My local library website informs me that, since 2011, I have checked out 1,803 items. With material ranging from Far Side Gallery comic-strip collections to seasons of Psych to Anna Karenina, the list doesn’t lack variety, even if it has a bit of repetition. Top among the repeated favorites were Frances Wise Brown’s Granny’s Wonderful Chair and Adèle Geras’s My Grandmother’s Stories. I’ll write about the first title in due time, as it’s one of the most charming collections of fairytales, but for now, let’s enter the rich world a Jewish grandmother paints with her tales.
First published in 1990, My Grandmother’s Stories is a collection of Jewish folktales, as told by a grandmother to her granddaughter. I’ve never quite figured out the origin of Geras’s stories — they may be traditional folktales or Geras’s own creations — but this only adds to their charm. The book is a series of short stories, and the tales are coaxed from the grandmother by the sight of a pair of shoes or a lace shawl or simply by her granddaughter’s insistence. “Bavsi’s Feast,” “The Market of Miseries,” and “A Phantom at the Wedding” are just a few of the traditional (or so I’m told) tales recounted here.
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