, or a statement...it represents a way of thinking, a necessary reflex, a defense mechanism to gain advantage on an issue or an argument. It is informative, easy to read, enjoyable, and with the bonus of cultural and historical humor.

The one thing you will have not to kvetch about is this book

Aside from the rave reviews on this site I have read two other longer rave reviews, William Grimes in the 'New York Times' and Josh Lambert in J-books. Both claim that this book is not only tremendously funny but a very deep probe into the nature of Yiddish, and in fact Diaspora Ashkenazi experience. This is what Lambert has to say about the lead idea of the book. "Yiddish, Wex argues, is most comfortable when it's complaining. It's "a language that likes to argue with everybody about everything." He explains this as consistent with the Mishnaic scholars (who "disagree 99.8 percent of the time") and the principle of "aftselakhis"-"the impulse to do things only because someone else doesn't want you to." The kvetch, or complaint, is thus the basic unit of Yiddish thought, as developed over hundreds of years of Diaspora living: "kvetching becomes a way of exercising some small measure of control over an otherwise hostile environment." It is rare when we find a book which not only enriches our thought but makes us laugh outloud.

What every jew needs to know

You can buy a book about Yiddish. You can buy a book about Jewish life. You can buy a book about religious observance. Or you can save the shipping costs and buy Born To Kvetch, one of the best books I've ever read about the Ashkenazi Jewish experience. I would compare this wonderful new book to Maurice Samuel's The Gentleman and the Jew for it's erudition and vision. And Michael Wex is a whole lot funnier than Maurice Samuel. You will be laughing uncontrollably (WARNING: may cause embarrassment if you read this on the subway in the morning, as I did) while you learn more than you ever wanted to about the Talmud, the yiddish word for toilet paper and the REAL meaning of kvetching. Don't hesitate, buy it today and be cursing your friends in yiddish tomorrow.