Adam Biro

'Jewish stories', writes Adam Biro, 'resemble every people's stories'. Yet at the same time there is no better way to understand the soul, history, millennial suffering, or, crucially, the joys of the Jewish people than through such tales - 'There's nothing', writes Biro, 'more revelatory of the Jewish being'. With "Is It Good for the Jews?" Biro offers a sequel to his acclaimed collection of stories "Two Jews on a Train". Through twenty-nine tales - some new, some old, but all finely wrought and rich in humor - Biro spins stories of characters coping with the vicissitudes and reverses of daily life, while simultaneously painting a poignant portrait of a world of unassimilated Jewish life that has largely been lost to the years. From rabbis competing to see who is the most humble, to the father who uses suicide threats to pressure his children into visiting, to three men berated by the Almighty himself for playing poker, Biro populates his stories with memorable characters and absurd - yet familiar - situations, all related with a dry wit and spry prose style redolent of the long tradition of Jewish storytelling. A collection simultaneously of foibles and fables, adversity and affection, "Is It Good for the Jews?" reminds us that if in the beginning was the word, then we can surely be forgiven for expecting a punch line to follow one of these days.

The only country in the world with a line in its national anthem as desperate as “this people has already suffered for its past and its future,” Hungary is a nation defined by poverty, despair, and conflict. Its history, of course, took an even darker and more tragic turn during the Holocaust. But the story of the Jews in Hungary is also one of survival, heroism, and even humor—and that is the one acclaimed author Adam Biro sets out to recover in One Must Also Be Hungarian, an inspiring and altogether poignant look back at the lives of his family members over the past two hundred years. A Hungarian refugee and celebrated novelist working in Paris, Biro recognizes the enormous sacrifices that his ancestors made to pave the way for his successes and the envious position he occupies as a writer in postwar Europe. Inspired, therefore, to share the story of his family members with his grandson, Biro draws some moving pictures of them here: witty and whimsical vignettes that convey not only their courageous sides, but also their inner fears, angers, jealousies, and weaknesses—traits that lend an indelible humanity to their portraiture. Spanning the turn of the nineteenth century, two destructive world wars, the dramatic rise of communism, and its equally astonishing fall, the stories here convey a particularly Jewish sense of humor and irony throughout—one that made possible their survival amid such enormous adversity possible. Already published to much acclaim in France, One Must Also Be Hungarian is a wry and compulsively readable book that rescues from oblivion the stories of a long-suffering but likewise remarkable and deservedly proud people.

So two Jews were on a train. "All Eastern European Jewish jokes start this way, or almost," says Adam Biro, who has masterfully assembled this rich volume of such stories, tales in which we hear the voices of generations using humor to teach about the delicacy, anguish, and unpredictability of life itself. Biro spins his stories artfully and patiently - "Biro takes his time," says the Spectator's Jonathan Mirsky, "a big plus in Jewish jokes" - gently guiding the reader toward the inevitable, yet surprising, and often poignant punch line.

Many Eastern European jokes begin "Two Jews were travelling on a train...", as do many of the charming and hilarious conversations in this book. Adam Biro recounts these tales, where the characters, old and young, gossip and speak about everything from the banalities of the world to the unspeakable evils of existence. The tales convey their own history, we can hear Biro voice and those of generations past, as the tales teach, through humour, about the important issues in life: love, friendship, self-righteousness, narrow-mindedness, and the unpredicatbility of life itself. As a whole these tales form a record of the sensibilities of an entire people.