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Joseph Skibell

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A Blessing on the Moon Paperback – Bargain Price, September 7, 2010

by Joseph Skibell (Author)

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Joseph Skibell’s magical tale about the Holocaust—a fable inspired by fact—received unanimous nationwide acclaim when first published in 1997.

At the center of A Blessing on the Moon is Chaim Skibelski. Death is merely the beginning of Chaim’s troubles. In the opening pages, he is shot along with the other Jews of his small Polish village. But instead of resting peacefully in the World to Come, Chaim, for reasons unclear to him, is left to wander the earth, accompanied by his rabbi, who has taken the form of a talking crow. Chaim’s afterlife journey is filled with extraordinary encounters whose consequences are far greater than he realizes.

Not since art Spiegelman’s Maus has a work so powerfully evoked one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century with such daring originality.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Algonquin Books
Publication date

September 7, 2010
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.78 x 8.19 inches
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Peter Novick
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Paperback
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Brilliant . . . Astonishing.” --The Boston Globe
(The Boston Globe )

“Startlingly original . . . Recalls the dark, hallucinatory world of Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird while at the same time surpassing it.” --The Washington Post
(The Washington Post )

“As mesmerizing as a folk tale, as rich as gold itself.” --The Denver Post
(The Denver Post )

“A compelling tour de force, a surreal but thoroughly accessible page-turner.” --Houston Chronicle
(Houston Chronicle )

“As magical as it is macabre.” --The New Yorker
(The New Yorker )

About the Author

Joseph Skibell is the author of two previous novels, A Blessing on the Moon and The English Disease. He has received a Halls Fiction Fellowship, a Michener Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, among other awards. He teaches at Emory University and is the director of the Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0058M60LI
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Algonquin Books; Reprint edition (September 7, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.78 x 8.19 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,757,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,094 in Jewish Historical Fiction
- #7,345 in Jewish Literature & Fiction
- #12,860 in Military Historical Fiction

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Joseph Skibell

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Possessing "a gifted, committed imagination" (New York Times), Joseph Skibell is the author of three novels, A Blessing on the Moon, The English Disease, A Curable Romantic, a collection of stories, My Father's Guitar & Other Imaginary Things (forthcoming), and a mythopoetic study entitled Six Memos From the Last Millennium: A Novelist Reads the Talmud (also forthcoming). He has received numerous awards, including the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Sami Rohr Award in Jewish Literature, and Story Magazine's Short Short-Story Prize. His work has been described as "daring in its ... honesty" (New York Times); "witty and profound" (Jerusalem Report); "laugh-outloud humorous" (Forward); "brave ... unafraid" (New York Journal of Books); "magical" (New Yorker); "high-energy, wild" (New Republic); and "wholly original" (JM Coetzee). Skibell's novels, stories and essays have been widely anthologized and translated, most recently into Ido and Chinese. He has written or translated essays for three books of photographs: Loli Kantor's Beyond the Forest, Neil Folberg's The Serpent's Chronicle, and Fred Stein: Paris New York. As the director of the Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature from 2008 to 2015, he sang and played guitar onstage with both Margaret Atwood and Paul Simon, though not at the same time. The Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities at Emory University, Skibell has taught at the University of Wisconsin, Bar-Ilan University, and the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. In 2014-2015, he was a Senior Fellow at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry. (Photos by Laura Noel and Jeffrey Allen)

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SC

Regardless it is a beautiful book that I read many years ago

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2015

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This is brain stretcher. The setting and perspective of the central character in this book is not close to anything I have ever read. I have bought this book for Jewish friends, but I am yet to have it explained to me by someone knowledgeable from their faith, I have considered giving it to a Rabbi from a local synagogue. I don't know any Rabbis personally. It would take a little gumption to approach a man busy with his own responsibilities and ask him to read a book so he can explain the beliefs or faith the author has utilized telling this story to some goofbfall goy. Maybe I need a few additional Jewish friends. Regardless it is a beautiful book that I read many years ago. This purchase of the book for one of my friends. He thought it was beautiful too, But he didn;t do too well at answering my questions. I highly recommend it to any open minded spiritual person. It;s a very uniques way to tell a story.

6 people found this helpful

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Abby R.

Use The Reading Nook for vendor.

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2021

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Great book, but shipping was a problem. Amazon refunded me because book got lost somewhere on the way from the original vendor. I reordered it as a gift from another vendor (Reading Nook) and all went well.

