CompleteMartialArts.com - Klezmer: Tales of the Wild East
|
List Price: $16.95
Our Price: $12.71
Your Save: $ 4.24 ( 25% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: First Second
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5944
EAN: 9781596431980
ISBN: 1596431989
Label: First Second
Manufacturer: First Second
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 144
Publication Date: 2006-09-05
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: 2006-09-05
Studio: First Second
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Klezmer tells a wild tale of love, friendship, survival, and the joy of making music in pre-World War II Eastern Europe. The Baron of My Backside is perfectly content as the leader of a traveling klezmer band, until his bandmates are brutally murdered. He sets out for Odessa alone, inconsolable even after he is joined by Chava, a beautiful girl with a voice like an angel. Meanwhile, Yaacov is expelled from his yeshiva for stealing; he too makes his way to Odessa along with Vincenzo, a violinist, and Tshokola, a gypsy entertainer. When these five misfits finally come together, they must set aside their differences and learn to work together (and rock a crowd) through their music. Tragic, humorous, violent, and tender, Klezmer’s rich watercolor art and simple but moving story-telling draws you into the lives of these fascinating characters.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Oi Yeah!
Comment: I loved this book.
I bought it for my girlfriend who loves Klezmer music and has Jewish roots.
At first I thought "mmmh, maybe I'll give it a go, but the pictures are a bit weird!"....however as soon as I started reading it I was hooked and as my eyes grew accustomed to the style, I realized how wonderful the artwork actually was, both as great illustrations in themselves and as perfect for the story.
It's a fantastic story, almost like an old time adventure story but with much deeper and more interesting characters.
It pulls no punches with racism/bigotry/violence/nudity which all gives it a real gritty, feel....can I describe it as an Eastern Western? Actually I think that's what the author does with the subtitle!
To me it has the gritty feel of a Clint Eastwood Western.
In this collectors edition there are some very illuminating writings/interviews/explanations from the author which really add to the interest and give it even extra depth....and thanks in no small part to this, I now have a real appreciation,love of and interest in the music!
A brilliant book...I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in either Graphic Novels, good stories or Klezmer, but I think it would really grab the interest of and be hugely appreciated by, musicians who had never heard of Klezmer before.
I can't wait for the 2nd part!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another great graphic novel from Sfar.....
Comment: This is delightful graphic novel with pictures and story by Joann Sfar. It's the first installment (of a two-part story, I believe) based on tales from the Ashkenazic side of Sfar's family. It is an adventure tale where a variety of characters meet-up and form a Klezmer Band w/ this volume closing on the verge of the band's "big break." This volume stands fairly well on it's own but the plot seems a bit anticlimactic. The story is charming, the characters are interesting and there are some very funny parts. Sfar's work is in a league by itself, very European.
Customer Rating:
Summary: oy!
Comment: cool book. It got me interested in graphic novels again. Great illustrations, very expressive though occasionally silly. Multilayered characters from an interesting context. I'm dying for the next volume. Also, someone needs to translate the other books of "the Rabbi's Cat".
Customer Rating:
Summary: unbelievably lame
Comment: Why did I buy this? I guess it seemed like an interesting idea from looking through it at a bookstore. When I checked on line, it sounded interesting. Boy, was I wrong. I think I finished it. Pointless. I didn't care for any of the characters.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A beautiful fantastical journey....
Comment: Through expressive pen lines and emotive watercolor washes, Klezmer tells the interweaving stories of five wandering characters who eventually meet in Odessa and form a Klezmer band in order to survive. The novel opens with Noah (nicknamed "The Baron of My Backside") witnessing and narrowly escaping the killing of his band mates by another Klezmer band. After getting his revenge he is accompanied by the wily Chava, who wishes to escape her provincial village. We meet Yaacov a wide-eyed fifteen year old prodigy and Vincenzo an Italian violinist-both former Yeshiva students exiled for theft. Yaacov and Vincenzo inadvertently save the life of the gypsy Toshokola, (they happened to be sitting in the tree Cossacks tried to hang him from.) and he convinces the two into forming a band performing Jewish songs for, " Jews are constantly getting married, circumcised, engaged. There's some money to be made." There is a lot of incorporation of Yiddish songs, Jewish and Russian folklore and text from novelist Isaac Babel. (A Jewish author who was murdered during the "Great Purge" in 1940's Russia.) The story is bizarre, incredibly whimsical and at times very funny. On of my favorite lines is from Toshokola who, when asked why Cossacks were chasing him, begins to tell a fantastic tale. When caught in his bluff he quickly replies, " Telling things exactly the way they happened is so ugly it ought to be forbidden. I'm telling you a story, it's the most basic courtesy." When Yaacov clumsily tries out the violin, he insults Vincenzo who is an expert violinist. Vincenzo quickly snatches the instrument from the boy's hands and dramatically states, " In my family everyone's a violinist. Even the maid. Even the dead." A wonderful read, highly reccomended.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
