The WTF file: Politics & Prose and Market Day

I loved Market Day.

It is a beautiful and moving graphic novel. I wanted to bring it to the LitFest, but it just didn't fit, ultimately, for the available slots.

So when I saw Politics & Prose, local independent bookstore extraordinaire, was bringing the author and his book to do a reading, I was chuffed. If we can't have him, I'm glad someone else appreciated the book as much as I did and wants to showcase it.

The story centers around an Eastern European craftsman, Jewish, who provides for his family as a weaver of beautiful rugs. His vision of the world, even in the shtetl, is through that lens.

Life turned to patterns turned to rugs.

He struggles; the Industrial Revolution looms large, so to speak. What to do when what one values doesn't feed one's family?

But WTF, Politics & Prose?! You schedule this book on Rosh Hashana?! (It's after the second day of services, technically after sundown, but still.) You don't even have the excuse of not being Jewish to say you didn't know.

First of all, that's just dumb planning. Plenty of your audience will be at big, family dinners.

Second, you're jerks. I'm a bit crushed.

Unless...

Unless this is some kind of commentary on how other, contemporary kinds of lifestyles are also no longer observed or adhered to or are hard to maintain. The assimilation of American Jews. Who would therefore now be free to come to a bookstore reading on Rosh Hashana.

I tend to doubt it, though.