Too Jewish Virtual Book Tour June 2011

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Join Patty Friedmann, author of the literary fiction novel, Too Jewish (booksBnimble), as she virtually tours the blogosphere June 6 – 30 2011 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Patty Friedmann

Patty Friedmann’s two latest books are a YA novel called Taken Away [TSP 2010] and a literary e-novel titled Too Jewish [booksBnimble 2010]. She also is the author of six darkly comic literary novels set in New Orleans: The Exact Image of Mother [Viking Penguin 1991]; Eleanor Rushing [1998], Odds [2000], Secondhand Smoke [2002], Side Effects [2006], and A Little Bit Ruined [2007] [all hardback and paperback from Counterpoint except paper edition of Secondhand Smoke from Berkley Penguin]; as well as the humor book Too Smart to Be Rich [New Chapter Press 1988]. Her novels have been chosen as Discover Great New Writers, Original Voices, and Book Sense 76 selections, and her humor book was syndicated by the New York Times. She has published reviews, essays, and short stories in Publishers Weekly, Newsweek, Oxford American, Speakeasy, Horn Gallery, Short Story, LA LIT, Brightleaf, New Orleans Review, and The Times-Picayune and in anthologies The Great New American Writers Cookbook, Above Ground, Christmas Stories from Louisiana, My New Orleans, New Orleans Noir, and Life in the Wake. Her stage pieces have been part of Native Tongues.

In a special 2009 edition, Oxford American listed Secondhand Smoke with 29 titles that included Gone with the Wind, Deliverance, and A Lesson Before Dying as the greatest Underrated Southern Books. With slight interruptions for education and natural disasters, she always has lived in New Orleans.

You can visit her website at www.pattyfriedmann.com, her blog at www.pattyfriedmann.typepad.com or friend her at her Facebook at www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=527384281.

About Too Jewish

When young, brainy Bernie Cooper escapes the Nazis and ends up in New Orleans, he thinks at first that he’s landed softly, almost immediately finding love with Letty, not only a nice Jewish girl, but fifth-generation Southern upper crust. But suddenly, snobberies he couldn’t even have guessed at are set in motion. It seems Letty’s prominent Jewish parents hate him for being…too Jewish! The book is divided into 3 novellas.

BERNIE

Word on the streets of Stuttgart and around the hilfsverein is that this is the last possible time for Jews to leave Germany. It is late August of 1939, and Bernie Kuper’s mother still refuses to leave with him. Given no choice, with deep pain he tells her goodbye. In America, the Army takes Bernie through New Orleans, where he meets Letty Adler, a wealthy Jewish girl with all the privileges and education the Nazis stripped from him in Germany. It does not take long for Letty’s parents to show their contempt for this young man who carries with him his observant religious practices, thick accent

LETTY

Letty’s parents sabotage their new son-in-law’s effort to create a business in New Orleans. So their lives are filled with financial hardship, with pulling against each other, of Bernie wanting to move to New York, of Letty wanting to stay in New Orleans to prove her parents wrong. They have a daughter, Darby, and life gets more complicated. When Darby has to be taken to Charity Hospital, the Adlers’ shame opens their pocketbook if not their hearts. When his mother-in-law offers Darby a trip to Europe, Bernie says, No Germany.

DARBY

Mrs. Adler has lied. A stop that is not on the written itinerary is Bergen-Belsen. The slip of paper on which the fate of Bernie’s mother is written–“Oswiecim” (Auschwitz) is still in Darby’s suitcase when they return. Bernie finds it, and he finally, finally explodes.

When Darby’s non-Jewish best friend leaves for boarding school, her life is defined by loneliness at school and a schism at home. She excels academically, and when the popular Jewish girls befriend her to study with her, Mrs. Adler is delighted. But jealousy and meanness build to a tragic pitch, and in the end lead to the destruction of all Bernie and Letty have tried to hold together.

Read the Excerpt!

