Cultural Diary, 7.10.25

Pam Tanowitz at Bard; Alison Larkin's tragicomedy; Nicola Walker's legal/family drama, and more....

Jul 10, 2025

Somehow in between way too many hours spent watching the New York Mets (who are having a mostly terrific year so far) I have been able to read some books, watch some TV series, and take in some live performances. Here are short reviews or descriptions of a few of the most memorable cultural events I’ve enjoyed over the past month or so.

BOOKS

Grief … A Comedy by Alison Larkin – This novel/memoir by the Berkshires’ own Alison Larkin recounts the loss of a loved one without ever succumbing to mordancy or self-pity. Indeed, the title alone indicates where Larkin is coming from and how she sees the world … and her own life. There is plenty of grief to go around in this tragic love story, but also plenty of humor and wit, which is Larkin’s specialty – hence, the unusual pairing of grief and comedy. Larkin also devises an innovative narrative framework through which she takes the reader on this journey of love and loss – but somehow, not total loss. I don’t want to give too much away, because so much of the appeal of the book relies on the delight of discovery. As one who has experienced a not-too-entirely-different experience of love, loss, and grief in middle age, I can say that Larkin’s story rings true in so many ways, almost remarkably so. Larkin enumerates and illuminates things I thought were unique or embarrassing in my own experience, which is one of the greatest triumphs for which a writer can hope: to create a relationship with a reader based on truth, honesty, wisdom, a little fairy dust, and a lot of empathy and humor.

A Fool’s Kabbalah by Steve Stern (Melville House) – Steve Stern had me from the get-go by putting into play an alternative history based in part on the real-life friendship of Gershom Scholem – the pioneer of modern Kabbalah studies – and Walter Benjamin, the freewheeling writer, critic, and thinker of the early-to-mid twentieth century. This is not an attempt at cultural biography, however, but an imaginative work of historical speculative fiction. Stern intertwines the story of Scholem’s postwar attempt to rescue Jewish books that survived the Nazi attempt at their wholesale destruction with an entirely separate story of a fictional Menke Klepfisch, a shtetl dweller and the nominal “fool” of the title living under German occupation “somewhere on the moveable borders between Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus.” Menke’s own adventures, including his bit part as a jester to a band of Nazis, told in a style based on old Yiddish folktales, offer comic relief as well as a stark contrast between Scholem’s lofty project and his own struggle for survival. Stern brings to the table a tremendous understanding of Scholem, Kabbalah, Jewish thought and history, and the Shoah, in this gem of a “Kabbalistic comedy,” allowing humor and the Holocaust to coexist without either diminishing the seriousness of the other.

Yiddish writer Chaim Grade (courtesy YIVO)

Sons and Daughters by Chaim Grade (Knopf) – Until now, 20^th-century Yiddish author Chaim Grade (1910-1982) has been overshadowed by the world’s most famous Yiddish author, the Nobel Prize-winner Isaac Bashevis Singer. But with Sons and Daughters, Grade is certainly due for a hefty reconsideration. This epic family saga, somewhat in the tradition of the great Russian novelists but with a modernist bent, appeared originally in Yiddish in serial installments in Yiddish newspapers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Until now, the complete, book-length version of these stories has remained hidden or non-existent, but with the publication of this new, brilliant English translation by Rose Waldman, readers can now immerse themselves in Grade’s triumphant portrayal of pre-war Jewish life. Grade pours his personal experience, observations, and profound learning into a lively, entertaining story of two intertwined, far-flung families, each facing pressures and struggles to break with tradition and embrace modernity. In that sense it is a universal story, albeit one chock full of historical detail that in itself is a kind of pre-Holocaust monument. Sons and Daughters is being called “the last great Yiddish novel.” The irony is that with this posthumous achievement, Grade may wind up inspiring others fluent in Yiddish to kickstart a Yiddish literary revival to go along with the klezmer music revival and the burgeoning interest in the spoken language. But all this is merely commentary masking the great joy and delight awaiting readers of this gripping, fabulous, at times comical tale.

The Split: If you have watched any amount of British TV, you will instantly recognize Nicola Walker, the lead actress at the center of this legal and family drama, in what may be her best role so far. Walker, who already has a closetful of acting awards, fully embodies Hannah Stern (née Defoe), a super-lawyer who practices family law while her immediate and extended family falls apart in various ways. Alongside Walker is a terrific cast portraying three generations of her family, all of whom are given their own backstories and human dramas in this impressive contemporary saga, something of a British blend of L.A. Law and The Good Wife (or so I’m told).

Dept. Q: This British crime thriller is based on a book series by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. It’s a wise, witty, compelling blend of Nordic noir with a hint of Slow Horses. As in the best of Nordic noir, the protagonist is a complex, flawed, somewhat traumatized detective who winds up working with equally fascinating and complex characters. The show, which takes place in Scotland, does a great job of keeping the mystery of who done it moving around – every time you think you’ve solved it, you are shown to be wrong. At times a little convoluted and at other times somewhat brutally, perhaps excessively, bloody and violent, the series is gripping and entertaining – and a kind of Exhibit A of the genre. (Netflix)

DANCE

A scene from Pam Tanowitz's 'Pastoral' (photo Maria Baranova)

Pastoral, by Pam Tanowitz, Bard Fisher Center, Friday, June 27:

First of all, Pastoral isn’t only a dance: it is a collaboration between choreographer Pam Tanowitz, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, and visual artist Sarah Crowner. Props also go to costume designer Reid Bartelme, whose gauzy, pastel-colored jumpsuits do their own colorful dance with Crowner’s paintings and designer Davison Scandrett’s magically manipulative lighting. You can even throw in Beethoven, as his Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Pastoral, serves multiple roles in the piece, including inspiring Shaw’s original music, performed live by a woodwind trio and also heard in several different recorded excerpts. What Tanowitz achieves as chief visionary working with her collaborators is a remarkable multi-media performance in which each element – movement, music, painting – is in dialogue with the others. Thus, Tanowitz’s remarkable dancers respond to a large Crowner painting evoking plant leaves by assuming their shape and direction – even when it means turning themselves horizontal while still standing.

And in case you missed these:

I wrote about how surprisingly great is the new duet between Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan on the pop standard “The Very Thought of You” (Forward)

And I reviewed She, the terrific new CD by Kingston, N.Y.-based pop-jazz singer-songwriter Rebecca Martin(Chronogram)

Everything Is Broken

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