Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

How This Night Is Different: Stories
How This Night Is Different: Stories
How This Night Is Different: Stories
Ebook201 pages3 hours

How This Night Is Different: Stories

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

Elisa Albert's debut story collection marks the arrival of an extraordinary new voice in fiction. In How This Night Is Different, Albert boldly illuminates the struggles of young, disaffected Jews to find spiritual fulfillment. With wit and wisdom, she confronts themes -- self-deprecation, stressful family relationships, sex, mortality -- that have been hallmarks of her literary predecessors. But Albert brings a decidedly fresh, iconoclastic, twenty-first-century attitude to the table.

Holidays, gatherings, and rites of passage provide the backdrop for these ten provocative stories. The characters who populate How This Night Is Different are ambivalent, jaded, and in serious want of connection. As they go through the motions of familial duty and religious observance, they find themselves continually longing for more. In prose that is by turns hilarious and harrowing, Albert details the quest for acceptance, a happier view of the past, and above all the possibility of a future.

From the hormonally charged concentration camp teen tour in "The Living" to the sexually frustrated young mother who regresses to bat mitzvah-aged antics in "Everything But," and culminating with the powerful and uproariously apropos finale of "Etta or Bessie or Dora or Rose," How This Night Is Different is sure to titillate, charm, and profoundly resonate with anyone who's ever felt conflicted about his or her faith, culture, or place in the world.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherFree Press
Release dateJul 10, 2006
ISBN9781416535690
How This Night Is Different: Stories
Author

Elisa Albert

Elisa Albert is the author of After Birth, The Book of Dahlia, How This Night Is Different, and editor of the anthology Freud’s Blind Spot. Her stories and essays have appeared in Time, The Guardian, The New York Times, n+1, Bennington Review, Tin House, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Literary Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She lives in upstate New York. 

Read more from Elisa Albert

Related to How This Night Is Different

Related ebooks

Short Stories For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for How This Night Is Different

Rating: 3.55 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

20 ratings3 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    She has talent, but doesn't like any of her characters very much.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Elisa Albert is an observant and cuttingly witty writer who can see into the black hearts of young suburban Jewish women. She sees them at Passover, sharing a new non-Jewish boyfriend and a killingly itchy yeast infection. She finds them at Auschwitz, on a teen tour called We The Living. She finds them at an abortion clinic. She finds them in herself.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Be forewarned! This book contains irreverant responses to things typically Jewish. Don't read it if you are easily offended. What this book does extremely well, however, is take someone's pain and superimpose it on a Jewish situation, thereby making very poignant statements in the way each situation is played out. Superficially funny, but deeply sad, these stories are unique and thought-provoking reads. When I first started this collection of stories, I didn't think I'd like them. As I read through them, though, they began to grow on me. I have to say that, by the time I finished this book, I had to admit I found the stories very entertaining. "Etta or Bessie or Dora or Rose" was the most powerful, but my two personal favorites were "When You Say You're A Jew" and "So Long" because they echoed my personal experiences. I will certainly recommend this book to others.