I wasn’t stopped. I wasn’t questioned at the station. I wasn’t bothered on the train. I was in a compartment with five other people, and I knew the couple across from me was Jewish. This is not a good thing to admit, I suppose, but it is easy to identify Jews. In part it is physiognomy. I apologize for that. I apologize more for taking advantage of the neutrality of my appearance while I was in Stuttgart. It probably did me no good, walking around looking like an overripe member of Hitlerjugend, but inside I had no fear in the streets, and for that I was grateful. In school my appearance did no good, of course, because identity is documented on papers. Having the name Kuper, which sounded like nothing in particular, didn’t help in school. I was a Jew, and I was beaten by other boys.
The couple in the train compartment saw me as an Aryan on holiday. So did the three other travelers with us. They were three businessmen who clearly were together. Older men, too old for the German army. I had nothing to do. My seat was the farthest from the window. The window was wasted on the businessmen. They were too busy talking to enjoy looking out. I could gaze past them into the distance, but that would have been rude. Besides, I was a sophisticate, a young man who traveled for pleasure. Why would I want to see the outskirts of Stuttgart? Or the countryside, dry and colorless as the seasons had not changed yet?
Paris was seven hours, but the French border was only two. I was expecting a transformation at the French border, as if suddenly I would become a carefree French speaker once the train made its crossing. I could be bored for two hours. I could make myself think of nothing for two hours. My mother came to mind. I made myself think of nothing. She came to mind again, so I thought of Axel. I thought of Park Avenue. The man and woman across from me said nothing. They looked past me. I dozed off, and the train had come to a stop.
Karlsruhe.
We still were in Germany. The men in our compartment did not excuse themselves as they stepped over us. All of them were leaving in Karlsruhe. No one else came onto the train, and after we pulled out of the station, I caught the man’s eye and said, “Jude,” in a whisper. Jew. His neutral expression turned to horror.
“Oh,” I said. Then I pointed at myself. The woman let me look her in the eye. But she didn’t smile. She didn’t trust me. I didn’t know why I trusted them, except that I was completely certain I could recognize a Jew on sight. I thought about pulling my passport from my pocket and showing them the “J” on it. But the ride to the French border was short. I didn’t need to prove anything that very second. Once we were across, we could talk. We could express our relief.
When the train came to a halt, it was not rail personnel who came to the compartment but an SS officer. I was accustomed to SS officers. I didn’t flinch. “Raus!” he said. The English meaning of that word is “out,” but in German it means so much more. It makes a person jump. Germans say it to their children, and their children learn to jump and run. I stood up, bumping into my compartment mates as we pushed to the exit. “Juden?” the officer said. None of us said a word. He asked for our passports. The gentleman handed over their passports, and as he did so, I carefully slipped one of the gold coins out of my left shoe. My socks were damp and made it difficult to reach down, but some power inside me made my fingers nimble and fast, and I palmed the coin. I felt where the other coin was, just in case. The ring was nestled down in the toe of my other shoe. It wasn’t coming out unless I had a gun to my head. That didn’t seem to be what was going to happen. This officer was no older than I was. He was frightened of himself. When he pushed the man and woman out farther, I told him to wait, that surely there was some misunderstanding. He asked for my passport. Instead I slipped him the coin. “They’re my parents,” I said. “I don’t think so,” he said. He turned and walked away, pushing the woman roughly down the passageway. Their baggage was still in the overhead rack. I considered my other coin. They hadn’t smiled at me. They hadn’t believed me.
Until I saw Axel, I did not allow anyone in any crowd or small space to be an individual to me.

Watch Patty talk about her book!

Too Jewish Virtual Book Tour Schedule

Monday, June 6

Guest blogging at The Book Faery Reviews

“My father escaped from Nazi Germany the day Hitler invaded Poland, leaving his mother behind, and taking along what would become a burden of survivor’s guilt that would almost destroy him. This is true. What is not true, and what becomes the central focus of the novel, is that he did not learn of her fate. Part truth, part fiction, some thought…and all contradiction, as the saying goes. My father married into a family that didn’t accept him. TOO JEWISH is the story of my parents’ marriage, and while the narrative details may veer away from accuracy, the pain and sadness are exactly as I saw them.”

Tuesday, June 7

Interviewed at Beyond the Books

“I think this is the worst time to be a writer. The industry is in transition, so it’s not a meritocracy. Anyone with two index fingers can get published on the Internet, and traditional publishing rewards the Sarah Palins.”

