Product Description

"The power of Raphael's stories comes from his passion for telling the truth, however painful."-Hadassah Magazine

"His characters are voices of reason, observers rather than judges. The prose is poetic, the sex scenes sweat with passion."-Los Angeles Times

When Lev Raphael published the controversial story collection Dancing on Tisha B'av, he broke new ground in the publishing world. Never before in one book had an American writer dealt with the conflicts between homosexuality and traditional Judaism, linked the chilling mind diseases of antisemitism and homophobia, and borne witness not only to the legacy of Holocaust survivors but the suffering and conflicts of their children. Winner of the prestigious Lambda Literary Award, Raphael opened the door to a new kind of American Jewish fiction.

Secret Anniversaries of the Heart unites the best stories from Dancing on Tisha B'av with 12 new stories, including one never before published. Here we encounter tales of antisemitism on the college campus, of self-hatred and body obsession, and of survivor parents whose only response to the Holocaust is to isolate themselves, unconsciously committing a kind of emotional suicide.

In a collection that encompasses over 25 years of his award-winning stories, Lev Raphael proves himself a visionary like James Baldwin and shares Anita Brookner's gift for dramatizing the pain of seemingly quiet lives in stories that are both passionate and precise.

Lev Raphael is the author of 17 books published in a dozen languages. A winner of the Lambda Literary Award, among many prizes, his short works have appeared in numerous anthologies, including the star-packed Who We Are: On Being (and Not Being) A Jewish American Writer (Schocken/Random House). The author of a popular mystery series, he performs all over the country and hosts a weekly book show on NPR.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1570100 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Michigan NPR commentator Raphael is the author of Little Miss Evil and other mysteries; he also penned The German Money and other "second generation" fiction centered on the children of Holocaust survivors; coauthored Coming Out of Shame and other nonfiction works on being gay and Jewish; and wrote a memoir, Writing a Jewish Life, also pubbing in January (Reviews, Nov. 28). About half of these 25 stories are new; others appeared in his collection Dancing on Tisha B'Av. In many of them, the children of Holocaust survivors grapple with their parents' silences and disclosures, caught in the eddies of their losses and expectations. Many of the protagonists are gay, considering their Judaism and their sexuality with measures of passion and reluctance. Raphael's language is searching and expansive, but the awkward dance between Old and New World repeats from story to story; while the facts surrounding the tensions change, the characters take on a studied familiarity. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Lev Raphael is the author of fifteen books and known internationally as the chronicler of the lives of the children of Holocaust survivors. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award, among many prizes, his short works have appeared in two dozen anthologies. He performs all over the country at Jewish Book Fairs and has a weekly book show on NPR.

Customer Reviews

The Best of the Best
Ever since Yom Kippur I've been reading this book of stories as though my life depended on it, and strangers have gotten used to the sight of my walking down the street, boarding the cable car, and poking my way through the alleys of San Francisco with Lev Raphael's book propped up in front of my face. I might as well have a cane because I'm blind to everything else when I'm reading one of his books. And this one, i think, must be the best of them all, for as a collection of stories this improves on his earlier DANCING ON TISHA B'AV by abstracting the best of them and then adding as many more. The first book came out perhaps 15 years ago, and since then he has only gotten even more into writing, and his wisdom about people has only grown, exponentially as it happens, so when you read one of his stories, it is like having a new life to live.

I don't know much about Jewish life so I don't know how accurate he is being about the mindset and customs of his characters (though I should say, not all of them are Jewish) but even a Gentile like me, who hardly ever has a religious thought in his head, comes to understand some of the conflicts shown by his people. In the title story, a writer living in Michigan with a successful and somewhat overbearing partner joins a writing group and encounters a Hungarian novelist with a mean streak who runs the group like a little Dick Cheney. To his chagrin, David can't speak up against this tyrant's ranting, even when it turns homophobic and a Bolivian newcomer is attacked for his poetry. Another workshop participant, Chase, reveals in rapid succession that not only is he Jewish, but he's on the down low, a married man with a hankering for David. To his surprise, Jake (his boyfriend) and his accepting nature helps him realize that his paralysis during the workshop has everything to do with his now dead mother, who was a survivor of a death camp and who just wasn't emotionally available to little David. She kept a suitcase under her bed just in case the Nazis, or their US equivalent, came again, and now David and Jake reflect that such a time may not be too far away. "She'd take it out and update the contents once or twice a year, always on the same date. Why those particular days? She never explained, but the bag was always ready, and so was she."

While our shelves groan with volumes of the American short story, we have a wealth of talent, but if I had a suitcase under my bed and wanted to take just a few books of the best, I would pack my Raymond Carver, my Grace Paley, and my book of Lev Raphael stories. He is beyond wonder, beyond guessing, his talent overflows like the gift of itself.