Book preview

How This Night Is Different - Elisa Albert

0abook_preview_excerpt.html}[ےƑOݣ:d'(Z="mb(L؇'wKUhHrBƥyī㿽~1ׯ|Wtcu7]R!z~U9+9,'pz:T4]6~cUGT~tqR|)|8cոKuV0NMǾ8krՇ'yS}K}utM5jN9*88W?K\.9s].o_}uCU簔7U?O;0TqiO7|1NϞ)} v^0jt8gj-ݴE@)&;:0ݬqGΈ wT}mJp(A!GrSÒr qvH jp|hSEٺ }5`c\_!&p`fm ɱ:pnSf$H#h c|7$g҃ 󰎦=-%);xlBxT-qp;tl-"?1&35!{#_903yH{{Tx>˧򗬃gi!bAjq6 t=4*-ejgXo ufc|gC=wbF1J~`C:w<=ɲo^r5Іt0;#le![~6ZsAA`IVDiЃ/q x2Fɖ#sZb<[珠OD?,|8:;79#i ~&k/%erkDc07r}cɐ7baF.U72B;-^eږr$Yfnpzvo%0;QfBPdq#!C6ϝNj%;\Pq3zfS*nA(@ [FXS #gRޝώ fwgQ\"8 6P斢FC_NӨ S{EC">t3ңĤx"ߟ'E0_ L2 S? ,d8V0ɇTb43?>%!hG1x]ox,lncgƍNE q*{`Ƶvy3/ՏUτ0?n<c@Jw 4Y+7VnV%TQKE11`8^;$pUG6~WbI[erGitU2{TdVL uz)vHV/72gDhŴtޫl)嚱9""*m< ڞCPB֖ ,V.plzC[?ȸg;yx Ϋ~@&D*3av2gp+#Y=N(5BmonoX1qZ1V[VkyW5k PlBcA7@ЌH [a7(ٵ^%9-ܚT!lQˣ;[ms.R]Z2P"1=3JALpEys k7R62` g悹V,|7WH!()Z /" m5|#y)rGl)Q'TN} C4QUbW PΝq~b-`Up(7uVPF9 J@aC,)dmj%d`L{x=;6·moTrM_ϓ!o.1t!MJ1ShPZ{RXyoТv@3 8D s2Ҫt,:wnuq%/2T̵x> r <(#ݙOV  ^orܻ)]8AQRLV擙LZ"|~XN`\R`|)4TqU:E$_rٖUջˣ;qN :?,PX2^Qa|yg/F;$`( ${}oO.0f ݘ)ѮenaȼE7 v9''۽oIzJ7b 8RIh D#K&O3jGnzX~YejJWba;Dm{ .IoIL:-z-Q{m;]2C͆ۤFm6& $9\?/z{39bb.)5>0''3MoSҢ)-M0C7T %7vV0UBi 5 ,NUE)oLtzk D)b:^wST2c@un4@ƌ}-sh7>IBAu;h QwxA7Fiu!R&9m>ẗXN=X% J2t!J5Ug1!孪QeSOa4>KQ5e{,Zlyc #g8C8 8SS)FYHa^ t@~`S!{2ϵ&8mVi3?xM1+!H)3Ph~-[YLM%aaa e@xN>j ?==2s|?vFZ)LS~9@O<{y)1KAmu=LXPʸ>5dۗ~\rW{uJ]~˛BS:M%BE T%V1(di}|7' "D^)ӨE[^}ɹ P`PLщTլ[xx2HsN]W(FؔE /'Q/0q,pi% GL4>ʆq?cs#@j'UtY|3`U(Nq8b Vpq k'Fa>lA]o}2L5~ 7W|oQٔ aYTax?Щ޳pL/YzIt{xIN7[؍)P^;p㜲Yuy>yg!Ĭ2/$JW7HQ.;H[_N Thh e}!W^rok҂2t;Җl; (jckv#G`7 J:Qzʄr֠Bt͓ޑ}y$JwhH^Ʀ `%CQtfuD4P;ÍWd͂ .́eE([qO}I\O7 ЪTʬ ,&0nQJvE24(FJ>tY*Fg2㺞"*A4 5=FSMգx)A-+\&e1aYΙf h2*?,hݣYϹ/"Cs=%xumnS1] 2|h5EV$#vVmd,IN.D33*ó~ q&RSbY mL9?+Zcdo: OR۸V<K,4le|s/d`_1o1Zv8Ì%yrӵSl0Y;FW2@h}sN'YdT3fe_3}ur8ne=\劀>! |SRoN"q}p L@E&τyݙ>+^PTD\[}-V½WdEjJg:s4Esֹ Xa玂 ;d̽&(e}[Is2jjwlܫ6#ijyK*uo;r&ؑc6TYQ$Q8*S jK!n5b*f@Y1P|˨^"qW&s`0 +wXMep7Fv"^D}䄩vF3olTZΠhnWi I|?PK"STe@oM^c{ߦZ[,1ܾ>ge8!2/F}BgT#8DS"x쥇{Jb5{k%[?S"k'0`ʺ,HE8cݬ, 44pe_ȿvE~ȄbЋakRr5-y-HȘ.Ϯmw=F5Y(gqLdX 80YZ9jpΗ kh|M$OA2fMA {UKH-D$7{#!g \hmEV,qk]8W}bI-bD; Wq*\QQIk=SqDknt^mII"qrσ8{l*\};XX=p[Rя2:/B4̎3Lo 7*}̑dq-om.+:Jöl:oݴ=R̔j {;qhһjuZe>N9il-2~W zAƕWݩ&v}oMX-{.'+M?; 88w%KЖ]y>G:sS8boBWƈs h/D,"Z-])Qtoh;?'0WB]d0n㹐5ǵ*`JHMB1 {i㢮#9H\6㘛eZkNyp} >Kؤ$( o||19"Q;dX>MCf1Rn21)-_s):D!j:Q_9…]΅ͳUQ]؍Fx/#%­ӑy+ۃt$`#pRaم.2ɗ^2ê&Y}aU1./@
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1