Festival highlights
Ruth Westheimer
It is perhaps not well-known that America's favorite (and most diminutive) sex therapist is also a Holocaust survivor and was a sniper in the Israel Defense Forces. In conversation with radio personality and CNN correspondent Holly Firfer, Westheimer will discuss her book, "The Doctor Is In: Dr. Ruth on Love, Life, and Joie de Vivre." 7:45 p.m., Nov. 10, $24; $18 members.
Archie Rand
Artist Archie Rand spent five years visualizing each of the 613 "mitzvahs" or commandments from the Tora, turning them into 613 paintings. He will speak about his book, "The 613" on Nov. 11 and prints from the art book will be displayed through December at the MJCCA's Katz Family Mainstreet Gallery. 12:30 p.m., Nov. 11; $14; $9 members.
Michael Solomonov
Celebrity chef Michael Solomonov epitomizes modern Israeli cuisine at his Philadelphia restaurant Zahav. The young immigrant, who has a troubled back-story, will discuss his new book, "Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking," in conversation with cable TV and radio personality Steak Shapiro at a luncheon, while chefs prepare recipes from the book. At the end of the day Solomanov will also prepare a pop-up dinner at Parrish, which will, apparently, include a braised shoulder of lamb that he's bringing with him on the plane. 12:30 p.m. Nov. 12, $27; $22 members; ticket includes luncheon.)
Jonathan, Faye and Jesse Kellerman
All three Kellermans, husband and wife Jonathan and Faye, and their son Jesse, are Orthodox Jews and all three are writers. During "An Evening with the Kellermans," Faye Kellerman will discuss "The Theory of Death," one of her Peter Decker mysteries, while Jonathan and Jesse talk about "The Golem of Paris," a sweeping tale of murder and suspense. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12, $24; $18 members.
Dan Ephron
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was working on a peace deal between Israel and Palestine when he was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli zealot named Yigal Amir. In "Killing a King," Dan Ephron shows how the murder changed the course of history, and how the prospect of peace, then so tantalizingly close, became so distant and improbable. He appears with Mike Kelly, author of "Bus on Jaffa Road: A Story of Middle East Terrorism and the Search for Justice." 3 p.m. Nov. 15, $14; $9 members.
Jennifer Teague
Raised in an orphanage, a mixed-race German girl named Jennifer Teege discovered one day that her biological grandfather was Amon Goeth, the Nazi "butcher of Plaszów," executed for crimes against humanity in 1946. Goeth was portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in the movie "Schindler's List." In researching the story, Teege comes to the realization that she would have been marked for death in her grandfather's concentration camp, due to her Nigerian heritage. She will discuss her book, "My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past," in conversation with actress Jasmine Guy. 7:30 p.m., Nov. 19, $18; $13 members.
EVENT PREVIEW
Book Festival of MJCCA. Nov. 5-22. Tickets vary. Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, Zaban Park, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody; and other locations. 678-812-4000, www.atlantajcc.org.
Judith Viorst. With Dani. Modisett. 7:30 p.m, Nov. 17, $18; $13 members, hosted by Jamie Bendall, owner of the Punchline Comedy Club. Zaban Park.
Ever since she wrote about Alexander's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, Judith Viorst's life has been an open book.
Audiences will see that for themselves when the enormously successful author of poetry and prose for grownups and kids serves as one of the star attractions during the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta's book festival, which begins Nov. 5 and continues for two-and-a-half weeks.
With Alexander’s trials and tribulations, Viorst not only created a classic in children’s literature, she also successfully traced that fine line between exploiting your immediate family and touching on the universal.
There are about 45 authors appearing at the MJCCA in Dunwoody. They include celebrity chef Michael Solomonov, pre-eminent young adult author Judy Blume, Hollywood couple Arlene and Alan Alda and former news anchor Ted Koppel.
At 84, Viorst is perhaps the elder stateswoman of the group, and her warm and witty verse also qualifies her as their poet laureate.
As Viorst fans know, there really is an Alexander, the youngest of her three boys, who, as a 5-year-old, happened to find himself in one misadventure after another. The fictional Alexander took off from there. His tale spawned a series of sequels, a stage play, and, last year, a Disney film featuring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner.
(The real Alexander is sanguine about his portrayal: It “certainly hasn’t closed any doors, and it probably has opened a few,” he told the Washington Post.)
Viorst’s latest, “Wait for Me… and Other Poems About the Irritations and Consolations of a Long Marriage,” is a slim book of poetry about the trials and treats of marathon wedlock. It’s not an accident that this wry valentine mirrors the dynamics at play in her 55-year marriage to political writer Milton Viorst.
It is sentimental but sparkled with dry humor, as in the “The Widow,” a portrait of a character who tries not to impose on her busy sons and daughters, and contemplates who, in a pinch, might drive her to the ER. The Widow prompts the narrator to think of her own husband, and to contemplate “once again how lucky I am, how happy I am, how incredibly grateful I am/That you are alive.”
Viorst, 84, points out in a recent phone call that these poems aren’t strictly autobiographical. “It’s like a kaleidoscope. There are pieces of a lot of other people in there, and I shake it up and the pattern that emerges is something more than biographical and/or autobiographical.”
But she checks some lines out with her husband anyway. “I run a couple of things by him,” said Viorst. “He’s pretty OK with it.”
Viorst’s career as a humorous anthropologist of family life took an unusual turn in the 1970s when she dove into psychology. Six years of study led her, in 1987, to publish “Necessary Losses,” a meditation on loss as the central shaper of character.
She calls the ferment of ideas in the world of psychology “delicious.” But the social sciences didn’t lure her from humor. That same year she published the droll book of poems, “When Did I Stop Being 20 & Other Injustices.”
Viorst appears Nov. 17 at the Book Festival of the MJCCA with stand-up comic Dani Klein Modisett of Los Angeles, author of “Take My Spouse Please: How to Keep Your Marriage Happy, Healthy, and Thriving by Following the Rules of Comedy.”
Modisett’s theme — that marriage, like stand-up, is all about timing — sounds reasonable to Viorst. “I don’t know how anybody gets through any relationship without humor,” she said. “I’ve said it many times, there are those moments in a marriage where your two choices are homicide or laughter. And then you better laugh.”
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