The schlemiel

June 10th, 2021

The subject of Sarah Mintz’s debut short fiction collection, Handwringers (Radiant Press $20) is her “mediated Jewish identity,” she says, referring to how Jewish culture is portrayed in popular media. The stories are as short as a few sentences and the longest is less than five pages. The ‘schlemiel’ — a figure in Jewish folklore who is unlucky and inept — is a guiding concept in Mintz’s stories. Having grown up in various places such as Goose Bay (NL), Montreal, Greenwood, Courtenay, Vancouver (and maybe even Moose Jaw according to her publisher’s blurb), Mintz now calls Victoria home. 9781989274477

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