One person found this helpful

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Roger Brunyate

The World to Come

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2011

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A skein of gossamer wound around one of the heaviest facts of history, this book from fourteen years ago still has the power to amaze. The fact is the Holocaust. The gossamer is woven of at least two separate strands: the idea that someone can climb out of a mass grave and move as a ghost through space and time, and an old Yiddish folk tale about two Hasidic men who ascend to the moon in a boat which they fill with so much silver that they drag the moon itself down to earth with its weight. It is a strikingly original work of fantasy, and I believe quite unique for a Holocaust story. I am less certain that it holds together or that the gossamer, however finely spun, is enough to contain the dead weight of that central fact.

The opening, certainly, is brilliant. Believing that the bullets have merely bruised him, the protagonist Chaim Skibelski clambers out of the death pit and runs with glee back to his former home, only to find it occupied by a Polish Catholic family making free with his former property. Nonetheless, he moves into an empty bedroom, accompanied by his short, black-coated Rebbe, who has been turned into a crow. This entire opening section, "From the Book of Mayseh" (which I think refers to a kind of fairy tale parable), is quite absorbing, largely because Skibell avoids crude moral polarization; one of its loveliest qualities is the relationship that develops between Chaim and Ola, the tubercular daughter who is the only member of the Christian family able to see him.

In the second section, "The Color of Poison Berries," Chaim is no longer alone, but journeys southward with others of the resurrected dead. This is more episodic, and almost loses the narrative thread until the throng believe they have reached "The World to Come," and the story attains a peak of radiant but temporary joy. The final section, "The Smaller to Rule by Night," moves forward many decades, and concerns Chaim's role in helping the two old Hasids restore the moon to its proper place in the heavens. It too has lovely qualities, but none so beautiful as the last pages of all, where Skibell shows that time can bend backward as well as leaping forwards.

Most Holocaust novels begin much earlier, but this starts at the moment of death. It is a highly original approach, equaled only (though in a very different register) by Martin Amis' TIME'S ARROW , which actually runs time backwards. I have also encountered a similar use of folk tales in Dara Horn's rather later book, THE WORLD TO COME , but they were only one ingredient in a mostly realistic modern story. The danger that Skibell runs by peopling his story with flying rabbis and the walking dead is that he loses contact with the hard fact of the Holocaust itself. There was really only one sustained passage in the book where it truly touched the horror of the death camps, but that hit me when I least expected it.

It occurs to me, though, that this is not a Holocaust book so much as an allegory of survival. What does it mean to be an observant Jew of a later generation, coming to terms with loss, death, and enmity, and the inscrutable ways of a God who one is taught has a purpose for everything? If such horror cannot be explained by reason, turn to fable. And if that fable is neither linear nor entirely sufficient, then no more is life, when you think you have put something behind you only to have it hit you again harder from left field.

10 people found this helpful

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Ronald B. Ein

Magic realism for a Holocaust story? Why not?

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2014

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I had read another novel by Skibell, A Curious Romantic, but was unprepared for this jump into magic realism from a subject that usually tries to stay "accurate." His protagonist, Chaim Skibellski is shot and dumped into a trench along with his family and village, but emerges as a spirit who then experiences a variety of strange and mysterious adventures before restoring the moon to the heavens. I was moved by the "reality" underlying the story but not depressed. Skibell touches that reality lightly, but the story is about arriving at the end of the mission, to restore the moon to its proper place. My favorite line: "If it were Paradise do you think they would allow Jews in?".

One person found this helpful

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twikkione

a blessing on the moon book

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2013

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I found this book to be very dark and sad like a shadow of the holocaust since that's what it pertained to, its kind of like reading anne frank or other books in the holocaust, does not leave me in a good mood, just very sad if you want to read something somber read this book.

One person found this helpful

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Helen Fass

A Remarkable Book

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2019

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This is an amazing and exceptional book. I finished it and started it again to try to understand the deeper meanings. My husband and I talked about this book for weeks. We are knowledgeable about Jewish laws and customs and that increased our appreciation of Skibell's wonderful journey, with us along for the experience. I hope this author will continue writing for many years.

4 people found this helpful

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J. H.

Completely unique, unable to put it down

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2018

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Incredible read. Unlike any other fiction you have ever read dealing with the holocaust. Supernatural and powerful and moving. If you are a second or third generation survivor (like me, and like this author) who has been plagued by the trauma of the shoah that has been passed down genetically, this book may start to set you free. Cathartic. I can't wait to pick it up to read it a second time.

2 people found this helpful

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mildred antonelli

The idea behind the book is a fantastically brave idea.

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2019

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I am still at the beginning of the book, which I am using to participate in my book group meeting.

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