Thursday, June 9

Interviewed at Blogcritics

“I’m no different from most writers. I like the pregnancy part, the gestation. I write from the opening sentence to the moment when suddenly I find I’m finished — no outline, no summary. I rarely rewrite, except maybe from one day to the next in a few words or phrases. It’s just like reading a book. Forward motion only. So I revel in the unfolding, sometimes chortling with pleasure when a great phrase or scene surprises me. It’s a few months filled with hope.”

Friday, June 10

Interviewed at Examiner

“I watched helicopters fly over,” she says. “I developed a golf-ball-sized lump in my neck with no means to treat it, yet my sister sent a ‘We’re fine’ message to the helicopters. When rescuers finally did come, I waded out in chest-deep filth, pushing Nookie (my son’s cat) in a plastic bin, and ultimately I made it to Houston, where my children had been for a week. My daughter said I had a thousand-yard stare.”

Monday, June 13

Interviewed at Shine

“The moment at the French border still does me in. I’ve had that piece of the book published as a short story. When I read it in public, there was dead silence.”

Tuesday, June 14

Interviewed at The Book Connection

“What I love most about the writing life is that it cuts so little into my real life. I write for an hour in late morning—I mean actually sit down at the keyboard and put words on the screen. That’s it. The rest of the day, especially if I’m driving or taking a shower, I’m turning over words and story in my subconscious mind, so there’s something ready for that hour the next morning. I write maybe 300 words a day, and it doesn’t take long to write a book.”

Wednesday, June 15

Guest blogging at The Book Bin

“Forget murder and mayhem and dark streets. My story about mean girls was surely the most evil one in the book.”

Monday, June 20

Interviewed LIVE on Barbara Conelli’s The Chique Show

Tuesday, June 21

Guest blogging at Literarily Speaking

Wednesday, June 22

Book reviewed at Family Literacy & You

“I recommend this book for anyone that enjoys autobiographies or period type books. It was interesting to read about the Jewish culture in a time when it wasn’t safe (Europe) or cool (America) to be Jewish”

Thursday, June 23

Guest participant at Literarily Speaking June Book Panel

Friday, June 24

Interviewed at Review From Here

Monday, June 27

Book reviewed at Life in Review

“I VERY highly recommend this book! It is beautifully written. I will admit that in the very beginning it may have been a bit slow for me, but not for long. I quickly became engrossed in Bernie’s story and was hooked! I grew to care for each of the three characters and for their little family. I really enjoyed Ms Friedmann’s writing and I hope to read more from her in the future.”

Tuesday, June 28

Interviewed at As the Pages Turn

“I’m a character-driven novelist”

Wednesday, June 29

Book reviewed at Hey, I Want to Read That

Book reviewed at Broken Teepee

Book reviewed at Jo-Jo Loves to Read

Thursday, June 30

Chat with Patty Friedman at Pump Up Your Book’s June Facebook Party

Patty Friedmann’s TOO JEWISH VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on June 6 and end on June 30 ’11. Please contact Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife(at)gmail.com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing his book or click here to use the form. Thank you!

If you would like to book your own virtual book tour with us, click here to find out how!

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Maria Andrade, DEFIANCE AND REDEMPTION

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Irene Woodbury, HONEYMOON ROULETTE

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Joni Ankerson, TO KILL OR BE KILLED

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Aiken Brown, SON OF A SOLDIER

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Jennifer Chase, FLOWERS ON HER GRAVE

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Miri Leshem-Pelly, SCRIBBLE & AUTHOR

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Bacon Press Books

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T.M. Wallace, WINTERGARDEN

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Lee Papa, TEMPLE OF ALL KNOWING

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Madeline Wynn, DAUGHTER OF THE FALLEN

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Mary Lawlor, FIGHTER PILOT'S DAUGHTER

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Karen-Anne Stewart, ASH TO STEELE

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Lauren Carr, Best-Selling Mystery Author of Mac Faraday, and Lovers in Crime, Mysteries

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Monique Roy, ACROSS GREAT DIVIDES

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Kaylin McFarren, BURIED THREADS

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"I just wanted to let you know that tonight Steven Manchester's Twelve Months became The Story Plant's first #1 Kindle bestseller. This couldn't have happened without you. Barb's cover is an absolute showstopper, Sue's copyediting boosted the overall work, Jackie's proofreading kept all of us honest, and Tracee Gleichner's blog tour started what has become an avalanche of great reviews."
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