Eight Books for 8 Days: What Does B&N Know That I Don’t

DAY 2 in America: Eight books to read while the candles glow. What does the Barnes and Noble near Manhattan’s Lincoln Center and Julliard School know that I don’t? Their table of Hanukkah Book suggestions seems to include a book that is neither a bible nor a kosher cookbook.

But I digress… speaking of large latkas, my suggestion for Day 2 of the Festival of Lights is a book from last year about a spirited latke. The book is The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket and Illustrated by Lisa Brown (McSweeney’s, 2007). Finally, we have a book that reinforces that Hanukkah is not the Jewish Christmas and is not about receiving presents. Well, maybe it does not overtly reinforce this idea, but it hints at it.

This is a book about hope in the face of being outnumbered. Like a fish out of water, here is a story about a latke living inside of a Christmas story. The Latke is screaming and it is wailing. And, nu, why shouldn’t it? Someone who lives in the house, the one without the Christmas lights adorning it, has tried to fry this latke in sizzling hot oil. Rather than jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, this little latke has a good kopf, and it heads for the open window. Running from the house, the latke encounters many popular Christmas symbols, These symbols think the latke is nothing more than a cute hash brown,

a perfect or adequate side meal to a Christmas ham. Oh, what a deep and meaningful book this is. It gets more insightful with each reading. Why do the colored xmas lights fail to understand the latke? Why does the candy cane only focus on its minty fragrance and have no inclination for understanding that in a mosaic or multicultural society, not everyone desires a peppermint scent? This is one candy stick that is truly distateful and not to be licked. Each confrontation ends with the latke running and screaming in search of understanding and identity. And then the latke meets a pine tree in the deep dark cold forest (or perhaps it is the deepest reaches of the Jewish psyche?)