And plus, in "The Pathfinder," he has written possibly the sexiest story of all time. Check!

Small press, big book
PW has it all wrong. I totally agree with the Kirkus review which says in part:"Raphael writes from a highly distinctive perspective: a compassionate celebrant of souls squeezed by mainstream pressures and fighting for pride. Concerned ultimately with the struggle for love both human and divine, these are searing stories." The full review can be found on Raphael's web site and it's clear this is an important and must-read book for fans of the short story and contemporary literature. Secret Anniversaries of the Heart is a quiet blockbuster, as important in its own way as Raphael's Writing a Jewish Life, also out this winter. What a gift for his fans!

Gay and Jewish

"SECRET ANNIVERSARIES OF THE HEART"

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride


Raphael, Lev. "Secret Anniversaries of the Heart". Leapfrog Press, 2006

One of the most prolific gay writers working today is Lev Raphael. He has 17 books to his credit spanning the spectrum of literature--novels. short stories, non-fiction, etc.

Lev Raphael broke onto the literary scene when he published a controversial short story collection entitled "Dancing on Tisha B'Av". For the first time, an author dealt with two major issues in society--homosexuality and the Jewish religion. He showed that homophobia and anti-semitism which had never been linked before had commonalties. Together with that he dealt with those that had survived the greatest disaster after known to the world--the Holocaust. And he went even further by including the children of Holocaust survivors when he told their stories. This book showed the world a new kind of fiction. We had had American Jewish fiction but American Jewish gay fiction became a new topic. "Dancing on Tisha B'Av" is out of print now but Lev's new book, "Secret Anniversaries of the Heart" includes twelve of the stories from that collection along with twelve new stories. Naturally the theme has not changed; anti-semitism is the overriding background of this new collection.
These are not easy stories to read: for me as a Jew who lost family to the holocaust, who came face to face with Holocaust survivors on a daily basis when I lived in Israel, who grew up in the anti-semitic deep south and who is gay--these stories pained me deeply. Yet the beauty of the book is the catharsis I felt after reading it. When I read "Dancing on Tisha B'Av' when it was first released, I was just as pained. Until you live in a gay Jew's skin, you cannot not know what he has felt, not once, but over and over again. The beauty of Lev's work lies in the truths he expounds and those truths hurt.
The characters you meet in his work are not just characters, they are thinkers and doers. They are logical and they make no value judgments. They watch life as it passes them by. They live and breathe as we do--they love with passion and are hurt with passion. I was once told by a friend that being Jewish and gay made me "twice blessed". I many times felt "twice cursed". Being Jewish in the South, or for that matter anywhere, is a complex issue. Being Jewish and gay is twice as complex. If you have read my article, "A Piercing Thought". you will understand.
The tension that I felt in reading these stories took me back into those compartments of my heart that I thought had healed. The characters that Lev paints are not everyday men and women; their lives are complicated, in disarray and infused with desire which burns to the core of their beings. The memories of my own life flowed like tears as I read "Welcome to Beth Homo" and "Betrayed by David Bowie". Only those of you who have never fit anywhere can understand how real that pain can be. Raphael fills his work with compassion as he paints pictures of people who are hard to deal with the pressures of modern society, who in their own way are also fighting for that little plot where they can be who they are. These stories burned a place in my heart and I am that much wiser for having read them. The struggle for love and acceptance is a hard road and the struggle to make peace with God is that much harder.
There were times I had to stop reading, sit back, ponder a thought, empathize with it and then remember that I had been there myself. Even with the humor and the sex which are both abundant, the pain was there. But it was good pain and I am so glad that Lev Raphael gave me that opportunity to hurt. His characters, like all of us, are flawed. But the flaws they have and share are what make them who they are. They are not flawed alone, they are part of a world which is flawed as well. All the issues that are dealt with in this book--religion, sexuality, family tradition and history, faith in God and each other--these are issues we all face almost daily. His prose is so poetic, so tender, so beautiful........
The collision of Judaism and homosexuality finds some resolution and in doing so provide a new kind of fiction--very personalized fiction.
I had hoped that Lev would join us for the Arkansas Literary Festival but he will be in Germany for the publication of his new book in German. In the correspondence between the two of us, he expressed a desire to visit at some other time and that is one of my priorities for the year. I think he could help a great deal to help us instill self pride as well as be an honored guest. He would be so beneficial to those of us who are gay and Jewish, to those of us who are just Jewish, and the those of us who are just gay and to those of us who are just people.
_________________
Amos Lassen